Jesus In Ezekiel: Christology

So, as you know, we are in a series with Ezekiel, and Jerry couldn't be here this morning, so I'm going to fill in, and I'm going to do something a little bit different this morning.

It's obviously concerning Ezekiel, and we're going to talk about the Christology of Ezekiel.

So, my first question to you is, what is Christology? Anybody want to take a guess?

Go ahead, John. Isn't that a type of Christ? A type of Christ that would be a type in shadow, yeah, that would be part of Christology, sure.

The study of Christ, okay? So, it's the study of who Jesus of Nazareth is in relation to God and in relation to humanity.

Right? We have Jesus, the God -man. He's fully God, truly God, truly man. And this comes out of the

Old Testament and the New Testament. Christology is pursued not in isolation from what

Jesus achieved for humanity, in other words, the work of Christ, but in close association with it.

There's a unity of the person and work of Christ. Christ came to humanity in and through His saving work.

He came as Messiah. He came as Savior. Thus, looking backward at the

Old Testament, and then seeing the revelation of the New Testament, John Calvin united the person and work by presenting

Christ in the threefold office of prophet, priest, and king.

Okay? So, when we talk about the Christology of Jesus, we're looking at Him as prophet, priest, king.

We're looking at the person and work of Christ in the Old Testament and the New. Christology profoundly impacts believers' lives, revealing

Jesus as Messiah, the one true God of the flesh, who saves, protects, brings peace, and ultimately shapes our understanding of who

God is. He's the image of the invisible God. So if we get Jesus wrong, we get

God wrong, right? You got many different religions in the world. Jesus is just a prophet.

Jesus is just a man. Jesus is the Father. Jesus is the Son. Jesus is the

Holy Spirit. These are all heresies, right? Once you step off of the triunity of God, now you have a different Jesus.

So getting Jesus right is of the utmost importance. So seeing

Jesus in Ezekiel, we're going through the book of Ezekiel. Are we supposed to see Jesus in this prophetic book?

Yes? No? Maybe? Why? Why should we see Jesus in Ezekiel? The entire

Bible is the story of Jesus, right? So let's see what Jesus himself says. This is Luke 24.

That very day, two of them were going to a village named Emmaus, about seven miles from Jerusalem, and they were talking with each other about all the things that had happened.

While they were talking and discussing together, Jesus himself drew near and went with them, but their eyes were kept from recognizing him.

Very interesting. And he said to them, what is this conversation that you're holding each other as you walk?

And Cleopas answered him, are you the only visitor to Jerusalem who does not know the things that have happened in these days?

Imagine asking Jesus, you don't know what's going on. And Jesus plays along.

He's like, what things? Like, what are you talking about? And they said to him, concerning Jesus of Nazareth, the man who was a prophet, mighty in deed and word before God and all the people, and how our chief priests and rulers delivered him up to be condemned to death and crucified him, but we had hoped that he was the one to redeem

Israel. They're saying that to the one who is redeeming Israel.

Look at Jesus' response. This is incredible. And he said to them, O foolish ones and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken.

Was it not necessary that Christ should suffer these things and enter into his glory? And beginning with Moses, and who?

All the prophets, he interpreted them in all the scriptures, the things concerning himself.

So we should see Jesus in Ezekiel. We should see Jesus in Isaiah. We should see

Jesus in Daniel. We should see Jesus in all the prophets.

In Moses, he says to the Jews, if you believe Moses, you should believe what he said about me.

Moses testified about me. So we're going to go through the book of Ezekiel, and I'm going to give you 10 places where we can clearly see

Jesus being referenced. So as Jerry continues to go through the series, when we come to these scriptures, we can see, ah, there's the connection to Jesus, right?

Because this whole book is pointing us to Jesus. So the first one is easy, the shepherd metaphor,

Ezekiel 34. Ezekiel 34 speaks of God as the shepherd who seeks the lost, binds up the injured, strengthens the weak, a prefiguring of Jesus' role as the good shepherd in John chapter 10, right?

Ezekiel 34, for thus says the Lord God, behold, I, I myself will search for my sheep and seek them out.

Now, the Lord, the Lord God, this is Jehovah God, says,

I myself will search for my sheep and will seek them out. Why is that important? Sure, yeah, he's the one who's, he's the one who seeks and saves the lost.

But when he says the Lord God, who is that going to become in the New Testament? Jesus, right?

So when he says, I, the Lord God, will seek my people out, and Jesus comes and does that,

Jesus is identifying as the Lord God. He's not just a man, right? He's fully human and fully

God, right? That's important. As the shepherd seeks out his flock when he is among his sheep that have been scattered, so I will seek out my sheep and I will rescue them from all the places where they've been scattered on a day of clouds and thick darkness.

Clouds of thick darkness, what's that a pre -shadowing of? Judgment, clouds, judgment. I will bring them out from the peoples and gather them from the countries and I will bring them into their own land and I will feed them on the mountains of Israel by the ravines and in all the inhabited places of the country.

I drum this home so many times in the book of Ezekiel. God says, I will, I will,

I will. These are all things God is going to do. I will do this. He's not, he doesn't say,

I'm going to try to do this. I looked up the word God and try in the concordance.

You never see those two words together. God does not try anything. He tries the hearts of men and tests them, but he doesn't try to do something and fail.

Praise God. I will feed with good pasture and on the mountain heights of Israel shall be their grazing land, declares the

Lord God. I will seek the lost. I will bring back the strayed. I will bind up the injured. I will strengthen the weak and the fat and the strong.

I will destroy. I will feed them injustice. That's what Ezekiel says.

John 10, I am the good shepherd. This is Jesus talking. So the one, the shepherd that Ezekiel is referencing, who says,

I, the Lord God, will myself shepherd the sheep, Jesus says, I'm that shepherd. I'm the good shepherd.

The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. He who is a hired hand and not a shepherd, who does not own the sheep, sees the wolf coming and leaves the sheep and flees.

And the wolf snatches them and scatters them. I'm the good shepherd. I know my own and my own know me, just as the

Father knows me and I know the Father. And I lay down my life for the sheep. That's a strong shepherd.

What is the definition of eternal life? John 17, 3, I'll give you a hint. This is eternal life.

Say it. Sing it. Okay. All right.

We sang that one. John 17, 3, this is eternal life, that they may know you, the one true

God in Jesus Christ whom you have sent. Eternal life is conditioned on knowing God, right?

So this is Jesus who says, I know my sheep. John 6,

Jesus answered him, truly, truly, I say to you, you are seeking me, not because you saw signs, but because you ate your fill of the loaves.

Remember, Jesus says, I'm going to feed them. So Jesus feeds them in John chapter 6 physically, but they reject the spiritual food.

He says, I'm the manna from heaven. They reject that. Do not work for the food that perishes, but for the food that endures to eternal life, which the

Son of Man will give you. Luke 19, for the Son of Man came to seek and save the lost.

Jesus is the seeker. We are not seeking God. There is none who seek after God. Okay? Jesus is the seeker.

So we see the shepherd metaphor, and we're going to see a lot more of this throughout this book. The Messiah as shepherd king.

He's not just a shepherd. He's going to be the king. Ezekiel's vision of a future king in 34 who will shepherd

God's people aligns with Jesus being described as the shepherd of Israel, fulfilling the Davidic covenant in Acts 2.

So Ezekiel 34 again, he says, I will set up over them one shepherd, my servant David, and he shall feed them.

He shall feed them and be their shepherd, and I, the Lord, will be their God, and my servant David shall be prince among them.

I am the Lord. I have spoken. What does Acts 29? What does Peter say? Brothers, I may say to you with confidence about the patriarch

David that he both died and was buried, and his tomb is with us to this day. Being therefore a prophet and knowing that God had sworn with an oath to him that he would set one of his descendants on a throne, he foresaw and spoke about the resurrection of the

Christ, that he was not abandoned to Hades, nor did his flesh see corruption. If Jesus' flesh saw corruption, and he stayed in the tomb,

Jesus would have died twice. Okay? But because he's still in a human body, he died once, in Hebrew separation is death.

And there are full preterists that believe that Jesus is going to shed his physical body, which would mean he would die twice.

This Jesus God raised up, and of that we are all witnesses, being therefore exalted at the right hand of God, and having received from the

Father the promise of the Holy Spirit he has poured out this day, you yourselves are seeing and hearing. For David did not ascend into the heavens, but he himself says, the

Lord said to my Lord, sit at my right hand until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet.

Let all the house of Israel know for certain that God has made in both Lord and Christ this

Jesus whom you crucified. That verse is near and dear to our hearts. The Lord said to my

Lord, sit at my right hand until your enemies are made a footstool for his feet. That is the most often quoted

Old Testament verse in the New Testament. Some people say that's God's favorite verse.

So we need to know what that means. We're not going to go into that right now, but suffice it to say,

Jesus is Lord. He is God himself, and he sits on the right hand of God the

Father, ruling and reigning. The New Covenant and the Spirit. The promise of a new heart and spirit in Ezekiel 36 resonates with Jesus' work of regeneration through the

Holy Spirit, as seen in Titus chapter 3, 5, and 6, linking the Old Testament promise to the

New Testament reality. We see in Ezekiel 36, and I will give you a new heart and a new spirit

I will put within you and I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. I will put my spirit within you and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules.

God's saying, I'm going to give you a new heart, I'm going to write my laws upon them and cause you to obey my rules, my statutes.

Sounds like God is going to accomplish what he set out to do. He doesn't try to save you.

You are not your own. You were bought with a price. He buys, owns, and brings you home.

He doesn't lease you with the option to buy, depending on your performance, right? Jesus is not a salesman, he's a savior.

Titus tells us this, he saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the

Holy Spirit, whom he poured out on us richly through who? Jesus Christ, our Savior.

Jesus is the Messiah, okay? This links the both of them. The promise of the new covenant is conditioned on Jesus keeping the commandments, which he does.

Resurrection imagery. Ezekiel's vision of the dry bones in Ezekiel 37 symbolizes not just natural, national restoration, but foreshadows the general resurrection promised in the

New Testament, particularly through Christ's resurrection. And you guys know this, Ezekiel 37, the hand of the

Lord was upon me. He brought me out in the spirit of the Lord and set me down in the middle of the valley. It was full of bones and he led me around among them and behold, there were very many on the surface of the valley and behold, they were dry.

And he said to me, son of man, can these bones live? I love Ezekiel's answer. He's like, you know, like he didn't say, yeah, no,

I don't know. He's like, Lord, you know, he punted to God's sovereignty. Then he said to me, prophesy over these bones and say to them, oh, dry bones, hear the word of the

Lord. Thus says the Lord God to these bones, behold, I will cause breath to enter you and you shall live.

I will lay sinners upon you and will cause flesh to come upon you and cover you with skin and put breath in you and you shall live and you shall know that I am the

Lord. So God breathes his spirit into them. They come alive in John chapter four, chapter five.

We see, we hear the first resurrection. We're dead in our sins and trespasses. God breathes his spirit into us.

We become alive, but we're going to die physically. But at the last day, he's going to raise us all up and we're going to live not just spiritually, but in physical bodies on the earth.

First Corinthians, so it is with the resurrection of the dead. What is so imperishable, what is raised imperishable.

It is sown in dishonor is raised in glory. It's sown in weakness. It is raised in power. It is sown a natural body.

It's raised a spiritual body. If there's a natural body, there's also a spiritual body. Thus it is written. The first man,

Adam became a living being. The last Adam became a life giving spirit. Okay.

Again, Ezekiel is pointing towards the life giving spirit, the second Adam, who's going to breathe life into us, but it's not the spiritual that is first, but the natural and then the spiritual.

The first man was from earth, a man of dust. The second man, Jesus is from heaven again, pointing to his deity and his humanity as was the man of dust.

So also are those who are of the dust and as is the man of heaven. And so also are those who are of heaven.

Just as we have borne the image of the man of dust, we shall also bear the image of the man of heaven. Any questions?

We're good so far. Okay, good. Five, the unity of God's people.

Ezekiel's prophecy of two sticks becoming one symbolizes the reunification of God's people, which in Christian theology can be seen as fulfilled in Christ, who breaks down the dividing wall of hostility and makes the two one, right?

Ezekiel says, the word of the Lord came to me, son of man, take a stick, write on it for Judah and the people of Israel associated with him.

Then take another stick and write on it for Joseph, the stick of Ephraim and all the house of Israel associated with him and join them one to another into one stick that they may become one in your hand.

Thus says the Lord God. Behold, I'm about to take the stick of Joseph that is in the hand of Ephraim and the tribes of Israel associated with him and I will join with it the stick of Judah and make them one stick that they may be one in my hand.

When the sticks on which you write are in your hand before their eyes, then say to them, thus says the Lord God, behold,

I will take the people of Israel from the nations among which they have gone and will gather them from all around and bring them into their own land and I will make them one nation in the land and on the mountains of Israel and one king shall be king over all of them and they shall be no longer two nations and no longer two divided into kingdoms.

Ephesians, therefore remember that at one time you Gentiles in the flesh called the uncircumcision by what is called the circumcision, in other words, the

Gentiles and the Israelites, the genealogical Israelites, which is made in the flesh by hands, remember that you are at that time separated from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers to the covenants of Providence, having no hope and without God in the world.

But now in Christ, right, when we went through the armor of God, we talked about what being in Christ means when you're in Christ, you have all the blessing, all the spiritual blessings, right?

You are in Christ. You are now united to Christ, Christ, who is fully God, fully man and Israel.

We are united to him. But now in Christ Jesus, you who once far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ, for he himself is our peace who has made us both one and has broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility that he might create in himself one new man in place of the two.

So making peace and might reconcile us both to God in one body through the cross, thereby killing the hostility, right?

So he brings the Gentiles into the new covenant plan of salvation. That was the plan from the beginning.

Jesus purchased people out of every tribe, tongue, people, and language. And that wording is important because it doesn't say

Jesus purchased every tribe, every tongue, every people, every language. That means he didn't purchase all people in the same sense.

He purchased people out of every tribe, tongue, people, and language, right? The people he purchases, he owns.

If he purchased every single person the same way, well, then Jesus is a failure.

He's not able to save all those he purchased. Follow? Good, okay, good.

Six, the presence of God. Ezekiel's visions of God's glory departing and returning to the temple can be linked to Christ's incarnation where God's glory dwells among men.

We see in Ezekiel 43, then he led me to the gate, the gate facing east, and behold the glory of the

God of Israel was coming from the east, and the sound of his coming was like the sound of many waters, and the earth shone with his glory.

And the vision I saw was just like the vision I had when he came to destroy the city, and just like the vision that I had seen by the

Kibar Canal. And I fell on my face as the glory of the Lord entered the temple by the gate facing east. Why is it important that he's coming through the gate facing east?

What does the east wind, the east gate represent? Judgment.

When God comes in the east wind, that's judgment. So anybody who gets married at the east wind, it's not a good thing out east.

But anyway, I don't want to, don't go there, no, I'm going to have to cut this out now.

See what you did to me? It's your fault, the people God gave me. As the glory of the

Lord entered the temple by the gate facing east, the spirit lifted me up and brought me into the inner court, and behold the glory of the

Lord filled the temple. We see in John 1 .14, and the word became flesh and dwelt.

What's that word dwelt in Greek? Tabernacle. He tabernacled. He's coming now into an earth that he's going to renew, right?

We read in Genesis 1 .1, in the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. John starts off at, in the beginning was the word, the word was with God.

Jesus comes and he is now restoring the earth. It's a new, going to be a new creation. The word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory.

Glory is of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth. John bore witness about him and cried out, this was he of whom

I said, he who comes after me ranks before me because he was before me. For from his fullness we have received grace upon grace.

In 1 Corinthians 6, do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you?

The body of Christ, the church is the temple of the Holy Spirit. He comes to dwell within us.

You are not your own for you were bought with a price, so glorify God in your body. So Jesus coming into the world, all right, he is the glory of God.

He shows us God's glory, and then he dwells in us. We have Christ in us, the hope of glory.

You see how this is making the connections with Ezekiel and Jesus in the New Testament? That making sense?

I hope so. Seven, the Son of Man. The frequent use of the term Son of Man in Ezekiel, he uses that term 93 times, not only addresses

Ezekiel, but foreshadows Jesus, who often referred to himself as the Son of Man.

Jesus refers to himself as the Son of Man more than any other title in the

New Testament, and it highlights his humanity and divine mission. Now I'm going to go to Daniel.

I know we're going through Ezekiel, but Daniel spells this out a little bit clearer. Although Ezekiel mentions

Son of Man 93 times. So Daniel says this, I saw in the night visions, and behold, with the clouds of heaven there came one like a son of man, and he came to the ancient of days and was presented before him.

And to him was given dominion and glory and a kingdom that all peoples, nations, and languages should serve him.

His dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and his kingdom one that shall not be destroyed.

So I have a question for you. Has this happened yet? He came to the ancient of days.

No. How many people say no? How many people say yes?

One. So it's one to one. All right, we got 10 people here. 80 is a neutral.

Okay. Actually, Jesus did ascend into heaven to the ancient of days.

He is seated at the right hand of God the Father, ruling and reigning until his enemies are made a footstool for his feet. He has been given dominion and glory and a kingdom such that he says, all power and authority has been given to me.

Therefore go into all the nations, teaching them to do everything I commanded you, baptizing them in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, and I will be with you even to the end of the age.

Jesus is king right now. He has dominion right now. We his children have to go and be the hands and feet of Jesus and continue to take dominion.

Matthew 26, and the high priest stood up and said, have you no answer to make? What is that these men testify against you?

But Jesus remained silent, and the high priest said to him, I adjure you by the living God, tell us if you are the

Christ, the Son of God. Jesus says, you have said so, but I tell you, from now on you will see the

Son of Man seated at the right hand of power coming on the clouds of heaven. So Jesus doesn't respond, yes,

Son of God, he says, Son of Man, pointing him to Daniel. In other words, I'm going to be received by God the

Father. I'm going to be ruling and reigning. You're going to see it. And they did. All right, eight, judgment and salvation.

Ezekiel's messages of judgment against Israel and promises of restoration find their ultimate fulfillment in Christ's judgment and salvation, where he judges sin, but offers salvation through sacrifice.

Ezekiel chapter 20, as I live, declares the Lord surely with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm, and arm with wrath poured out,

I will be king over you. I will bring you out from the peoples and gather you out of the countries where you're scattered, with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm, and with wrath poured out.

And I will bring you into the wilderness of the peoples, and there I will enter into judgment with you face to face, as I entered into judgment with your fathers in the wilderness of the land of Egypt.

So I will enter into judgment with you, declares the Lord. I will make you pass under the rod, and I will bring you into the bond of the covenant.

I will purge out the rebels from among you, and those who transgress against me. I will bring them out of the land where they sojourn, but they shall not enter the land of Israel.

Then you will know that I am the Lord." And we see Jesus, actually we see

Caiaphas saying this, but one of them, Caiaphas, who was the high priest that he has said to them, you know nothing at all, nor do you understand that it is better for you that one man should die for the people, not that the whole nation should perish.

He did not say this of his own accord, but being high priest that year, he prophesied that Jesus would die for the nation, and not for the nation only, but also to gather into one the children of God who are scattered abroad.

So from that day on, they made plans to put him to death, right? So this is going to be

Jesus gathering his people. The Messiah came, they rejected their Messiah, he pronounced the woes upon them.

But woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, for you shut the kingdom of heaven and people faces, for you neither enter yourselves, nor allow those who would enter to go in.

Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, for you travel across sea and land to make a single proselytite, and when he becomes a proselytite, you make him twice as much child of hell as yourself.

So you reject the Messiah that came to save you, you have all the prophecies being fulfilled right before your eyes, and you are still going to reject him.

Judgment. The temple and worship. The detailed vision of the future temple in Ezekiel chapters 40 through 48, this is a vision, points towards the restored worship, which in Christian theology is often seen as fulfilled in the church with Christ as its cornerstone.

All right, Ezekiel 43, while the man was standing beside me, I heard one speaking to me out of the temple, and he said to me, son of man, this is the place of my throne and the place of the soles of my feet, where I will dwell in the midst of the people of Israel forever.

The house of Israel shall no more defile my holy name, neither they nor their kings by their whoring and by their dead bodies of the kings of the high places by setting their threshold upon my threshold and their doorpost besides my doorpost with only a wall between me and them.

They have defiled my holy name by their abominations that they have committed, so I have consumed them in my anger.

Now let them put away their whoring and the dead bodies of their kings far from me, and I will dwell in their midst forever.

Now, how could God dwell in their midst forever if He did not take on flesh? So here we have

Jesus, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus Himself being the cornerstone in whom the whole structure being joined together grows into a holy temple in the

Lord. In Him, you also are being built together into a dwelling place for God.

The temple in the new covenant is the body of Christ. He dwells within us, okay, such that now we are to rule and reign with Him.

We are to be Eve, a suitable helpmate to our groom and help Him bring the kingdom here on earth.

John 4, 21, Jesus said to her, Woman, believe me, the hour is coming, and neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you worship the

Father. You will worship what you do not know. We worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews. But the hour is coming and is now here when the true worshipers will worship the

Father in spirit and in truth, for the Father is seeking such people to worship Him. God is spirit, and those who worship

Him must worship in spirit and in truth, right? We're not going to have to go to a temple to worship

God. We are the temple. When we gather together, we worship God together.

Okay, 10, divine indwelling. I know I'm moving a little quick, but divine indwelling. God's promises to dwell among His people in Ezekiel 37 echoes in the

New Testament where Christ promises to be with His followers, Matthew 28, and through the Spirit, God dwells in His believers.

Ezekiel 37, I will make a covenant of peace with them. What's that word peace in Hebrew? Shalom. Shalom.

Salami. I like that. That's even better. Shalom. Shalom. Peace, right? I will make a covenant of shalom with them.

It shall be an everlasting covenant with them. I will set them in their land and multiply them and will set my sanctuary in their midst forevermore.

My dwelling place shall be with them. I will be their God and they shall be my people. Then the nations will know that I am the

Lord who sanctifies Israel when my sanctuary is in their midst forevermore.

And again, Jesus fulfilled this. Jesus came to them and said, all authority in heaven and earth has been given to me.

Go therefore make disciples of the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you.

And behold, I am with you. He's going to dwell with us. I am with you even to the end of the age.

And 2 Corinthians, what agreement has the temple of God with idols for we, the body of Christ, are the temple of the living

God. As God said, I will make my dwelling among them and walk among them and I will be their

God and they shall be my people. So Ezekiel's prophecy of God dwelling on earth with man is fulfilled by Christ.

So that was 10. All 10 of these points from Ezekiel reflect

Christological themes that are later developed in the New Testament, highlighting Jesus as the fulfillment of God's promises for leadership, salvation, and divine presence among his people.

So those are 10. Any questions up to this point? You're seeing how Ezekiel is telling us about Christ and what he's going to do and what the

New Covenant entails, okay? Jesus as the good shepherd.

Now, there's one office that Jesus talks about over and over and over again.

He doesn't talk about him being a priest. He doesn't talk about him as anything else.

The one thing he continually reminds his disciples of is that he's the shepherd. I'm the good shepherd.

He says, you're like sheep without a flock. He kept referring to the title shepherd, right?

He tells Peter, shepherd the flock of God. He is, Jesus is the ultimate shepherd and that's what he wants to be known as.

And in comparing Ezekiel chapter 34 and John chapter 10, we find several thematic and conceptual similarities revolving around the metaphor of shepherd and sheep, which illustrate

Jesus' divine leadership and care. The shepherd, Ezekiel 34,

God condemns the shepherds of Israel for not tending the flock, his people, properly, feeding themselves instead.

Look around the American church. You see a lot of shepherds feeding themselves, starving the flock so that they could fly somewhere in a jet plane and have giant, you know, $40 million houses.

This is applicable today. They feed themselves instead. God promises to personally shepherd his flock, seeking the lost, binding up the injured, and strengthening the weak.

Ezekiel, for thus says the Lord God, behold, I myself will search for my sheep and will seek them out as a shepherd seeks out his flock when he is among the sheep that have been scattered.

I will seek out my sheep. We referenced that verse earlier, right?

Jesus says, Jesus identifies himself as the good shepherd. I'm the good shepherd. Who knows his sheep, calls them by name, lays down his life for them.

Unlike the hired hand, he cares genuinely for his sheep. If you're a child of God, Jesus is your shepherd.

The Lord is your shepherd. He cares for you. He says,

I'm the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for his sheep. He who is a hired hand and not a shepherd, who does not own the sheep, sees the wolf coming and leaves the sheep and flees and the wolf snatches them and scatters them away.

It's not what Jesus does. He leaves the 99 to go get the one that strayed away or was taken away.

He lays his life down for the sheep. There's a contrast between true shepherds and false shepherds.

The false shepherds are criticized for their exploitation and neglect leading to the scattering of the sheep. God contrasts this with his own shepherding, which brings justice and care.

I'm not going to read that whole thing for you. Suffice it to say that God is prophesying against the shepherds of Israel who are not taking care of the sheep but are fleecing them and putting themselves in the seats in high places and neglecting the weak, the poor, the widow, the orphan, and the outcast, which is who

Jesus tells us that's who we're to minister to, the poor in spirit. Jesus contrasts himself with the thieves, robbers, and the hired hand who do not care for the sheep, emphasizing his sacrifice and true care as the hallmark of the good shepherd.

Truly, truly, I say to you, he who does not enter the sheepfold by the door but climbs in by another way, that man is a thief and a robber, but he who enters by the door is the shepherd of the sheep.

To him the gatekeeper opens, the sheep hear his voice and he calls his own sheep by name and leads them out.

When he has brought out all his own, he goes before them and his sheep will follow him for they know his voice.

A stranger they will not follow but they will flee from him for they do not know the voice of strangers. And in John 10, the thief, right, these false shepherds come only to steal, kill, and destroy.

I came that they may have life and have it abundantly. I'm the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.

This is contrasting Jesus, the good shepherd, from all the shepherds in Israel that Ezekiel was talking about in condemning.

The shepherd gathers and protects his sheep. God promises to gather his sheep from where they were scattered to give them rest, security, and abundant pastures.

Again, I will bring, Ezekiel says, I will bring them out, citing God, I will bring them out from the peoples and gather them from the countries and will bring them into their own land.

Again, I will feed them on the mountains of Israel by the ravines and in all the inhabited places of the country. I will feed them with good pasture and on the mountain heights of Israel shall be their grazing land.

I will feed them in justice, as he concludes that. Jesus fulfills this.

Jesus speaks of bringing all his sheep together, indicating a gathering of believers under his protection where they will find life abundantly.

I came that you may have life and life abundantly, John 10, 10. John 10, 16, and I have other sheep that are not of this fold.

I must bring them in also and they will listen to my voice. So there will be one flock and one shepherd.

John 14, in my father's house are many rooms. If it were not so, I would have told you that I, I would have told you that I go to prepare a place for you.

Would I have told you? I would go to prepare a place for you. And if I go to prepare a place for you, I will come again and take you to myself that where I am, you may be also.

We will be reunited with our shepherd. He does not lose any of his sheep.

I know my sheep. My sheep know me. I'm going to rescue all of them. Jesus says the good shepherd, he knows the sheep know their shepherd implied in God's intimate care for sheep is the recognition that he knows each one personally.

Ezekiel 34 is the shepherd seeks out his flock when he's among the sheep that have been scattered. So I will seek out my sheep and I will rescue them from all places where they have been scattered on a day of clouds and thick darkness.

Again, John 10 explicitly states that his sheep know him and follow him because he knows them highlighting a reciprocal relationship.

He knows us and we know him. We love him because he first loved us. This is eternal life that we may know him, right?

Jesus Christ and the true God. John 10 14. I'm the good shepherd. I know my own and my own know me.

I know that's redundant. Okay. We're getting close to the end. We're wrapping it up. So judgment and salvation.

God's judgment falls on the full shepherds and the fat sheep exploiting those exploiting or indifferent to Jesus while salvation and restoration are promised to the rest.

As for you, my flock, thus says the Lord, behold, I judge between sheep and sheep, between rams and male goats.

It is not enough for you to feed on the good pasture that you must tread down with your feet, the rest of your pasture and to drink of clear water that you must muddy the rest of the water with your feet.

And must my sheep eat what you have trodden with your feet and drink what you have muddied with your feet. Therefore, thus says the

Lord God, behold, I myself will judge between the fat sheep and the lean sheep because you push with side and shoulder and thrust all the week with your horns till you have scattered them abroad.

I will rescue my flock and they shall no longer be a prey. And I will judge between sheep and sheep.

Matthew says, when the Son of Man comes in his glory and all the angels with him, then he will sit on his glorious throne and before him will be gathered all the nations and he will separate the people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats.

Has that happened yet? Not yet. Right. That's going to happen when he comes back.

Right. And he will place the sheep on his right, but the goats on the left.

Then the king will say to those on his right, come, you who are blessed by my father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.

As a Christian, don't you long to hear that word, those words, don't you long to hear Jesus say come inherit the kingdom prepared for the foundation of the world.

Then he will say to those on the left, depart from me, cursed, you are cursed into the eternal fire, prepared for the devil and his angels.

And these will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.

Just on another note, if somebody comes to you and is bringing the doctrine of universalism that at some point every single person is going to enter into heaven, they may have to go to hell for a while, but hell is restorative.

It's going to restore them back to their original condition the way

Adam and Eve were. Just point them to this. They're going away into eternal punishment and the righteous to eternal life.

There is a separation between the sheep and the goats. Not everybody gets to heaven. And finally,

Jesus said to them, oh foolish ones and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken.

Was it not necessary that the Christ should suffer these things and enter into his glory? And beginning with Moses and all the prophets, he interpreted to them in all the scriptures the things concerning himself.