Amelia Church of Christ - Christian Church in Amelia, OH near Cincinnati in Clermont County

You all know from English class that a metaphor is an analogy. It is a figure of speech using one idea to describe another by suggesting a likeness or similarity. And the Bible is full of them.

One of the metaphors that you’ll find throughout the Bible is this picture of a river. The Bible talks extensively about rivers, and many times these Scriptural river pictures are metaphors used to describe God’s grace, God’s forgiveness, and God’s gift of new life.

Today we’re going to check out a great river picture from the book of Ezekiel. This is not a book of the Bible that we talk about very often. The book is named after the Old Testament prophet, Ezekiel. This book can be just flat out strange at times. It tells of a time when Ezekiel lies on his side for over a year. No joke. In another place, God asks Ezekiel to cook using human excrement as fuel for his fire. The book is just packed with bizarre imagery. But it also has some beautiful images of God, like the one we’re going to explore today.

Before we get into our passage, we need to understand that the prophet Ezekiel is having a vision. Kind of like a dream. This vision came directly from God.

In this vision, Ezekiel says, “I saw a man whose appearance was like bronze…The man said to me, "Son of man, look with your eyes and hear with your ears and pay attention to everything I am going to show you, for that is why you have been brought here. Tell the house of Israel everything you see." (Ezekiel 40:3-4, NIV)

So Ezekiel is having this vision, and then afterward he is commanded to relay everything he sees and hears to God’s people. In the Old Testament, that would be the Israelites or the “house of Israel.” Today, it would be the church.

We’re going to read part of this vision that God gave Ezekiel. We’re going to focus in on Ezekiel 47. Ezekiel is still following this man who had an appearance like bronze. There is some debate on who the man was. This could have been an angel. It could have been Jesus himself. But whoever it was, this man was leading Ezekiel through this vision.

“…he led me back along the riverbank. Suddenly, to my surprise, many trees were now growing on both sides of the river! Then he said to me, "This river flows east through the desert into the Jordan Valley, where it enters the Dead Sea.

The waters of this stream will heal the salty waters of the Dead Sea and make them fresh and pure. Everything that touches the water of this river will live. Fish will abound in the Dead Sea, for its waters will be healed. Wherever this water flows, everything will live…Fish of every kind will fill the Dead Sea, just as they fill the Mediterranean!

All kinds of fruit trees will grow along both sides of the river. The leaves of these trees will never turn brown and fall, and there will always be fruit on their branches. There will be a new crop every month, without fail! For they are watered by the river flowing from the Temple." (Ezekiel 47:6b-9, 10b, 12, NLT)

We need to spend a little time unpacking what Ezekiel has just told us. God was showing Ezekiel a river that was flowing out of the temple. The temple was a sacred place in the Old Testament. It was the place where the Israelites worshiped God. But it went deeper than that. The temple was the symbolic residence of God. So, when an Old Testament Israelite read that this river was flowing from the temple, they would understand that this river was flowing from God Himself. We can’t miss that point because everything else hinges on it. This river is flowing directly from God.

Did you catch all the imagery in our text? It’s all about life. Verse 9 says, “Everything that touches the water of this river will live.” God gives Ezekiel some examples of this life-giving river. He says that the waters of this river will flow into the Dead Sea and this sea will be filled with fish. Well, big deal. Every sea is filled with fish, right? Not this one.

It’s called the Dead Sea for a reason. With over 30% salinity, the Dead Sea is almost 9 times saltier than the ocean. The Dead Sea is so salty that no fish can survive in its waters. This is why it’s called the Dead Sea, or as the Old Testament Israelites called it, “the sea of death.”

And yet God says in Ezekiel that, “The waters of this stream will heal the salty waters of the Dead Sea and make them fresh and pure.” He goes on to say that, “Fish of every kind will fill the Dead Sea, just as they fill the Mediterranean.” (Ezekiel 47:9b, 10b, NLT)

The Mediterranean Sea is known for its abundant fish and other aquatic life. The Dead Sea is 31.5% salt. The Mediterranean is 3.5% salt. The Mediterranean teems with life. And God says, “My river can give life like that, even to the Dead Sea!”

And then He shows Ezekiel that there are trees growing on each side of this river that have leaves that “will never turn brown and fall, and there will always be fruit on their branches. There will be a new crop every month, without fail! For they are watered by the river flowing from the Temple.” (Ezekiel 47:12, NLT) There is no winter here. Nothing will ever die. New crops will grow all time. Why? Because “they are watered by the river flowing from the Temple.”

This river of God is all about life. The river of God gives life to what was dead. Now what does this have to do with us? Everything.

Some of you walked in here today feeling as dead inside as the Dead Sea. You don’t see any purpose to your life. You’ve tried to fill your life with everything this world says will make you happy, but you’re still dead inside. You’re mixed up in stuff that you know is sinful, and it is killing you spiritually. Nothing good lives in the Dead Sea’s waters. You feel like nothing good lives inside of you.

But the river of God can give meaning to what seems hopeless, peace when things seem out of control, and life to what is dying. This is why the Ezekiel river picture in the Old Testament marries up so beautifully to the message of Jesus in the New Testament.

This idea of a river flowing from the throne of God is reiterated in the New Testament book of Revelation. “Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life, as clear as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb down the middle of the great street of the city. On each side of the river stood the tree of life, bearing twelve crops of fruit, yielding its fruit every month. And the leaves of the tree are for the healing of the nations.” (Revelation 22:1-2, NIV)

Old and New Testament, God keeps driving home this idea of his river. A river that flows directly from his throne. A river that flows from the Lamb. Now who was the Lamb? Jesus. The Bible calls Jesus the Lamb of God.

In Ezekiel, it was a river of water pouring out of the temple of God. In Jesus, we see a river of blood pouring out of the Lamb of God on the cross. And the whole purpose was to bring life to those who are dying.

In the book of John, Jesus said, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” (John 14:6, NIV)

In this simple verse, we can find three critical points of experiencing the river of life that Jesus is offering us. Because all of this life stuff sounds really good, but maybe you’re still feeling dead inside. That’s probably because you’re stumbling over one of these key areas that Jesus tells us about. There are three areas of surrender that are so critical if we want to experience the river of life that flows from the cross of Jesus.

The first area of surrender comes from Jesus: The Way. This is where true life begins: acknowledging that Jesus is the only way to God. He is the only way to eternal life. Some of you have been here checking out this God thing for a while, and it’s really ringing true with you. You know it’s true, but you haven’t done anything about it. Understand that life begins at the cross.

The waters of God’s river bring life. They bring life because of grace. They bring grace because of the cross.

Grace is a word that we use a lot in the church but you probably don’t hear it a whole lot elsewhere. But let me tell you, it’s a great word.

Grace simply means “undeserved favor.” In other words, grace is getting something good when, in fact, you deserve something bad.

When I was 16, my dad let me drive his Ford Bronco. This was one of the first SUVs on the road, and it was my dad’s pride and joy. He loved this Bronco. It was jet black, he put sweet looking wheels on it. Let me tell you, when I drove to school, I had one of the sweetest rides in the whole parking lot. It was awesome…until one day. School was over and I left to head for the radio station where I worked. I would make three mistakes on this day.

There was a light rain falling, so the roads were wet. On my way to work, the road took this little S-curve. Mistake #1: The road was wet, I took this curve too fast, and BAM! I ran my dad’s Bronco into a guardrail. This S-curve was right next to a cemetery, which I thought was quite appropriate because I knew my dad was going to kill me! The Bronco was still drivable, just banged up. So, I left the scene and headed to work.

Leaving the scene of an accident was mistake #2. I got to work and I knew that I had to tell my parents, so I called home. My mom answered. I thought that if I told her a big story of some dangerous encounter I had out on the road, then she would be so glad that I was ok that she’d forget about all the damage I did to the vehicle. So I proceeded to tell her that this accident happened on a narrow bridge because some other driver was on my side of the road and ran me into the guardrail. Yep. I lied, which was mistake #3.

Ten minutes later, all of my mistakes came back to haunt me. My mom called back and told me that the State Highway Patrol was looking for my Dad. There was another driver who witnessed the accident and called the Highway Patrol with the Bronco’s license plate number, which of course led them to Dad since it was his vehicle. This other driver reported that the Bronco was red (it was actually black), but he did manage to get the right plate number. Go figure. Anyway, by this point the jig was up. I confessed that I had lied, I told mom what actually happened, and that I had indeed left the scene. I thought about driving back to that cemetery because now I was definitely as good as dead.

Then came the meeting that had been dreading…my dad showed up. He examined the Bronco, he walked up to me…and he hugged me. At that point I just broke down. I was in tears, I was apologizing for everything I had done…and he just hugged me. I thought I was in the biggest trouble of my life, and that is exactly what I deserved. Instead, my dad hugged me. He said, “Did you learn anything today?” Oh yeah, I learned plenty. And he said, “Well, that’s good enough, then.” I deserved punishment. I received grace.

Every single one of us deserves punishment from God because we have all sinned. The Bible tells us that, “All have sinned; all fall short of God’s glorious standard.” (Romans 3:23, NLT) No one is exempt. Everyone is a sinner. We’ve all messed things up and we all deserve punishment. But God gives us another option. Instead of punishment, He offers grace.

This is why there was a cross. This is why Jesus willingly gave His life. Because when He died on the cross, God took all of our sins, all of our lies and lust, abortions and addictions, gossip and greed, and put all of it on Jesus. Jesus was punished for all of our sins. And what do we get in return? Grace. Forgiveness. Life.

If it feels like you keep coming up empty in your life, have you accepted the free grace gift of Jesus? Some of you need to make Jesus your Savior. You need to submit to Jesus as the way to God, the way to eternal life.

Jesus said, “I am the way and the truth and the life.” Maybe you’ve accepted that Jesus is the way to God. You’ve made him your Savior, but it’s the next one that you’re stumbling over.

Jesus is the truth. A lot of us have acknowledged that Jesus is the way. He’s our Savior. But we stumble over Jesus, the truth. In other words, we haven’t made Jesus the Lord, or the Boss, of our life.

But that mode of thinking creates a dividing line that can’t actually exist. You can’t have Jesus the Savior without Jesus the Lord. That’s a false dichotomy. Jesus is the way and Jesus is the truth. He is our Savior and our Lord. You can’t have one or the other. You either take all of Jesus or you take none of Jesus.

For a lot of believers, this is where life seems to be drained out of us. It’s the result of allowing sin to go on unchecked in our lives.

The Apostle Paul knew this was true in his own life. In Romans 7, he wrote, “sin sprang to life and I died.” (Romans 7:9b, NIV)

That’s what sin does. It brings death. It sucks the life right out of us, leaving us withered and dry.

At our house, we had two really tall maple trees that died in the drought this summer. Now we’ve got to go through the hassle and the expense of having them taken down. The roots of these dead trees are still in the same ground as they were when they were alive. The difference is that they didn’t receive any water. Their ground became parched and dry, and the result is that the trees are dead.

As a believer, you have sunk your roots into Jesus. But are you watering them? Every time we venture back to something that we know is sinful, we choose to dam up God’s river and bring on a drought. So the end result should come as no surprise: we’re dead inside.

To keep God’s river flowing in our lives, we have to be living a life of repentance. Here’s another churchy sounding word that can confuse us at times. We have often interpreted repentance as an apology. It’s just telling God that we’re sorry for all the sins in our lives. “Sorry God,” and then we move on.

That is much smaller and much cheaper than the Biblical idea of repentance. Repentance isn’t just a one time, superficial apology. Repentance is a driving force in the life of someone who is living in the river of life from God.

The idea of repentance is to do a 180° turn in your life. I was going this way, but now I’ve made an intentional decision to turn and go this way.

This turnaround is illustrated in the words of Paul from Acts 26. Paul said, “I preached that they should repent and turn to God and prove their repentance by their deeds.” (Acts 26:20, NIV)

Repentance means turning away from sin and toward God. It’s not just a cursory apology; it is a life-change. And if there is true repentance in our lives, other people will notice. Paul said that we prove our repentance by our deeds. In other words, the turnaround in our hearts will spill over into our lives.

The trees at our house died from the inside out. They were dead on the inside, but that eventually showed itself on the outside. Bark started falling off the trees, indicating that they were dead on the inside.

In the same way, if we allow some sin to remain a driving force in our lives, it will eventually go public. Even if it’s some secret sin in the shadows, eventually you’ll be found out. The Bible promises that.

But the flipside is also true. If you’re living a life of repentance, constantly turning away from sin and turning toward Jesus, it will show up in your life. True repentance won’t remain a secret, but it will spill out into your life.

Jesus is the truth. His ways are true. His words are true. And because he is the truth, not A truth but THE truth, then he alone deserves our worship and our devotion. He alone gets to call the shots in our lives. He alone sets the standard for our words, and our relationships, and our behavior. And when we find that we’re living contrary to the truth in some area of our lives, we repent. We not only express sorrow for the wrong, but we commit to turning and going in the other direction: toward Jesus, the truth.

“I am the way and the truth and the life.” Jesus is the way to God. Jesus is the truth, meaning he is the standard for our lives. But even if we get these two, there is still one more linchpin to experiencing God’s river of life at its fullest.

Jesus is the life. It’s got to begin with Jesus: the way. We’ve got to allow Jesus the Savior to deal with our sin. But we can’t have Jesus the Savior without Jesus the Lord. That’s why Jesus has to be the truth in our lives.

But if we stopped there, we have a very narrow and limited view of Jesus. Jesus isn’t just the way to have your sins forgiven. And he’s not just the one who sets the standard for what is acceptable and what is not. Jesus wants to be your life. Your whole life.

The Bible says, “If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth. For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ who is your life appears, then you also will appear with him in glory.” (Colossians 3:1-4, ESV)

Our life is “hidden with Christ in God.” In fact, Christ is our life. Not a portion of our life. Jesus doesn’t just get a section or a compartment of our life. He is our life. Everything you do, you do for Jesus. Everything you say, you say for Jesus. Everything you are, you are for Jesus.

How would your life look different if you really believed that? If Jesus is your life, your entire life, how would that affect the way you parent? What kind of student would you be if Jesus was your life? What kind of employee would you be? How would this affect the way you played your sport? What effect would this have on your marriage or your dating relationship? Jesus is your life: how would that impact your spending, or your coaching, or your teaching? If Christ is your life, wouldn’t that impact your words, and your listening, and your patience, and your forgiveness.

The reason so many believers are leading a completely lifeless existence is because they haven’t allowed Jesus to become their life. He’s a part of their life. They do the church thing. Maybe even every single Sunday. They read their Bible sometimes. They’ll pray. Jesus is definitely a part of their life, but he isn’t their whole life. And when we miss that, we miss out on the river of life that God has for us.

Jesus said, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” (John 14:6, NIV) In this short little verse and the three keys to fully experiencing the river of life that God wants to unleash in our lives.

At one point in Ezekiel’s vision, the bronze man actually tells Ezekiel to go into the river. Here’s how Ezekiel describes the experience.

“He walked to the east with a measuring tape and measured off fifteen hundred feet, leading me through water that was ankle-deep. He measured off another fifteen hundred feet, leading me through water that was knee-deep. He measured off another fifteen hundred feet, leading me through water waist-deep. He measured off another fifteen hundred feet. By now it was a river over my head, water to swim in, water no one could possibly walk through.” (Ezekiel 47:3-5, The Message)

So many Christians are content to treat God’s river as a wading pool. They’ll tiptoe in the water. Maybe go ankle-deep. Some will even go waist-deep. But then there are a few who come to the river of God and allow themselves to be drenched.

God’s river is all about life. And that life is found by diving in. By getting drenched. By allowing the life-giving river of God to permeate every corner of your life.

Where do you need to dive in? Do you need to give your life and eternity to Jesus for the first time? You’ve never confessed your belief in Jesus and been immersed the water of baptism. Jesus is the way, and you’ll find life when you dive in.

Do you have a sin that has gone unconfessed? Some secret sin that still has a dominating effect on your life? Jesus is the truth, and he wants to be the driving force in your life. Dive into the river! Confess that sin to the Lord. Pray for God to give you the strength and the courage to finally repent of this sin. To turn away from sin and death and toward God’s river of life. Dive in!

Have you tried to keep Jesus relegated to a part of your life, but you’ve never made him your entire life? Jesus is life. He wants to uncork his river to flow throughout every facet, every single corner of your life. Dive in! Grab whatever part of your life that you’re still living for yourself, and dunk it in the river of life.

The river is flowing. It’s big. It’s deep. And it’s here. We invite you to dive in this morning.

Mike Edmisten

Tags: The River, commitment, Ezekiel 47, grace, John 14, life, sin