Moving East

Thank you for reading this sermon from Christ Fellowship. I hope and pray that this sermon will be a blessing of grace and truth to you. With that said, let me encourage you not to use this sermon as a replacement for your local church. Christ Jesus did not establish his Church simply for us to consume content. Instead, He calls us to be part of a real, covenant family.

The book of Ezekiel starts with a vision of God in heaven, but the one seated on the throne looked like a man. From the very beginning, it is a Christ-connected prophecy.

But today, we’re going to read a vision that comes near the end of the book. God shows Ezekiel a new temple in Jerusalem and then we come to Ezekiel 47:

¹ Then he brought me back to the door of the temple, and behold, water was issuing from below the threshold of the temple toward the east (for the temple faced east). The water was flowing down from below the south end of the threshold of the temple, south of the altar. 

There’s a lot of important symbolism in this vision that we will walk through carefully.

The water represents life-giving power. Nothing can live without it.

Notice it flows FROM the temple, not towards the temple. This is reverse of what ancient people, including the Jews, assumed about worship. They went TO the temple to get life and cleansing. But this vision reverses the flow. Life does not flow TO God but FROM Him!

Notice that the water flows east and that the temple faces east. That’s historically accurate. The tabernacle, the temple, and the second temple all faced east.

East in the Bible was always the direction of exile. Adam and Eve were expelled east of the Garden. Most of Israel’s enemies lived in the “the east”. East is where you end up when you’re far from God—but in this vision, east becomes the direction of God’s healing.

Finally, notice that the water comes from the south side of the altar. It flows past the place of sacrifice, past the place where the blood ran down the side. The restoring power of this water will come by way of atonement.

² Then he brought me out by way of the north gate and led me around on the outside to the outer gate that faces toward the east; and behold, the water was trickling out on the south side.

³ Going on eastward with a measuring line in his hand, the man measured a thousand cubits, and then led me through the water, and it was ankle-deep. 

⁴ Again he measured a thousand, and led me through the water, and it was knee-deep. Again he measured a thousand, and led me through the water, and it was waist-deep. 

⁵ Again he measured a thousand, and it was a river that I could not pass through, for the water had risen. It was deep enough to swim in, a river that could not be passed through.

The stream begins as just a trickle… small, humble, quiet, unimpressive. Like a mustard seed. Or a baby in a manger. But then it expands rapidly in a miraculous way, because there is no other source of water flowing into it.

Why is the Mississippi River so big? Because more than 50,000 rivers and streams eventually connect to it. But this river grows from drops of water into a mighty river with no other input.

The most obvious fulfillment of this is the water and blood that flowed from the side of Jesus when the soldier pierced him with a spear. From that tiny trickle of water flowed rivers of life.

⁶ And he said to me, “Son of man, have you seen this?” Then he led me back to the bank of the river. 

⁷ As I went back, I saw on the bank of the river very many trees on the one side and on the other. 

This reminds me of Psalm 1. The righteous man is like a tree planted by streams of water.

⁸ And he said to me, “This water flows toward the eastern region and goes down into the Arabah, and enters the sea; when the water flows into the sea, the water will become fresh. 

In the end, the river arrives at the edge of a cliff where it would have to fall 1,300 feet. The volume of water and the width would make it the world’s biggest waterfall – four times the height of Niagara Falls. And it falls into the lowest place on planet earth, the Dead Sea…where almost nothing can live. But watch what happens.

⁹ And wherever the river goes, every living creature that swarms will live, and there will be very many fish. For this water goes there, that the waters of the sea may become fresh; so everything will live where the river goes. 

¹⁰ Fishermen will stand beside the sea. From Engedi to Eneglaim it will be a place for the spreading of nets. Its fish will be of very many kinds, like the fish of the Great Sea. 

No one has ever fished the Dead Sea. For all human history, there have never been any fish in it. This is a beautiful, completely miraculous vision.

Imagine standing at the edge of that toxic, lifeless water—water so salty it burns your eyes—and suddenly seeing it teaming with life!

¹¹ But its swamps and marshes will not become fresh; they are to be left for salt. 

This is a significant warning. Any water cut off from the river’s flow will remain dead.

¹² And on the banks, on both sides of the river, there will grow all kinds of trees for food. Their leaves will not wither, nor their fruit fail, but they will bear fresh fruit every month, because the water for them flows from the sanctuary. Their fruit will be for food, and their leaves for healing.”

This verse is echoed almost word for word in Revelation 22, the last chapter in the Bible.

So, what does it all mean for us?

First, consider the context of this vision. Ezekiel was an exile in Babylon. He was a foreigner living far away from home.

There were all sorts of people living in Babylon at that time. Many gods were being worshipped. Very few people worshipped Ezekiel’s God, even among his own people at the time.

If you think about it, there are a lot of similarities to our present context. Less than one third of Americans currently believe the Bible is the inspired Word of God and that faith in Jesus is the only way to be saved. About the same number of people attend church at least once a month.

In a very real sense, we are living as spiritual exiles in a place like Babylon. And it would be easy to get discouraged. It would be easy to circle the wagons and just try to protect and guard the precious little ground we think we have left.

But that is clearly not our mission or our hope. God has not abandoned His church, just as He had not abandoned Israel.

When God saw the idolatry of His people, His glory left the temple and judgment fell on the city. Babylon destroyed the old temple, but God has been showing Ezekiel a vision of a new temple in Jerusalem.

This visionary temple was never actually built. A temple was built alongside the ruins of the old one and then it was replaced by Herod’s temple, which is the temple Jesus visited.

Ezekiel’s temple would have been three times bigger. But it was never built. Modern Jews and some Christians believe that this will be the blueprint for a literal, future temple in a messianic age to come.

Instead, I believe that this temple is a vision of the temple not made with hands that Jesus refers to, a temple built on the foundation of His death and resurrection with Jesus himself as the chief cornerstone.

What is a temple? It’s the place where God is, right? It’s where the people went to interact with God. His presence dwelt there. But after the death and resurrection of Jesus, where does God dwell? In His people!

We are the temple! We are where God is! The church is where God meets with His people. Not the building. God tore the veil of the temple separating us from His holiness.

Ezekiel’s temple is not a construction blueprint—it’s a theological blueprint. It is God’s way of saying: ‘My presence will not be confined to a building again. I will dwell in My people.’

As I understand it, the church is like a well. We alone hold the living water because we alone carry the presence of God in the world. We are not the living water, Jesus is, but we carry Him.

By His grace and in Him alone, the Church is the source of healing and restoration for this world. We are His agents of life. He brings healing through us.

The message we carry is a message of truth and grace for the lost and it will only get to them through the church. We are a significant part of God’s plan to reach the world.

We carry the antidote to all the problems of this world. We trust God’s Word and His Spirit to change our lives and the lives of our family members, friends, and coworkers.

And so, part of this vision is about God’s church moving out and east from the temple into the world bringing life. In other words, we don’t exist for ourselves. This isn’t a social club. We exist for God’s glory and His mission to redeem the world.

We move towards death bringing life, not away from it. We move towards our enemies with a message of hope and reconciliation.

There is a very practical reality here, related to the mission of the church – which is to make disciples. And that practical reality is this: We should not expect people to come to us. The river doesn’t pool up in the temple… it rushes out!

A lot of churches are busy trying to get people interested through better advertising, better programs, or a better worship experience.

None of that is bad, but it only reaches people who already think they need to be in church. Most of the people we want to reach are folks that aren’t currently interested in church at all. We’re going to have to go to them.

Think about Ezekiel, no doubt wanting assurances that Israel would be restored and God gives him that vision. A beautiful temple, larger than he could ever imagine, but God adds this vision about water moving east – toward Babylon!

God’s vision included life and healing even for their enemies, their oppressors! And remember that we, the Gentiles, were the enemies. We were “the east”.

And so, my final encouragement for all of us is this: Move towards the places that seem the most dead to you, not away from them, because living water moves. The dead sea is dead because it has no outlet. The water is stagnated, and the mineral deposits have nowhere to go.

In other words, God is not pouring life into you for your sake only. He’s pouring life into you for His glory and for His mission.

Think about how closely this vision matches the trajectory of the Christian life. If you’re dying of thirst, all you need is a steady trickle of water to stay alive. But this water starts to get deeper.

At first, it’s just ankle deep. You’re touching the water… standing in it, but easily and in your own strength.

Then it’s knee-deep. If you’ve ever stood knee deep in moving water, you know it takes some effort to keep your balance. Then it’s waist deep and you’re really starting to feel it’s pull.

Finally, you can no longer stand on your own. You give in to the current and let it carry you along.

The Christian life is exactly like that. Over time, we learn to submit to God. We learn to trust Him. We stop standing still in the current, or trying to walk in our own strength, and instead we let it carry us.

This is what I think it means to be filled with all the fullness of God as Paul says in Ephesians 3. Or when Jesus speaks to the Samaritan woman at the well, he tells her:

Whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again. The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.

Brothers and sisters, step deeper into the water. Swim in it. Stop trying to manage or control it.

Let the fullness of God sweep you into a life of trust, surrender, and mission. Let Him move you outward—toward the places that feel dead, toward the people who feel farthest, toward the situations that seem hopeless. Because wherever the river goes, life goes. And the river is flowing from God, through His church, into His world.

The world does not need a church guarding its trickle. It needs a church confident in its river.

The One who poured Himself out for you is pouring Himself out through you. May the Lord make us a people who not only drink of the river of life, but who gladly let that river flow through us to a thirsty world.

And may He alone get the glory for it! The river is not our work. It is His. He is the source and the life. But He delights to carry His healing into the world through us.