Chapel Sermon — 2026-04-16

Preacher: Todd Peperkorn
Text: Ezekiel 36:22-28
Source: YouTube

Video

https://youtu.be/_Yo1TzEcduk

In the name of Jesus.

How can a people who have completely failed God still belong to him? That is the question for today.

The people of Israel lie under judgment. They are on the brink of exile, scattered, despairing. Suffering from their own sin, their self-inflicted wounds abound. Their idolatry, it would seem, knows no end. They have, in the words of Ezekiel, a heart of stone.

Suffering, you see, whether it be self-inflicted or not, suffering brings with it shame and isolation. Like an injured dog — you don’t want to touch an injured dog. Even if they’re trying to help you, they will bite. Like the abuser who was themselves abused, the wounds that they have, that we have, cause our own hurt. And there is always this part of us, this heart of stone, that wants to lash out, that wants to cause the very harm that we have suffered. Jesus himself put it this way in Matthew 24: “Because lawlessness will be increased, the love of many will grow cold.” It is like we have a spiritual rigor mortis. We are the dead, and we do not love as we ought.

So how is it then — because that describes Israel, but it also describes you and me — how is it that God would restore us? Or maybe not even how. Maybe the question really is why? Why would God want to restore his people? What even makes them his people at this point? For that is the question that our own sin forces us to ask again and again and again. Do I belong here? Should I inherit the land, the place that God has set aside for his holy people? Are we really his holy people at all?

God answers this question when he says, “It is not for your sake, O house of Israel, that I am about to act, but for the sake of my holy name, which you have profaned among the nations.” God’s holiness, his enduring character, shapes who he is and therefore what he does. God’s character is love, it is mercy. And so even though he hates the sin and the sinner, he loves the sinner.

And so he takes the heart of stone, of deadness, this rigor mortis that has set in upon us, and replaces it with a heart of flesh. He breaks up this stone and washes us clean, and puts this heart of flesh in you and me, and cleanses and enlivens and puts his Spirit upon you. For you were washed. You were born again. In the face of suffering, God does not isolate us and hide us away and lock us up in the hopes that maybe someday we’ll get our act together and then he’ll trot us back out again. But rather God covers you with himself. He clothes you with his righteousness. He washes you. He gives you a clean heart. He does not cast you away, but rather he draws you in.

And he invites you, who have that heart of flesh now, to look at those around you — not as the sinners who simply deserve death because of their sin, but the sinners for whom Christ died and rose again. For that heart of flesh which he has now given you means that your heart beats not for yourself, but for all of those for whom Christ died. So live. Be clean. Be free. Be the people of God. Come to his holy place and be cleansed, so that you may be a blessing to many.

In Jesus’ name. Amen.