Sermon: The Heavenly Blueprint (Christmas Eve Homily 2024)

The Heavenly Blueprint Tuesday, December 24th, 2024 Christ Covenant Church – Centralia, WA

Ezekiel 43:1–12 Afterward he brought me to the gate, even the gate that looketh toward the east: And, behold, the glory of the God of Israel came from the way of the east: and his voice was like a noise of many waters: and the earth shined with his glory. And it was according to the appearance of the vision which I saw, even according to the vision that I saw when I came to destroy the city: and the visions were like the vision that I saw by the river Chebar; and I fell upon my face. And the glory of the Lord came into the house by the way of the gate whose prospect is toward the east. So the spirit took me up, and brought me into the inner court; and, behold, the glory of the Lord filled the house. And I heard him speaking unto me out of the house; and the man stood by me. And he said unto me, Son of man, the place of my throne, and the place of the soles of my feet, where I will dwell in the midst of the children of Israel for ever, and my holy name, shall the house of Israel no more defile, neither they, nor their kings, by their whoredom, nor by the carcases of their kings in their high places. In their setting of their threshold by my thresholds, and their post by my posts, and the wall between me and them, they have even defiled my holy name by their abominations that they have committed: wherefore I have consumed them in mine anger. Now let them put away their whoredom, and the carcases of their kings, far from me, and I will dwell in the midst of them for ever. Thou son of man, shew the house to the house of Israel, that they may be ashamed of their iniquities: and let them measure the pattern. And if they be ashamed of all that they have done, shew them the form of the house, and the fashion thereof, and the goings out thereof, and the comings in thereof, and all the forms thereof, and all the ordinances thereof, and all the forms thereof, and all the laws thereof: and write it in their sight, that they may keep the whole form thereof, and all the ordinances thereof, and do them. This is the law of the house; Upon the top of the mountain the whole limit thereof round about shall be most holy. Behold, this is the law of the house.

Prayer

O Father, we thank you for the Holy Scriptures, and how you give faith through them to those who hear with a humble heart. Give us such meekness to receive the implanted Word, that we might bear fruit for You. We ask this in Jesus’ name, Amen.

Introduction

When a wise man sets out to build a great house, what does he do before he digs the foundation? What does he do before he calls in excavators, the concrete trucks, before he hires the various tradesmen to put in electrical, plumbing, framing and so on?

• Before a wise man builds a great house, he makes a plan. He gets blueprints. Perhaps he hires a surveyor, an architect, an engineer, certain specialists to help him draw up those blueprints, but he does this all so that when he starts to build, he knows exactly what he is building, he knows what materials he needs, he knows what the finished product should look like. Before a wise man builds anything, he first gets the pattern, the form, the vision, the blueprints, in his mind and on paper, so that he can measure and judge the finished product by that mental image.

The All Wise Builder

God is the wisest of all builders, and for those who have eyes to see, the infinite wisdom and goodness of God is evident in all creation.

• It says in Psalm 19, “The heavens declare the glory of God; And the firmament sheweth his handywork.”
• Likewise, the Apostle Paul says in Romans 1:20, “For the invisible things of God from the creation of the world