Ezekiel 37:1-14
The hand of the Lord was upon me, and 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 very dry. And he said to me, “Son of man, can these bones live?” And I answered, “O Lord God, you know.” Then he said to me, “Prophesy over these bones, and say to them, O 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. And I will lay sinews 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 I prophesied as I was commanded. And as I prophesied, there was a sound, and behold, a rattling, and the bones came together, bone to its bone. And I looked, and behold, there were sinews on them, and flesh had come upon them, and skin had covered them. But there was no breath in them. Then he said to me, “Prophesy to the breath; prophesy, son of man, and say to the breath, Thus says the Lord God: Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe on these slain, that they may live.” So I prophesied as he commanded me, and the breath came into them, and they lived and stood on their feet, an exceedingly great army.
Then he said to me, “Son of man, these bones are the whole house of Israel. Behold, they say, ‘Our bones are dried up, and our hope is lost; we are indeed cut off.’ Therefore prophesy, and say to them, Thus says the Lord God: Behold, I will open your graves and raise you from your graves, O my people. And I will bring you into the land of Israel. And you shall know that I am the Lord, when I open your graves, and raise you from your graves, O my people. And I will put my Spirit within you, and you shall live, and I will place you in your own land. Then you shall know that I am the Lord; I have spoken, and I will do it, declares the Lord.”
mercy and peace to you from God our Father, and from our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen. Today is the day where we celebrate the gift of the Holy Spirit. The day is marked by the great story of the apostles, they get the fire and the wind and the spectacle. But that's not the important piece of the story. And the important part of the story is the word going out into the world, spoken by the apostles in various languages, spread out to all of the people hearing it in their own native tongue. It's all about the word of God. And we see that in Ezekiel as well. The reading from Ezekiel points us to the power of God's word spoken by the prophet Ezekiel is placed in front of a valley. It is filled with bones, they are very dry. God says to him, Son of man, can these bones live? And the answers, oh, Lord God, you know. Ezekiel tells us from this vision, what these bones are there to represent. God says it. In these words, Son of Man, these bones are the whole house of Israel. The old they say our bones are dried up, and our hope is lost. We are clean, cut off. This recognizes the idea that God's people were in exile, cut off from their land, their soldiers had been killed by an invasion. They were powerless and far from home. But the response is not to fix that problem. And the response that God gives to Ezekiel is a promise. He says, Therefore prophesy, and say to them, Thus says the Lord God, Behold, I will open your graves and raise you from your graves, oh my people, and I will bring you into the land of Israel. And you shall know that I am the Lord, when I open your graves and raise you from your graves, oh my people, and I will put my Spirit within you, and you shall live. And I will place you in your own land, then you shall know that I am the Lord, I have spoken. And I will do it declares the Lord. This is the great promise that Ezekiel speaks to us and to Israel. But what I love about this passage, especially on this day of Pentecost, is the means that God uses to gather the dry bones into living human beings. He uses the Prophet when God makes these bones come together. He doesn't speak to the bones directly. He says to Ezekiel, Son of man prophesy over these bones and say to them kind of funny, right? He tells the prophet Ezekiel to speak. And that's when it happens. The rattling the bones come together flesh and sinew. And suddenly, there is a large crowd, an army it's through the word proclaimed, that Ezekiel does this thing by the power of the Holy Spirit. And it's the word of God. And it's power that we celebrate on Pentecost. How the Holy Spirit works through that great and glorious gift. This is why I chose the song thy strong word as our sermon him today, because it is about as good a sermon on the theology of the Word of God as there is in a single him We're gonna take a look at each verse, verse one says, Thy strong word did cleave the darkness. At thy speaking it was done for created like we thank Thee, while thine ordered seasons run. The first piece of understanding the power of God's word is that we see it in creation, that God controls all of creation by the power of His Word, it cut through the darkness, when he said the words, let there be light. And then there was light. And we know that the power of the word didn't end there. The Word became flesh and dwelt among us. And that same word, Jesus Christ stood up in a boat in the middle of a storm with the wind and the waves crashing around him. And he said, Peace, be still. The waves listened, and the wind stopped. Because the word still orders creation today, by the power of God. And we know that God orders creation, by His power, so that all things work for good for those who love God. All things work together for us, his people, as they lead us towards the amazing resurrection of the dead, and the power of God's word, verse to low on those who dwelt in darkness, dark as night and deep as death, broke the light of thy salvation breathed thine own life giving breath. Not only does the word of God bring things into being and order, all of creation, the word of God also reveals salvation to the world. And this is what we see on the day of Pentecost, the apostles are filled with the Holy Spirit, and they proclaim the gospel of Jesus Christ to everyone who was there. And all of the sudden, the people who were in darkness, saw the light. The people who did not know they came to faith. The word moves people from the power of death, into the power of life, from the Satan's kingdom, to Christ's. For the very first time the apostles proclaimed the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, for all who believe, and the people heard it, and they said, What should we do? And they said, Believe and be baptized for the forgiveness of sins, this promise is for you and for your children, and for all who are far off. The Word of God brought in 3000 people that day, delivered life and salvation to those who didn't have it. And the whole story of the book of Acts is how the Word of God goes out and gathers people into his church, to reveal the light and life of Christ. And it works the same way here. The Word of God is what revealed Christ to you, that opened your heart that enlightened your eyes. And today, it still delivers salvation. It still gives you the gifts of Jesus Christ. Verse three, thy strong word bespeaks us righteous, bright with thine own holiness, glorious now we pressed toward glory and our lives our hopes, confess. This verse focuses on the active work of God's Word in our congregation. We see it actively giving life just as it did with Ezekiel, giving the breath and life of God but especially as it makes us righteous. This is why we begin our service with I forgive your sins in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.
It's not just a pleasant wish, or a hope are just a nice thing that the pastor says. It's the voice of God. Because Jesus said to His disciples that the end of John, he breathed on them and said, received the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any they are forgiven. If we withhold forgiveness, for many, it is with how what a gift that God has given us, that his church can speak righteousness to people, and that the power of the Spirit actually works. When we say, I forgive you. How amazing. Verse four, from the cross thigh wisdom, shining breaketh, forth in conquering might, from the cross forever be myth, all thy bright, redeeming light. The cross is the amazing wisdom and power of God. Now, if we look at it, and we say, without all of our years of Christian training, you might think to yourself, the cross actually is kind of weird. But you know, we're used to it. We talk about it. Many of you have been hearing about Christ in His death and resurrection for years and years, more years than I've been alive. And so we're used to it. But a man on a cross, bleeding and dying, doesn't make a whole lot of sense to the rest of the world. In fact, it seems foolish or silly. The rest of the world wants empowerment. And yet, the word of the cross is the wisdom and power of God. St. Paul dealt with this during his day. He says in his letter to the Corinthians that Jews demand signs and Greek seek wisdom. But we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to the Gentiles, but to us are being saved the power of God, the wisdom of God. That's because the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, and the proclamation of this gospel is the conquering power of God. It breaks forth in conquering might, and forever casts away all the shadows of death. And it's always done this. When the Roman Empire wanted to kill off all the Christians, send us into the arena and feed us to the lions, is the word of God one conquered, it took over Rome, and defeated the enemies. When the Word of God spread out into all those pagan Viking areas in Northern Europe. One two, all these amazing warriors fighting the great Viking Raider age, the proud, outstanding warriors and yet they were defeated not by swords and spears, but the proclamation of the gospel. They became the heart of Christendom. And the power of the cross, the proclamation of this gospel continues to do just that. It is the power of God to say and I think it's this that many of us have lost confidence in. That the conquering might of the gospel is what gathers people into the church, the power of the Holy Spirit to gather people and deliver salvation. For many of us, we think the only way people will come to the church is if we figure out what they want. And if we market test what they need, if we adapt to their culture, if we just say what people want to hear. If we can just figure out the right kind of program, the right kind of event, or the right kind of whatever. But that's never been the way it is. If you look at the book of Acts, only one thing gathered people into the church. everywhere they went, the apostles just preached the Word. And it was the wisdom of the cross that conquered nations, and gathered people into his church. The only way to gather more is to proclaim this word of God, to those who need to hear it. And that's what the last verse is about. Give us lips to sing Thy glory, tongue design mercy, to proclaim throats that shout the hope that fills us mouths to speak thy holy name. What a gift it is right? That we have this word of God among us. And that we actually can speak the power of God into the world with the Holy Spirit. And the Holy Spirit uses us to do it. And we can speak to each other and share the word that makes us righteous, that builds us up and binds us together, and gives us the hope, the hope of Christ, as we speak the same word to those who need to hear it. To those people around us, who have not yet been enlivened by the word of God, and had faith delivered to them. The joy that God gives it to us. Now, I love this hymn. But I've always felt that it's missing a verse, especially in light of reading this passage from Ezekiel, see, we get creation, we get salvation delivered to those in darkness, we get the speaking of righteousness, the conquering wisdom of God's Word, and the joy that we have in sharing it. And yet there is one more word that Christ is yet to speak. A word that is the most powerful, the most joyful. It's the word of resurrection. When Jesus, the Son of Man comes back, and proclaims, as God says, prophesy over these bones and say to them, oh, Dry Bones, hear the word of the Lord. Behold, I will cause breath to enter you and you shall live. And I will lay sinews 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. Jesus, the son of men, is going to speak again. This time over all the world. When he came, he spoke, there was a little girl in a room and an upper room who was lying dead. And he went up to her and say, little girl, I say to you get up. He was outside of a tomb. And he looked and he said, Lazarus, come out. But the day is coming, when he will say to all the world, get up. There'll be no first names, no limiting it. He will prophesy to the bones in the graves and make them alive. Now I took my hand trying to write a verse. It was terrible. I'm not going to make you listen to it would be a pretty good one. We won't sing it either. But I think it's missing something. Because Christ is coming, and that voice and the power of God will raise you from the dead. And that's the power at work amongst us now. Not just in the future, but always among us. Wherever the Word of God is preached. In his name, amen.
Transcribed by https://otter.ai