Life at Ground Zero
Notes
Transcript
Introduction
Introduction
This is Hiroshima.
This is Ground Zero of Hiroshima.
This is Nagasaki.
This is Ground Zero of Nagasaki.
These are the World Trade Towers.
This is Ground Zero.
Ground Zero is the term used to mark the ground point of a nuclear explosion. It eventually came to mark the center of any disaster - like 9/11.
Zero is supposed to refer to the bombs coordinates, but it’s a fitting term in other ways. It’s a place where all life, all hope, and all people - are reduced to zero.
Your Ground Zero
Your Ground Zero
When the bomb fell on Hiroshima they actually thought it was a false alarm. Around 7:00 the first sirens sounded and everyone went for cover. But not long after the all-clear was given. It was just a couple of planes - not a real threat. And by 8:15 when people saw the planes flying overhead they just assumed it was a reconnaissance - nothing to worry about.
And then the bomb fell.
You had a similar experience the day the bomb fell in your life. You were aware of disasters - but those always happened somewhere else. There were dangers - but nothing so serious that you had to take any radical action.
And then the bomb fell.
The phone rang at 3:00 AM
The doctor said “We found something…”
Your child wanted to talk and their eyes are already watering
There are moments in life when we feel the full effect of living in a sinful and broken world. You are reduced emotionally, socially, and spiritually to zero.
Have we been cut off from God when this happens?
Israel’s Ground Zero
Israel’s Ground Zero
Ezekiel 37 is Ground Zero for Israel.
1 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. 2 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.
In verse 11 God will tell us that these bones are the whole house of Israel. The bones Ezekiel sees are the bones of those murdered by the Babylonians when they besieged Jerusalem. For two and a half years Jerusalem was under siege, suffering from starvation and disease. And one night the Babylonians broke through the wall and killed man, woman, and child alike. They tore down the city and burned the king’s house and the temple of the Lord.
Ezekiel is looking at the bones of Jerusalem.
And this physical death was a reflection of their spiritual death. It was no accident that Jerusalem fell to the sword. God handed them over to their enemies because of their injustice, their wickedness, and idolatry. These bones are unburied, a sign of God’s curse in Deuteronomy 28:26
Ezekiel is looking at the bones of God’s covenant with Israel.
Physically and spiritually these people are dead. Is there any hope for the people of God?
But it was the hand of the Lord that brought Ezekiel here. It was the Spirit of God that set him down in this valley of death.
What does life look like with God at Ground Zero?
Can These Bones Live?
Can These Bones Live?
3 And he said to me, “Son of man, can these bones live?” And I answered, “O Lord God, you know.”
God never addresses Ezekiel by name. He’s just ‘Son of Man’ - a powerless human. “Mere Mortal - can these bones live?”
It comes off like a trick question, doesn’t it? The answer clearly isn’t no. I doubt God brought me out here just to say “Yep! The bones are dead! Let’s go home!”
But on the other hand, they are just bones. I’ve heard about a few resurrection stories with Elijah and Elisha but those weren’t bones coming back to life. Those bodies were still fresh! I look at this valley and see that these bones are dry - they’ve been dead for a long time. I can’t even see which ones belong together!
No Hope at Ground Zero
No Hope at Ground Zero
Can life exist at Ground Zero? Plenty will tell you no! If you look up and see the bomb falling right over your head do you really think there’s a chance you won’t be reduced to ash?
So when those people arrive at Ground Zero, they say “Nope! these bones can’t live.”
Jesse Livermore’s fortunes came crashing down during the Great Depression. So he killed himself - leaving a note behind that described himself as “a failure”
A Kansas farmer took his life, with his widow saying “He couldn’t bear to see the children hungry anymore.”
One’s man’s suicide note in the year of 1931 summed it all up “Can’t go on. No work. No food.”
No hope.
Even in Stoicism - a philosophy that’s growing in popularity today, their answer to an unbearable life is suicide We think of Stoicism as the mindset that accepts any storm life has to offer and weathers it without complaint. But the Stoics also say that if life ends up being hopeless, your way out is as simple as taking a razor down the road.
Can these bones live? Nope, not these ones.
False Hope at Ground Zero
False Hope at Ground Zero
But Ezekiel is a smart man. He knows that the situation is impossible, but he also knows he’s in the presence of the Living God.
3 And he said to me, “Son of man, can these bones live?”
And I answered, “O Lord God, you know.”
Ezekiel throws it back to God. “You’re God! You tell me!”
He’s acknowledging that the only hope that these bones have to live is through God - not any mere mortal.
Some people think that there is hope at Ground Zero - but it’s not with God.
Some of us put hope in ourselves. Sin dropped a bomb on me but I can overcome my dead spirituality with some elbow grease and a can do attitude! I just need to be more disciplined, I just need to make a decision to stop being so bad! I just need to find the right bones and scold them for dying and tell them to shape up!
Or our hope is in things outside of us:
I’m socially or emotionally dead so a relationship will give me life. I just need to find that boy or girl and I’ll be thriving.
I don’t have any purpose so I’ll just go out and do everything and see what sticks. I have the appearance of being alive with how much I do, but inside I’m still dried out and dead.
Or I’ll look to some online guru or influencer and let them tell me how to find life here
The problem with all of that is that all those people and works we do are just as dead. I’m just one zero looking at another and thinking we’ll add up to something. All of those people are just as dead, just as hopeless without God.
But in the presence of the infinite God we are offered a way up.
The Fool’s Way
The Fool’s Way
4 Then he said to me, “Prophesy over these bones, and say to them, O dry bones, hear the word of the Lord. 5 Thus says the Lord God to these bones: Behold, I will cause breath to enter you, and you shall live. 6 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.”
The more you think about it, the sillier this becomes. Go tell those bones to listen up! It reminds me of what God told Moses in the wilderness. “You want some water? Go talk to that rock over there.”
God does lots of things that strike people as weird, odd, even foolish.
I’m going start blessing all the nations by giving a kid to this 99 year-old-man
I’m going to put sin to death by dying on the cross
I’m going to give dry bones life by having Ezekiel tell them the word of the Lord
He’s telling us to do the same thing too - and it will strike so many as foolishness. God is telling us that the way up from Ground Zero is through his word. That’s what will give them flesh, and skin, and breath. That’s what will give us a way up from our own devastations.
And people will think us foolish because of that. You think there’s hope? You think that hope is found in this book? The book that tells you to:
Love your enemies?
Abandon luxury and give to the poor?
Follow the living God to the cross?
But what looks foolish to the world is empowered by God.
Say Yes to the Word of God
Say Yes to the Word of God
So Ezekiel says yes to the word of God
7 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. 8 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.
9 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.” 10 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.
God’s word is so powerful that even the dead can hear it. Ezekiel knows that they’ve heard it when he starts to hear the rattling of bone being joined to bone.
Something that’s more apparent in the original Hebrew is that in these few verse alone we’re seeing the same word over and over again - breath. Which I’ve shared at least a few times with you that breath and spirit are the same word in both Hebrew and in Greek - it’s all talking about air in motion.
But there are some passages where we’re talking about more than air. You have these dry bones covered up in flesh and guess what - still dead! They have no breath. But you can’t just do CPR on a corpse and expect it to live. The air needs to be imbued with life. There’s something about the living breath - the spirit within a person - that goes above and beyond simple air.
When we hear the word of God we’re hearing more than just simple words. We’re hearing words of life.
It’s the word of God that breathes life into your death
It’s the word of God that makes you stand in the face of disaster
It’s the word of God that raises you up from Ground Zero
What’s foolish is dead bones thinking they have life without the living God.
But now that the Spirit is here, we have life.
5 For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit. 6 For to set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace. 7 For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God’s law; indeed, it cannot. 8 Those who are in the flesh cannot please God. 9 You, however, are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if in fact the Spirit of God dwells in you. Anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him. 10 But if Christ is in you, although the body is dead because of sin, the Spirit is life because of righteousness.
We’re transformed into a whole new way of life.
We’re set on peace and life from the Spirit
We’re empowered to submit to God and be pleasing to him
Even though our body is dead, we have life through the Spirit
11 If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in you.
Because of the Spirit we can expect actual life after we die, no matter how dry our bones are! Just as he breathed life into Adam, just as he breathed life into these bones, he will breathe life into your dead body when he raises you on the last day.
So when we’re baptized into the name of Jesus for the gift of the Holy Spirit, life is happening. What was reduced to zero through sin and death and the abuses of the world starts to stand up and becomes an exceedingly great army.
An Exceedingly Great Army
An Exceedingly Great Army
So if God made you alive it’s time to start living. We stand the before God as an army ready for action, not for sitting in the couch.
We’re not the only one’s who have been reduced to zero. And God expects us to bring the words of life to a dead and hopeless world.
11 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.’ 12 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. 13 And you shall know that I am the Lord, when I open your graves, and raise you from your graves, O my people. 14 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.”
We’re an army on a rescue mission - to find the victims of sin and death who have no hope - and reveal the living God who gives the Spirit of life.
Our job is to continue prophesying - to speak the words of life that give dry bones life. We reveal in our own lives that God is the one who opened our grave and that this has only happened because the Lord spoke.
Conclusion: Life Above Ground Zero
Conclusion: Life Above Ground Zero
Can these bones live? No. They’re just bones.
But God has spoken.
He will raise you
He will put his Spirit in you
He will take you home with him
