Reviving the Ruins
Notes
Transcript
We’ve got a few weeks left in the series through Ezekiel. We’re rapidly approaching Easter Sunday and preparing to celebrate the ultimate victory we have in Jesus Christ. His resurrection from the dead.
We’re going to look at one of the many prophesies that pointed the rebellious, divided and exiled nation of Israel to their coming Messiah, Jesus Christ. Israel’s situation seemed hopeless.
It’s so easy for us to read the OT today and criticize Israel for their stupidity!! Am I right? We don’t have much room to talk. Just look at the state of the church right now. As far as I’m concerned the church has been conquered and the truly faithful are exiles in our own land.
We’re being persecuted by those who have taken over the church and society as a whole. We may have 62% of Americans who CLAIM to be Christians, but true faithful Christians are a far smaller percentage.
The once fortified sectors of Christianity, the denominations, are divided by manmade doctrine and now lay in ruins. Besieged and overthrown by those who preach a false gospel. True Bible teaching churches are dying off at a rapid pace.
About 60% of churches in America have 60-65 attendees every Sunday and almost one third, 31% of churches have 50 or less people attend every Sunday. In Ezekiel’s time God had a message of revival for His people and that message is still true for us today.
In Ezekiel chapter 37 God promises to bring revival and unity, overcoming despair and division, through His Spirit’s transformative power.
God’s promise starts by reviving the lifeless.
Reviving The Lifeless
Reviving The Lifeless
1 The hand of the Lord was on me, and he brought me out by his Spirit and set me down in the middle of the valley; it was full of bones. 2 He led me all around them. There were a great many of them on the surface of the valley, and they were very dry. 3 Then he said to me, “Son of man, can these bones live?” I replied, “Lord God, only you know.”
The last Babylonian siege of Jerusalem they killed everyone left in the city. Except the one who escaped and reported to Ezekiel about the siege. There wouldn’t have been any Jews left to bury the dead.
Their bodies were left strewn all over the battlefield for birds and beasts to tear them apart and scatter the bones. It would be humiliating for the dead body of a Jew to not be washed, wrapped, and buried with dignity in a grave or tomb.
The bodies on the battlefield were left as food for vultures and their scattered bones bleached under the sun. The Jews believed in a bodily resurrection and were very careful in their burial rituals to ensure all the bones were kept together carefully placed in an ossuary.
God’s question to Ezekiel “can these bones live?” would have seemed an impossibility from a human, Jewish perspective. Ezekiel’s response shows his understanding that God’s divine sovereignty is beyond our human comprehension, “Lord God, only you know.”
A response of the same faith that Paul talks about Abraham having in,
17 As it is written: I have made you the father of many nations— in the presence of the God in whom he believed, the one who gives life to the dead and calls things into existence that do not exist.
After a faithful response God tells Ezekiel to prophecy over the bones.
4 He said to me, “Prophesy concerning these bones and say to them: Dry bones, hear the word of the Lord! 5 This is what the Lord God says to these bones: I will cause breath to enter you, and you will live.
6 I will put tendons on you, make flesh grow on you, and cover you with skin. I will put breath in you so that you come to life. Then you will know that I am the Lord.”
The bones of a single dead body on that battlefield could be scattered for miles. Chewed up, broken, maybe even swallowed and digested. Ezekiel gives a detailed description of what happened with the bodies.
Bones rattling together. Can you imagine witnessing a bone scooting along the ground to be reunited with the rest of the bones. Then watching the tendons, flesh and skin appear after the skeleton is all back together.
Even then the bodies were just laying there looking fully restored, but lifeless. Until God’s Spirit enters them and they stand up, a vast army, full of life. And just like Jesus explaining one of His parables to the apostles God explains what the vision means.
11 Then he said to me, “Son of man, these bones are the whole house of Israel. Look how they say, ‘Our bones are dried up, and our hope has perished; we are cut off.’ 12 Therefore, prophesy and say to them, ‘This is what the Lord God says: I am going to open your graves and bring you up from them, my people, and lead you into the land of Israel.
13 You will know that I am the Lord, my people, when I open your graves and bring you up from them. 14 I will put my Spirit in you, and you will live, and I will settle you in your own land. Then you will know that I am the Lord. I have spoken, and I will do it. This is the declaration of the Lord.’ ”
The bones are a representation of the whole house of Israel. They had been completely destroyed, scattered all over the earth, and their situation seemed completely hopeless. God is reminding Israel and us today the same thing Jesus tells the apostles in,
26 Jesus looked at them and said, “With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.”
What I love about Ezekiel’s vision is that each individual must be revived by God’s Spirit, but we are reminded as Christians that we are all individually part of a collective whole. We are all a part of God’s army and we should be united in one cause to fulfill God’s purpose.
Too often God’s people today are like that army, lifelike but not alive. That life comes through the Holy Spirit faithfully proclaiming the Word of God.
Israel wasn’t just spiritually dead, exiled and scattered all over the world, they were also severely divided.
But God promises that He will reunite the divided.
Reunite The Divided
Reunite The Divided
We see that in Verses 15-23.
15 The word of the Lord came to me: 16 “Son of man, take a single stick and write on it: Belonging to Judah and the Israelites associated with him. Then take another stick and write on it: Belonging to Joseph—the stick of Ephraim—and all the house of Israel associated with him.
17 Then join them together into a single stick so that they become one in your hand. 18 When your people ask you, ‘Won’t you explain to us what you mean by these things?’—
19 tell them, ‘This is what the Lord God says: I am going to take the stick of Joseph, which is in the hand of Ephraim, and the tribes of Israel associated with him, and put them together with the stick of Judah. I will make them into a single stick so that they become one in my hand.’
20 “When the sticks you have written on are in your hand and in full view of the people, 21 tell them, ‘This is what the Lord God says: I am going to take the Israelites out of the nations where they have gone. I will gather them from all around and bring them into their own land.
22 I will make them one nation in the land, on the mountains of Israel, and one king will rule over all of them. They will no longer be two nations and will no longer be divided into two kingdoms.
23 They will not defile themselves anymore with their idols, their abhorrent things, and all their transgressions. I will save them from all their apostasies by which they sinned, and I will cleanse them. Then they will be my people, and I will be their God.
Israel was a united nation until the death of Solomon. His son’s arrogant and horrid policies divided the kingdom in 931 B.C. Ten tribes formed the northern kingdom of Israel (also called Ephraim or Samaria) and the tribes of Judah and Benjamin formed the Southern Kingdom of Judah.
They were so divided that they even fought against each other and when they eventually came back to their lands they were still bitterly divided. Even in the NT times they were bitterly divided.
To the Jews, the Samaritans were worse than the Gentiles. Samarians weren’t as hateful towards the Jews, but they definitely didn’t view the Jews very favorably either.
Then there were the lost tribes of Israel that just disappeared and have still not been found in a truly recognizable way.
If the thought of resurrecting a bunch of dry, scattered bones seemed impossible, it would have been a lot more achievable than reuniting the entire nation of Israel. The two sticks becoming one in Ezekiel’s hands meant they would become one nation again.
The Lord would gather all His people to their land of Israel and He would make them one nation, obedient to one King, worshipping one God. They would no longer have idols or be disobedient to the law of the Lord.
The Jews didn’t like the Samaritans because they had different doctrinal views about being obedient to God’s Law than the Pharisees and Sadduccees. Does that sound familiar to anything we see today?
The church today is divided over their various doctrinal issues in much the same way. It reminds me of this story.
On the American frontier, denominational differences were taken seriously. The story is told of a young Methodist minister who was asked to conduct a funeral for a Baptist. Since ministers were in short supply and he was the only one for miles around, he was unsure what to do. He performed the funeral and wrote to his bishop, asking if he had made the right decision and requesting some general guidelines for the future. His bishop’s reply was brief. “Bury all the Baptists you can.”
There are some core tenets we must hold as true or our faith falls apart. But anything outside those tenets are areas where we should have grace and find unity.
We must believe God uniquely created man in His image, the virgin birth, Jesus led a perfect sin free life, Jesus died, He rose again, He ascended to heaven where He’s alive, and one day He will return again.
We worship one God and we have one King, Lord and Savior. We should be united in Him and we should all be working for His purpose. Unfortunately our egos tend to get in the way. Our flesh is full of a rebellion.
We’re all like the little boy who finally sat down after first resisting his parents’ command to do so. He said to his parents, “I’m sitting down on the outside, but I’m standing up on the inside.”
Maybe that’s why the NT has so many places that talk about being humble. A couple relevant here are:
8 Finally, all of you be like-minded and sympathetic, love one another, and be compassionate and humble,
Peter gives a list of five things a person is supposed to have. He starts the list with a unified mindset and ends the list with a humble mindset. I believe the Peter is saying we are to be unified in a humble mindset. Having a humble mindset allows us to be unified in our differences.
16 Live in harmony with one another. Do not be proud; instead, associate with the humble. Do not be wise in your own estimation.
“Live in harmony with each other” literally in the Greek means be of the same mindset towards each other. He then explains we’re to not be proud which literally means have a self-exalting mindset and we’re to associate with the humble and not call ourselves wise.
Many years ago, physicians throughout the world celebrated the anniversary of the death of Thomas Linacre, founder and first president of the Royal College of Physicians. When sixty years of age, the good doctor decided to become a clergyman. He applied himself to New Testament studies. Once, after reading the Sermon on the Mount, he exclaimed: “Either this is not the gospel or we are not Christian.”
This is what it means to be humble. This is how the Holy Spirit transforms our character. When we can read the Bible and come to the conclusion that we’re wrong, then the Holy Spirit can transform us. Then we can be unified in a humble mindset.
New Covenant of Peace
New Covenant of Peace
When the Holy Spirit begins transforming our souls we begin living in the new covenant of peace.
Look at verses 24-28
24 My servant David will be king over them, and there will be one shepherd for all of them. They will follow my ordinances, and keep my statutes and obey them.
25 “ ‘They will live in the land that I gave to my servant Jacob, where your ancestors lived. They will live in it forever with their children and grandchildren, and my servant David will be their prince forever. 26 I will make a covenant of peace with them; it will be a permanent covenant with them. I will establish and multiply them and will set my sanctuary among them forever.
27 My dwelling place will be with them; I will be their God, and they will be my people. 28 When my sanctuary is among them forever, the nations will know that I, the Lord, sanctify Israel.’ ”
Jesus Christ, the Messiah, King of Kings, Prince of Peace is the one who rules over the church. Some of this is future to come, but we currently live in a time where Jesus is our King and our Shepherd.
We are in the new covenant of peace with God. It’s a permanent covenant, that means it’s guaranteed. If you truly believe Jesus Christ your Lord and Savior. If you truly trust in Him and believe He was born of a virgin, lived a perfect sin free life, died on the cross for our sin, rose again on the third day, ascended to heaven where He currently lives and will return again.
Then God’s permanent covenant of peace is guaranteed. We are sealed by the Holy Spirit who resides in us, causes us to keep God’s statutes and ordinances, and transforms our souls. In that we have a peace even in this tumultuous world that can’t be explained.
We have a promised eternity in God’s presence living in His permanent covenant of peace.
Paul says in,
3 making every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace.
And Ps 133:1 says,
1 How delightfully good when brothers live together in harmony!
When the church is united in the Spirit and lives in harmony we can have a revival. We are in a society today that is ripe for a revival. And we should be praying for revival in our church and in the church as a whole.
For we have a Lord and Savior about which the author of Hebrews says this,
12 he entered the most holy place once for all time, not by the blood of goats and calves, but by his own blood, having obtained eternal redemption.
This is the power of Christ in us. We are reconciled to God not just individually, rather as a unified whole body of Christ. We must humbly remember, He entered the most Holy place by His own blood once for all.
