Waking the Dead

Sermon: Waking the Dead

Scripture: Ezekiel 37

There’s an old spiritual that goes like this: Dem Bones, Dem Bones, Dem Dry Bones. The toe bones connected to the foot bone, the foot bones connected to the ankle bone, the ankle bones connected to the shin bone, the shin bones connected to the knee bone, the knee bones connected to the thigh bone, the thigh bones connected to the hip bone, the hip bones connected to the back bone, the back bones connected to the shoulder bone, the shoulder bones connected to the neck bone, the neck bones connected to the head bone, now hear the word of the Lord.

What you may not know is that the song was connected to the scripture we’re looking at today from Ezekiel 37.

God takes Ezekiel to a valley of dry bones.

I wonder why God took him to a valley? Why not a mountaintop? Why not some place where he could get a panoramic view of what God wanted him to see? No. God picks him up, and sets him down in a valley and takes him on a grisly tour of bones: bleached, dry, bones.

Until I read this passage in preparation for this sermon, I had not really seen this phrase. I just tried to imagine walking with Ezekiel in the valley. He leads me back and forth among the bones, a great many bones. Can you just picture this?

We walk back and forth, back and forth, and what do we see? Bones. Ezekiel doesn't just see them one time. God led him back and forth among the bones. "You got it, Ezekiel? Well, let me show it to you again." They walk back and forth. God wants Ezekiel to get it.

Then God asks Ezekiel a question. He asks, “can these bones live?" Now, sometimes God asks trick questions. When God asks us a question it is as much an opportunity to make a statement of faith as it is to commit an absolute blunder and say something stupid. Can you think of some of the answers Ezekiel could have given?

Something similar happened when Jesus asked the disciples, “Who do people say the Son of Man is?” The disciples repeated what they had heard others say, like: John the Baptist, Elijah, Jeremiah or one of the prophets. Then Jesus asked a follow-up question, “Who do you say I am?” Now Peter has always had a bad habit of speaking without thinking, but on this occasion his reply is filled with the Spirit of God. He says, “You are the Christ, the son of the Living God.”

Ezekiel’s answer to God’s question is also filled with the Spirit of God. He replies, "O Sovereign LORD, you alone know."

The pessimist would be tempted to spit out the facts of the matter and say, “These bodies have been dead for years. There as dry as dust. There is no way these bones can live again. Lord, you might as well just give it up as hopeless.”

The optimist on the other hand might respond by saying, “You know, Lord, there's a possibility we might be able to generate some kind of life here. I think we'd have to do some connecting. Perhaps if we had a steel plate, we could begin to put some of these joints together, and then maybe make a synthetic flesh and some sinews, and then we could—yeah, I believe these bones could live.”

You see, in Ezekiel’s time the nation of Israel was in ruin: Morally, physically and spiritually. The question that was being asked by some was, “Will we ever be as good as we once were? Will we ever be where we once were?” Many people were beginning to feel like it was hopeless.

Ezekiel was wise. His response to God’s question was a simple, “Only you know Lord.” If there is to be a renewal among God’s people the answer does not lie within our power, because what is needed is beyond our power. If there is to be renewal among God’s people the only hope lies in the power of God. God is the answer.

Then God tells Ezekiel to preach to the bones, for they need God's word.

I'm a preacher who loves to preach. I've been preaching for twenty-five years. I actually love to preach. I quit preaching for awhile several years ago. I was burned out and tired. For awhile I enjoyed sitting in the pew. I knew I was getting better when I got tired of listening to somebody else preach. When I would hear someone else preach and say, “I can do better than that,” I knew it was time for me to start preaching again.

I love to preach, but I don't know that I would enjoy preaching to an audience of dead, dried up bones. I've come close in some of the churches where I've preached. But I don't know if I could really get excited about preaching to a collection of bones.

I'd want to question God. "God, wouldn't you rather I sing to the bones? Music has a way of stirring even the dead. Why don't I sing to the bones?"

"No, Ezekiel, prophesy to these bones."

"How about if we form a bone reassembly committee?"

"No, no, preach to the bones."

"How about if I study the bones a little while?"

"No, prophesy to the bones."

"Could I write and present a paper on paleontology?"

"No, preach to the bones," God says to Ezekiel. "What they really need is a word."

The word “prophesy” does not refer to foretelling, but proclamation. Proclaim to them the Word of God. Speak to them. The command is clear and specific. Preach to the bones.

What our churches need most today is not fancy buildings, and great music programs. What we need is to get back to the priority of hearing God’s Word.

It always disturbs me when we can get more people to come to a meal than will come for the bread of life. But I've never seen a church packed out for a prayer meeting or for a preaching series. We essentially don't want to hear the prophesy. We want to sing to the bones. We want to entertain the bones, but I want to tell you something: what we need is to hear the Word of the Lord. Bones don't live again because we sing to them. And bones don't live again because we deliver academic papers on whether or not God exists. Bones come to life because they've heard the Word of the Lord. So Ezekiel preached.

When Ezekiel is given the command to preach, he obeys.

In verse 4 God says to Ezekiel, “Prophesy to these bones.” And in verse 7 it says, “So I prophesied as I was commanded.” God would be so pleased if His commands were always obeyed that well. But it doesn’t always happen that way does it?

"The Word of the Lord came to Jonah, son of Amittai: 'Go to the great city of Nineveh and preach against it because its wickedness has come up before me.' But Jonah ran away from the Lord and headed for Tarshish."

You wonder why we aren't more alive? Is it because the text of our life reads, "God said, 'Walk in the Spirit, and we decided to walk in the flesh. God said, 'Become a functioning part of my body' and we decided to do our own thing. God said, 'Love your enemies,' and we decided that they get what they've got coming to them. God said 'Go to Nineveh,' and we went to Tarshish."

God said, “prophesy” and Ezekiel prophesied. No struggles, no questions—just obedience. Doing what God said just because God said so. My conversation with God might go something like this:

God, tell me why you think this is going to work?

“Because I said so.”

Why should I have to do this?

“Because I said so.”

How many times have we heard the simple command of God, but we watered it down with our rationalizations and questions to the point where it no longer held any power? Jesus said, “Now that you know these things, you will be blessed if you do them.”

After Ezekiel obediently preached, amazing things happened in the valley.

I want to wrap this up by celebrating with you what happened after Ezekiel preached. Flesh started forming on these bones. There was a rattling sound, and they came together. They stood there; they had flesh; they were looking good.

Verse 8 ends with a sense of sadness. There was no breath in them. Without the breath of God there is no life. The breath of God is the animating, energizing principle in the life of the believer. Nothing happens until God breathes in us.

We can have the skeletal frame of the body of Christ, we can have the flesh and the muscle, the tendons and the sinews, and look very much like the energized people of God. But when others look at us it’s obvious that something is missing: "There is no breath in them." Great looking bones. Great looking skeletons. The problem is there's no breath in them.

I’ve been in many churches: some as a preacher, some as a worshipper. Some churches have every I dotted and every T crossed. They've got this thing down. But there is no spirit, no breath, just a skeleton.

Have you been at funeral homes when people who don't know what else to do stand over a casket and say, "Oh, doesn't he look like he's sleeping." No, he looks dead. No, you don't look alive when you're dead. You look dead when you're dead. Sometimes we try to dress up our skeletons to make them look alive. Bones are bones. There is no breath in them.

God says to Ezekiel, "Prophesy to the breath; prophesy, son of man, and say to it, 'This is what the Sovereign LORD says: Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe into these slain, that they may live.' " So I prophesied as he commanded me, and breath entered them; they came to life and stood up on their feet—a vast army.”

I want to tell you, nothing happens in the church until the wind blows. Nothing happens until the Holy Spirit of God blows across the face of the church, renewing and energizing God’s people. Nothing happens until the Wind of God comes into our lives enabling us to do in our ministries what we could not do without his breath.

(Stand)

What can we learn from this trip to the valley?

First, God is still concerned about people who have no hope, whose lives are as spiritually dry as dead bones. He wants them to live. He wants them to be renewed and revived.

Second, we can’t do anything without the Breath of God. By whose power are we doing our ministry? Our flesh? Then it will fail. But if we do it in the power of the Spirit of God it will be successful.

Finally, it’s God’s desire that we recognize Him as Lord. Verse 13 says, “Then you, my people, will know that I am the LORD, when I open your graves and bring you up from them. 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 the LORD have spoken, and I have done it, declares the LORD.”

God wants nothing more than to receive the glory that is due Him for being the great and mighty God. There are things that only God can do. Bringing dead bones to life? God’s job. Breathing life into lifeless bodies? God’s job. Being obedient to God’s command? My job.

Those who live in the valley of dry bones have hope. God can renew and restore you. God can breath his Spirit into you so that you live again. May all of us have a fresh outpouring of God’s spirit in our lives. May we stand as a vast army, declaring that the Lord is God.