Dry Bones in the Church

Introduction

Good evening and welcome!

Did everyone get their Nazarene Naps in today?

Tonight I want to have us look at a passage that the Lord laid on my heart earlier this week.

And like I mentioned this morning, I dealt with both this morning and tonight’s passages on what order to preach them in and really didn’t know right up until it was time.

But tonight I want us to turn over to the Book of Ezekiel, chapter 37 and we will be looking at the first 14 verses of that chapter.

And if you have been around any holiness church long enough you are going to be somewhat familiar with this passage.

Because us Holiness people love passages like this.

And that is because this is one of the many passages in our Bibles that point out the powerful nature of God to take something or even someone who was dead and dried up and bring them back to life.

To breathe new life into what the world had given up on and thought was dead and gone.

And it is particularly comforting for us when we are going through dry patches in life.

When things seem to be just routine and you almost feel like God is far off somewhere.

It is passages like these that remind us that God has not went anywhere.

God has not stopped watching.

God has not stopped working.

God has not stopped moving.

God is in the midst and God is ready and waiting to do that new thing, that Isaiah talks about.

Sometimes it boils down to timing.

But other times The Holy Spirit is prevented from working because of us.

The Holy Spirit requires a willing vessel and sometimes we are not very willing.

Maybe we are tired and weary.

Maybe we are timid and afraid.

Maybe we cannot hear and sense God’s direction.

Maybe we are being rebellious toward God.

There are a multitude of reasons why we refuse God, but I will tell you one word that will destroy every excuse—Jesus.

Not really a word but a person.

Jesus commanded us to go and to do the Kingdom work.

And if we are going to be followers of Jesus, then we have to put our money where our mouths are and we have to do it.

And the only way we do it is if the Holy Spirit is there empowering us, teaching us, leading us, prompting us.

But again, we have to be a willing vessel for the Holy Spirit.

And a problem that much of the mainstream church in the United States has had for a very long time, is it has not been a willing vessel.

The Church has become like this valley of dry bones that God brought Ezekiel to and set before him.

The Church has become like the Israelite people that this valley of dry bones represents.

And, as I have mentioned before, The Church is only as powerful as those that are occupying the seats in the Church.

So, it really boils down to whether or not we are just a bag of dry bones, laying in a defeated valley.

So, let’s get into our passage here and see where the Lord leads us.

Ezekiel 37, starting in verse 1 . . .

Scripture Focus

Ezekiel 37:1–14 NIV84

The hand of the Lord was upon me, and he brought me out by the Spirit of the Lord and set me in the middle of a valley; it was full of bones. He led me back and forth among them, and I saw a great many bones on the floor of the valley, bones that were very dry. He asked me, “Son of man, can these bones live?” I said, “O Sovereign Lord, you alone know.” Then he said to me, “Prophesy to these bones and say to them, ‘Dry bones, hear the word of the Lord! This is what the Sovereign Lord says to these bones: I will make breath enter you, and you will come to life. I will attach tendons to you and make flesh come upon you and cover you with skin; I will put breath in you, and you will come to life. Then you will know that I am the Lord.’ ” So I prophesied as I was commanded. And as I was prophesying, there was a noise, a rattling sound, and the bones came together, bone to bone. I looked, and tendons and flesh appeared on them and skin 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 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. Then he said to me: “Son of man, these bones are the whole house of Israel. They say, ‘Our bones are dried up and our hope is gone; we are cut off.’ Therefore prophesy and say to them: ‘This is what the Sovereign Lord says: O my people, I am going to open your graves and bring you up from them; I will bring you back to the land of Israel. 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.’ ”

Can the Bones Live Again?

Praise the Lord!

Now before I get into the passage and it’s application to us, I want us to understand the historical background here.

We are reaching a place in Israel’s history at the time when they are in the midst of their captivity for their sin and abandonment of God.

And earlier in Ezekiel 4, he warns them that their captivity is going to last a long, long time, mainly because even in the midst of their captivity they refuse to truly repent and return to God.

However, God does not leave them hopeless thinking “what is the point, if we are just going to die in captivity anyway.”

No, starting in chapter 36 and extending on God begins to show Ezekiel a time when Israel would be restored.

When God’s people would return to Him and He would fulfill every promise ever made.

But here in the beginning of Chapter 37 we see really how low and downtrodden the people would be prior to their restoration.

Again, starting in verse 1 . . .

Ezekiel 37:1–3 NIV84

The hand of the Lord was upon me, and he brought me out by the Spirit of the Lord and set me in the middle of a valley; it was full of bones. He led me back and forth among them, and I saw a great many bones on the floor of the valley, bones that were very dry. He asked me, “Son of man, can these bones live?” I said, “O Sovereign Lord, you alone know.”

And when I see that I begin to picture God out in this valley asking every blood bought born again child of God, “can these bones live again.”

Not the bones of the Israelite nation that was decimated for centuries, but the bones of the mainstream 21st Century Church in the United States that seems to almost have that same downtrodden and defeated attitude toward the world around it.

The Church has become so beaten down and weary from fighting that in many places it has given up the fight.

In other places it has just given in and welcomed the enemy in amongst them.

In both instances though it is nothing but a valley of dry bones.

A building full of dried up, legalistic ritual that long abandoned God a long time ago.

And some of these places may even be thriving congregations from a wordly standpoint.

But what are they teaching?

What are they preaching?

What are they believing?

That is where it really counts.

Do they talk about the blood of Jesus?

Do they talk about the remission of sin?

Do the talk about the call to holiness?

Do they talk about the power of the Holy Spirit?

Are they on fire for Jesus or on fire for themselves?

Because if you are in this for any other reason than Jesus Christ—you are in it for the wrong reason, and you might as well be just a bunch of dried up bones.

However, that doesn’t mean that God is going to throw you out and get rid of you.

That doesn’t mean that God is finished with you.

No, not at all.

Look again at verse 3 . . .

Ezekiel 37:3 NIV84

He asked me, “Son of man, can these bones live?” I said, “O Sovereign Lord, you alone know.”

Can these bones live again?

Can what we have let die live again?

Can the Holy Spirit sweep through this place again?

Can the fire for Jesus Christ be rekindled again?

O Sovereign Lord, you alone know.

And I feel like tonight God is asking some of us that same question.

We have dried up and we are sitting here like dry bones.

Can we have life again?

Only God knows.

Dry Bones Come to Life

And it is only by the power of God it happens.

But watch what happens next . . .

Ezekiel 37:4–6 NIV84

Then he said to me, “Prophesy to these bones and say to them, ‘Dry bones, hear the word of the Lord! This is what the Sovereign Lord says to these bones: I will make breath enter you, and you will come to life. I will attach tendons to you and make flesh come upon you and cover you with skin; I will put breath in you, and you will come to life. Then you will know that I am the Lord.’ ”

God is telling us to hear Him speaking to our dry bones.

Listen to what God is telling us in our souls tonight.

Hear His voice.

He will give us breath.

He will cover our bones with skin and tendons to give us strength.

He will give us life.

And because of it—we will know that He is Lord!

Ezekiel 37:7–10 NIV84

So I prophesied as I was commanded. And as I was prophesying, there was a noise, a rattling sound, and the bones came together, bone to bone. I looked, and tendons and flesh appeared on them and skin 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 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.

Now, I want us to picture this scene.

This whole valley of dry bones is laying there.

The voice of God speaks and those bones began to form tendons and muscles, skin and organs.

And then the mighty rushing sound of the breath of God—The Holy Spirit Himself—moves on these bones and they take deep breath.

Almost like the first breath they ever took.

And these once dead and dried bones stood to their feet—an army for the Lord.

Ready to take the fight to the enemy.

Ready to set the captives free.

Ready to break every single chain and every single bond these people hand on them.

And God wants to do that with His Church.

Not just the Stanford Church of the Nazarene.

Not just with the churches in Stanford.

Not just with the churches in Lincoln County.

God wants His Church to be united and ready to fight.

God wants the dry bones in His Church to come to life again.

Will the Bones Respond?

But the bones have to want to come to life.

The bones have to respond to God.

Verse 11 . . .

Ezekiel 37:11 NIV84

Then he said to me: “Son of man, these bones are the whole house of Israel. They say, ‘Our bones are dried up and our hope is gone; we are cut off.’

We are weak.

We are weary.

We are worn out.

We are defeated.

We don’t know what to do.

Well, then turn to God. . .

Ezekiel 37:12–14 NIV84

Therefore prophesy and say to them: ‘This is what the Sovereign Lord says: O my people, I am going to open your graves and bring you up from them; I will bring you back to the land of Israel. 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.’ ”

And the bottom line is we don’t have to worry about it.

All we have to do is give it to God.

And God will take it.

God will bring life from death.

God will fill us all with His Spirit.

And we will know that He is Lord.

And we will have the power to defeat any enemy that comes against us.

Altar/Challenge

But do we want it?

Do we want the anointing of the Holy Spirit on our lives?

Do we want the power of God present in our lives?

We will all say we do, but do we live in such a way that we invite it?

That’s the challenge we face and the challenge we must live up to.

Are we up to it?