Our Sermons

Bible Passage: Ezekiel 37:1-14
Pastor: Pastor Berg
Sermon Date:  May 19, 2024

“The foot bone’s connected to the ankle bone; the ankle bone’s connected to the leg bone; the leg bone’s connected to the knee bone; the knee bone’s connected to the thigh bone; O hear the Word of the Lord!”  I’m sure that many of us could keep on going all the way up to the head and back down again. Those words are well known from the African American spiritual. But perhaps even more well-known and certainly more catchy is the refrain: “Them bones, them bones, them dry bones; them bones, them dry bones; them bones, them bones, them dry bones: Now hear the Word of the Lord!” It’s a fun song to sing, but do we really know what it’s all about? Believe it or not, it’s biblical. It’s a song about us! This morning, as we celebrate the coming of the Holy Spirit, we look at a vision that God gave to the prophet Ezekiel. May the Holy Spirit help us to see how We Are Those Dry Bones!

The prophet Ezekiel was a contemporary of the prophet Jeremiah. However, Ezekiel was one of those carried off into captivity in Babylon. So, while Jeremiah preached to those who were remaining in Israel, Ezekiel served those who had been taken captive. Both prophets had essentially the same message: judgment would come and Jerusalem would be destroyed because of Israel’s rebellion against the Lord. Now you would think that since they’d already been deported, the idea that Jerusalem would be destroyed would have been obvious to Ezekiel’s audience. However, these people foolishly held on to the notion that they were going back to Judah soon and everything would be fine. As we know, this is not what happened. Jerusalem was destroyed. It would be 70 years before the captives would go back to Jerusalem.

Yet, this was not the sum of Ezekiel’s message from the Lord. There was hope for the captives. There was the promise of forgiveness. There would be a remnant who would believe, who would repent, who would return. The Lord himself said, “Why should you die, O house of Israel? For I take no pleasure in the death of anyone who dies, declares the Lord God. So repent and live!” It was to that despairing, wavering remnant in Babylon that Ezekiel first speaks these words. Yes, there would be a remnant. And more than just a remnant. Out of the destruction of Judah, spiritual Israel, the New Testament Church, would rise. It is this remarkable rebirth, this regeneration produced by the Holy Spirit, which Ezekiel describes in the verses before us today. 

But before we can talk about the rebirth of spiritual Israel, we need to see the need for rebirth. Ezekiel writes: “The hand of the Lord was upon me. He brought me out by the Spirit of the Lord and set me down in the middle of a valley, which was full of bones. He had me pass through them and go all over among them. There were very many on the valley floor, and they were very dry…Then he said to me, “Son of man, these bones are the whole house of Israel.” Can you imagine? What an experience this must have been for Ezekiel! Back and forth and back and forth all over and among this valley just filled with bones! But not just the sheer volume, “there were very many,” but their condition, “they were very dry.” So, what’s the point of the vision? What is God making abundantly clear to Ezekiel? In a very graphic way, God is showing Ezekiel the condition of every single person who ever walked the earth; their condition by nature; their condition when they are dead in their tresspasses and sins. And this was the spiritual condition of Israel at the time. They were dead to the Lord. They had rejected his grace time and time again. Because of their rejection and rebellion, the Lord used this and other object lessons to show what would happen to their beloved Jerusalem. It was dead and doomed to destruction. “Son of man, these bones are the whole house of Israel.” This was a stark call to repentance. Those who listened to Ezekiel, who took his words to heart, knew they desperately needed the help of the Spirit to make them alive again!

My dear friends, We Are Those Dry Bones! This is what sin does to us. Our consciences are constantly reminding us of how we have fallen short of God’s will for our lives. We too, were born dead in our trespasses and sins! By nature, we are those very dry bones. There wasn’t an ounce of life in us. There was nothing in us that could give or sustain our own life. The slightest breeze could have blown our dry bones to pieces, that’s how dead we were. And we know this to be true, though we don’t like to accept it. We know this to be true, though we often try to defend it or excuse it away. We know this to be true, though we often try to ignore it. But it’s true. That sinful nature remains in us. That sinful nature that delights in evil, that serves self. That sinful nature that will bring physical death. We know this to be true, and so we also know how desperately we need someone to help us! 

Today, help has arrived! It is through the work of the Holy Spirit that we become God’s people! Listen to the striking visual that God gave to Ezekiel of just how the Spirit works in our lives! “He said to me, “Son of man, can these dry bones live?” I answered, “Lord God, you 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 Lord God says to these bones. I am about to make breath enter you so that you will live. I will attach tendons to you. I will put flesh back on you. I will cover you with skin and put breath in you, and you will live. Then you will know that I am the Lord. So I prophesied as I had been commanded, and as I was prophesying there was a noise, a rattling, as the bones came together, one bone connecting to another. As I watched, tendons were attached to them, then flesh grew over them, and skin covered them. But there was no breath in them. Then he said to me, “Prophesy to the wind. Prophesy, son of man, and say to the wind that this is what the Lord God says. From the four winds, come, O wind, and breathe into these slain so that they may live.” So I prophesied as he commanded me. Breath entered them, and they came back to life. They stood on their feet, a very, very large army.” 

Can you see the connection to the coming of the Holy Spirit on the Day of Pentecost? God would not leave his people as a bunch of dry bones! He would give them a rebirth. He would make them alive by sending them his breath, his Spirit! What a great comfort for that struggling remnant in Babylon! Even though many mocked Ezekiel for his message, those who believed were refreshed and renewed in the sure and certain hope that God keeps his promises. He would bring them back to the land of Israel. He would send his Messiah, his Son Jesus, to free them from their captivity to sin and death. They would receive the breath of life and live again!

The same Holy Spirit, whom Jesus promised to send to the Pentecost disciples, is the same Holy Spirit whom the Lord promised to send to those dry bones of Israel. And just as the Spirit put the flesh and tendons and skin of faith on those dry bones in Ezekiel’s vision, that same Spirit has put the flesh and tendons and skin of faith on our dry bones of death. Our spiritual rebirth is just as miraculous and amazing as what Ezekiel saw in that valley. And it’s really a picture of what goes on in our hearts when the Holy Spirit enters there. And how does he enter? The same way he entered in this vision. “Then he said to me, “Prophesy to these bones and say to them, ‘Dry bones, hear the word of the Lord.’” The Holy Spirit works through the Word of the Lord. He works through the waters of Baptism, connected to the Word of the Lord. It is there that we become the Spirit’s people, God’s people, because in that simple act of washing with that simple Word of God, we are brought into God’s family. As we receive our Lord’s Supper, we become strengthened as the Spirit’s people, because in that simple eating and drinking, we receive our Savior’s Word, our Savior’s Promise  that his body and blood are present with the bread and wine for the forgiveness of our sins. As we hear the Word of God preached each and every week, we are further confirmed as the Spirit’s people, because through the simple preaching and simple hearing of God’s Word, the Holy Spirit makes his home deeper and deeper in the recesses of our hearts, ever dwelling in as he constantly points us to Jesus. Through these promises and through the Spirit’s work, we are no longer dry bones, but the Spirit’s people, people of God who with each other make up a vast army for our Lord.

“Son of man,” God asked Ezekiel, “Can these dry bones live?” On their own, no. But your dry bones and my dry bones can and do live through the living and enduring Word of God. Even though the heavenly Jerusalem seems so far away sometimes, let God’s Word of life give you the sure hope of eternal life! Because of the life and death and resurrection of Jesus, you are no longer a bunch of dry bones. You are the people of God! People of God, hear the Word of the Lord and live! Amen.