God Versus The Zombies
Text: Ezekiel 37:1-12
We are going to look at this passage for the next several weeks, as of now I have prepared 3 messages:
Powerpoint 1
The Placing of the Prophet
The Predicament of the People
The Power of Proclaiming the Word
We live in a day and an age where people are fascinated with zombies.
For those who don’t know in the imagination of people a zombie is a dead person that is still more or less dead, than has been brought back to life. There was a movie that is still floating around out there called, "Dawn of the Dead," the explanation they give for the dead walking among us:
Powerpoint 2:
"When hell is full the dead will walk the earth again."
One of the biggest fads on college campuses today is a game called: Human versus zombies
Powerpoint 3:
Ezekiel 37 is not a horror story to be read on Halloween about a valley full of dead bones.
It is the story of an awesome God who goes to the graveyard and brings the dead back to life!
If a zombie is the walking dead, then the world is full of zombies.
Those who are dead in trespass and sins are zombies.
The bible says, "hope deferred makes the heart sick." There are some among us whose hope has been deferred so long that they have actually had a funeral service for their hope. They are zombies.
I take great pleasure today in knowing I serve a savior who enjoys going to the graveyards of life and speaking to the dead Lazarus’s scattered about, "Lazarus, come forth."
Knowing that there is not a power in hell below or heaven above that can stem the efficacy of His words.
In the book of Daniel, we read about the permanence of the laws of the Medes and Persians, and we find in the 6th chapter and the 15th verse these words:
"Recognize, O king, that it is a law of the Medes and Persians that no injunction or statute which the king establishes may be changed."
Yule Brenner in that great movie classic, "the Ten Commandments", describing the likewise permanence of laws of Egypt, described them this way: "so let it be written, so let it be done." In other words what was written is what must be done.
In like fashion, when God speaks it is an unalterable decree. So it was spoken so shall it be done.
Not only does God enjoy going to graveyards, He also enjoys sending His servants there and lets us work with him to see dead souls revived. There is no greater joy in this life, than that of being privileged to be with God when He goes to a graveyard. He doesn’t go there to bury things but to resurrect them!
Powerpoint slides 4-8 (The scripture portion)
Ezekiel 37:1 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. 2 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. 3 He asked me, "Son of man, can these bones live?"
I said, "O Sovereign LORD, you alone know."
4 Then he said to me, "Prophesy to these bones and say to them, ’Dry bones, hear the word of the LORD! 5 This is what the Sovereign LORD says to these bones: I will make breath [a] enter you, and you will come to life. 6 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.’ "
7 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. 8 I looked, and tendons and flesh appeared on them and skin 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 it, ’This is what the Sovereign LORD says: Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe into these slain, that they may live.’ " 10 So I prophesied as he commanded me, and breath entered them; they came to life and stood up on their feet—a vast army.
11 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.’ 12 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.
The Placing of the Prophet
Situated by the Savior
Seeing the Situation with Sympathy with the Sufferers
Speaking for the Savior
1. Situated by the Savior
Let me paraphrase Ezekiel 37:1 "I was in the Spirit and was carried to a place that was full of death."
I rephrased it to try and show in greater juxtaposition the extremes of being filled with the Spirit and being brought to a bizarre place.
God will take you sometimes places that just don’t seem to make sense.
Lu 4:1 And Jesus being full of the Holy Ghost returned from Jordan, and was led by the Spirit into the wilderness,
Lu 4:2 Being forty days tempted of the devil. And in those days he did eat nothing: and when they were ended, he afterward hungered.
He was baptized in the Jordan by John, publicly proclaimed to be the Messiah, The Holy Spirit descends on Him like a dove, and remains, God speaks from heaven and says, "This is My beloved Son in whom I am well pleased."
The next thing you would expect to read is the healing of the sick, casting out of devils, raising of the dead, instead He is sent to a place of severe physical and spiritual testing.
God will situate us in places, that just don’t seem to make sense.
1Pe 4:12 Dear friends, do not be surprised at the painful trial you are suffering, as though something strange were happening to you.
1Pe 4:13 But rejoice that you participate in the sufferings of Christ, so that you may be overjoyed when his glory is revealed.
God knows better than we do where we ought to be:
Nu 21:4 ¶ And they journeyed from mount Hor by the way of the Red sea, to compass the land of Edom: and the soul of the people was much discouraged because of the way.
Nu 21:5 And the people spake against God, and against Moses, Wherefore have ye brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? for [there is] no bread, neither [is there any] water; and our soul loatheth this light bread.
Nu 21:6 And the LORD sent fiery serpents among the people, and they bit the people; and much people of Israel died.
Ex 13:17 ¶ When Pharaoh let the people go, God did not lead them on the road through the Philistine country, though that was shorter. For God said, "If they face war, they might change their minds and return to Egypt."
Ex 13:18 So God led the people around by the desert road toward the Red Sea. The Israelites went up out of Egypt armed for battle.
Their opinion of themselves was quite different than God’s, they thought they were ready to take on the world, He knew better, so He led them a way that didn’t make sense to them. Come on somebody.
We could talk about Ruth gleaning among the sheaves, picking in the fields after the harvest. This is a strange place for someone full of the Holy Ghost.
David hiding in the cave of Adullam. Why wasn’t the demon possessed Saul hiding?
Jesus family fleeing to Egypt. Herod’s grandfather gives a speech and is struck with worms and dies. Think of all the different ways God could have dealt with it, but He didn’t. This leads me to an observations:
God let it happen so that we could see, even in the life of Jesus there are some places He was led to for which we never get a full explanation. So that God could later say of His life, He was tested in all points, like as we are, yet without sin.
Are you struggling with where you are? Don’t grumble give God the glory, there really is a reason for it, and the reason is either for your good, or the good of others.
2. Seeing the Situation with sympathy for the sufferers
What the prophet saw:
A. He saw another side of God. His previous vision was one of judgment. Illus: The lion in Chronicle of Narnia, one of the Characters says you have grown since the last time I saw you,
"No I haven’t grown, you have." As we grow in the Spirit we should have a greater and fuller revelation of who Jesus is. Ezekiel’s previous words from God mostly deal with judgment. Here he sees him working in the valley of dead bones to restore life, speaking of His good plans for His people and His understanding and sympathy with their sufferings.
B. He saw Overwhelming Need.
The bones were everywhere. He was completely outnumbered by the lost. No, they were completely outnumbered by him and God. How many are in a job or family situation where you seem to be completely outnumbered by the lost? God wants to use you to bring life to that valley full of dead bones.
He saw very dry bones. Why did he speak of the bones being very dry? Is a moist bone in any
better shape? I think what is happening is that we are seeing the prophet begin to make an emotional connection with people that are hurting. You can either point fingers of condemnation with the lost, or get a burden about their suffering. Sympathy is your pain in my heart.
Paul’s vision of the man of Macedonia begging and crying out desperately for help.
Connection with the pain of sufferers releases us to love on them.
Judgmental spirit, apathy, and ignorance can be 3 blockages in the churches
spiritual arteries. We need to be praying for our leaders, not just talking about
every wrong decision they make. This is especially true of our president.
C. He saw insufficient personal resources to meet that need.
There were too many, they were too far gone. One person that far gone is too many for any of us to deal with. Our abilities cannot possible meet the need. Thus we are thrown to our knees. If your vision isn’t bigger than you, it probably isn’t from God.
1. Many stop here. What’s the use? Illus: throwing starfish back into the sea. It matters to this one.
2. Your place of greatest weakness will also be your place of greatest anointing.
God says, His strength is made perfect in weakness. What that means is:
the strength of Christ is illustrated and shines forth in its perfection and glory, in supplying, supporting, and strengthening his people under all their weakness;
Finally we see the prophet, put in a place where he:
Speaks for the Savior
1st the prophet sees everything that is wrong.
Secondly he begins to get a connection with the sufferers.
Lastly, he is asked to do something absolutely absurd about the situation. Speak to dead bones. Speak to the Wind.
God has a very different way of helping people than man does. I am troubled by the over infiltration of psychology into the church.
The preaching of the cross is to those who perish foolishness, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. There are those who think the gospel is fine for people who are lost, but it doesn’t really deal with all the emotions people struggle with. I disagree this passage teaches that if we can get people in contact with the God through His word, their perished hope will revive.
In the passage before us the prophet is instructed to speak the word of God, and then God would cause life, hope and His Holy Spirit to enter people. God’s solution for depressed people is the word of God!
Ezekiel 37 is the gospel in the OT. Speak the word of God to spiritually dead people and they will come to life.
Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.
I always wondered about Jesus rebuke of Nicodemus that he was a master in Israel and did not understand what born again is. I always wondered where it was in the OT, did he expect Nicodemus to find the teaching of being born again, and here it is in Ezekiel 37, is a story about people being born again by the word of God.
I don’t have time to develop this today, but God limited himself to man. He could have done everything Himself, but He chose to give us an opportunity to be in the dead raising business with him.
I am speaking to the church, don’t underestimate the power of God that is in His word. It is not how good you say things, but in how good God makes them come to life.
Close: Do you need to be born again?
Have you lost connection with the lost?
Have you stopped sharing the Word?
