Opening Illustration: In 1904 the Atlanta newspapers reported an amazing revival of prayer sweeping the city. On November 2nd the Supreme Court of Georgia closed so people could attend prayer meetings. Stores, factories, offices and even saloons followed suit. "For two hours at midday all Denver was held in a spell … The marts of trade were deserted between noon and two o'clock this afternoon," the Denver Post reported on January 20th, 1905. One Kentucky pastor died of overwork after receiving 1,000 new members in two months. Out of a population of 50,000 only fifty unconverted adults remained in Atlantic City, New Jersey!
Can it ever happen again here in the US? Is there anything too difficult / impossible for God?
Introduction: Ezekiel, a 25 year old priest from the family of Zadok, when he, along with the king and 10,000 Jews were taken to Babylon in 598 BC. Five years later, in 593 BC, Ezekiel was third when he was called into the ministry. Ezekiel’s name means “Strengthened by God,” and there can be little doubt that the visions he was given during his 20 plus years of faithful ministry were used to challenge and strengthen his fellow exiles. In Ezekiel 37:1-14, Ezekiel sees in a vision dead men raised to life; its meaning is given Ezekiel 37:11-14. In it, the doctrine of the Resurrection of the Body is at least implied. Such a figure would only have force with those who were familiar with this idea (compare 1 Samuel 2:6; Job 19:25-27; Psalm 16:10-11; Daniel 12:1-13). The prophecy concerns not only the Israel after the flesh but also the Israel of God; it points to a home in heaven and to a life of immortality. No created power could restore human bones to life. God alone could cause them to live. Skin and flesh covered them, and the wind was then told to blow upon these bodies; and they were restored to life. The wind was an emblem of the Spirit of God, and represented his quickening powers. The vision was to encourage the desponding Jews; to predict both their restoration after the captivity, and also their recovery from their present and long-continued dispersion. It was also a clear intimation of the resurrection of the dead; and it represents the power and grace of God, in the conversion of the most hopeless sinners to himself. Try and remember for a moment, what it was like when you visited the graveyard of someone you loved. Why did you go there? Who were you visiting? What happened, or did not happen? What did you remember about them? A graveyard is where we go to remember the flesh that once clung to the bones of our loved ones who have died. God is setting the stage to have a revival in the graveyard.
What can the Spirit of God do to the dry bones (dead church)?
1. REVIVE the dead bones [vs. 1–3]
Ezekiel gives the right answer to God's question: "Lord, you know." [Apparently a Yes] Ezekiel already sees his own people in this picture, who are in need of a revival.
The valley which was full of bones - This vision of the dry bones was designed, first, as an emblem of the then wretched state of the Jews; secondly, of the general resurrection of the body. Having announced (Ezekiel 36: 24-38) the restoration of the nation, Jehovah now gives in vision and symbol the method of its accomplishment. (Ezekiel 37:11) gives the clue. The "bones" are the whole house of Israel who shall then be living. The "graves" are the nations where they dwell. The order of procedure is:
• the bringing of the people out (Ezekiel 37: 12-14); (Ezekiel 37: 19-27)
• the bringing of them in (Ezekiel 37: 12)
• their conversion (Ezekiel 37: 13)
• the filling with the Spirit (Ezekiel 37: 14)
He shows by a great miracle that God has power and will deliver his people from their captivity, in as much as he is able to give life to the dead bones and bodies and raise them up again. Can these bones live? Here implies that, humanly speaking, they could not; but faith leaves the question of possibility to rest with God, with whom nothing is impossible (Deuteronomy 32: 39). An image of Christian faith which believes in the coming general resurrection of the dead, in spite of all appearances against it, because God has said it (John 5:21; Romans 4: 17; 2 Corinthians 1: 9).
Illustration: A U.S. Lutheran bishop tells of visiting a parish church in California and finding a stirring red and orange banner on the wall. “Come Holy Spirit. Hallelujah!” it declared in words printed under a picture of a fire burning. The bishop was also interested in the sign directly underneath the banner which said: “Fire extinguisher.” So much for that parish’s commitment to spiritual renewal.
How can revival take place when the church is dead and there is no voice to speak life into them? Such is the state of affairs of the churches today. Are there any people who will stand in the gap and not only pray but act on God’s behalf to revive and resurrect the church?
2. Bring LIFE to the dead bones [vs. 4-6]
Prophesy upon these bones - Declare to your miserable countrymen the gracious designs of the Lord; show them that their state, however deplorable, is not hopeless.
Behold, I will cause breath - indicates soul, breath, and wind; and sometimes the Spirit of God. Soul is its proper meaning in this vision, where it refers to the bones: “I will cause the Soul to enter into you.” And none could do this but the living God, who breathed the breath of life into Adam at first, and he became a living soul; to which there seems to be an allusion here; and when the Lord puts his Spirit into men, or bestows his grace on them, then they shall live, and not till then.
Perhaps you remember the story where the dry, dead rod of Aaron came to life. After being placed in the ark of God overnight, it budded, flowered, and produced almonds (Numbers 17:8)! If God can make an old stick fruitful in His presence, He can do the same for us.
God wants Ezekiel to tell the bones three things:
(a) I'll change your status.
(b) I'll put breath in you.
(c) You'll become human and you’ll know I am the Lord.
Ezekiel obediently preaches as he is commanded.
Illustration: Revival came to north China in 1932 in answer to several years of prayer. At one point, Norwegian missionary Maria Monsen wondered what good her praying could do. She longed to see God's river of life flood spiritually dry China. Then she realized that the mighty Yangtze River began when the tiny drops of rain came together in the top of the mountains. Maria sought a prayer partner who would join her in claiming the promise "that if two of you agree on earth concerning anything that they ask, it will be done for them by My Father in heaven" (Matthew 18:19). When she finally found someone she exclaimed, "The awakening has begun! Two of us have agreed!" The rain drops of revival prayer were coming together.
In November of 1930 Maria announced, "A great revival is coming soon and it will begin in the North China Mission." She was convinced that the missionaries had fulfilled the conditions for revival found in 2 Chronicles 7:14. In 1932 about forty Christians were meeting in a town in North China for prayer four times a day beginning at 5:00 a.m. Believers were convicted of sin. Two men repented of hating each other. Love was strong and deep. Joy abounded. When revival came more people were born again than in any previous year in North China. One missionary estimated that 3,000 people came to Christ in his town. Pastors, missionaries, and Bible women experienced a deeper Christian life than they had ever known before. If this could happen in China, it can happen anywhere! Just breathe the ‘Living Word of God’ into any dead place or situation and see the miracles of God.
3. PROPHETIC fulfillment [vs. 7–14]
But I believe we can also take from this passage the hope of our own national renewal as well. Listen, America is in deep trouble. And we aren’t in trouble because of this recession. Recessions come and go in the economic life of nations. Indeed, economic depressions come and go, too. But America’s problem is not an economic one. Nor is it a political one. It doesn’t matter who is sitting in the White House or the Houses of Congress. That is not going to change God’s mind one little bit, is it? America’s problem, just like ancient Judah’s problem, is a moral one. As a nation we have turned our hearts away from the living God.
In verse 11 Ezekiel saw defeat - “… behold, they say, Our bones are dried, and our hope is lost …” The nation of Israel was defeated and had reached a place where they saw no way out of their captivity and no hope for their future. In a sense, they were not living; they were merely existing. Ezekiel saw their hopelessness and was moved by it.
The Bible describes the lost around us as “… having no hope and without God in the world,” Ephesians 2:12. The hopelessness in the world is easy to see. The restlessness of the nations, the upheavals in our culture, the horrible condition of our economy, and the constant threat of war, all speak to the fact that people feel hopeless. When there is peace in the heart, there is rest in the life. When peace is missing, hopelessness reigns.
Again, we need to ask the Lord to help us see the hopelessness of the lost who live around us. Yes, they act out in ways that are ungodly and that are sometimes frightening. Yes, they are opposes to God, the Gospel and godliness. But, they are hopeless, and it may just be that their actions are a plea for help. I pray the Lord will give us a burden for the lost who are dead, devastated and defeated in their sins. I pray that we will tell them about a Savior Who died to save them from their sins. I pray that we will be burdened by their condition to point where we do more than talk about it. I pray that we will come to the place where we will actually go to them and tell them about the only true source of hope.
In verses 12-13 Christ makes the same principle the ground on which the literal resurrection rests. God had said, "I am the God of Abraham, by taking the patriarchs as His, undertook to do for them all that Omnipotence can perform: He, being the ever living God, is necessarily the God of, not dead, but living persons, that is, of those whose bodies His covenant love binds Him to raise again. He can - and because He can - He will - He must. He calls them "My people" when receiving them into favor; but "thy people," in addressing His servant, as if He would put them away from Him.
Out of your graves - out of your politically dead state, primarily in Babylon, finally hereafter in all lands. The Jews regarded the lands of their captivity and dispersion as their "graves"; their restoration was to be as "life from the dead" (Romans 11: 15). Before, the bones were in the open plain (Ezekiel 37: 1-2); now, in the graves, that is, some of the Jews were in the graves of actual captivity, others at large but dispersed. Both alike were nationally dead. That is, when God has brought you out of those places and towns where you are captives. When I shall have done for you what was beyond your hope, and deemed impossible, then shall ye know that I am Jehovah.
In the final verse, the Spirit is taken for the Holy Ghost. They were living souls, animal and intellectual beings, when they had received their souls, as mentioned above: but they could only become spiritual, holy, and obedient creatures by the Spirit of God actuating their spirits. Three degrees or processes have been remarked in this mystic vision. When the prophet was commanded to prophesy, to foretell on the authority of God there should be a restoration to their own land -
• Flesh formed on the dry bones, and the skeletons looked alive.
• God tells Ezekiel to prophesy to the wind to enter the skeletons, and they become a vast army.
• Likewise, we can look alive, but nothing happens until God breathes in us.
Illustration: In 1936 revival fires broke out on the campus of Wheaton College west of Chicago. A senior named Don Hillis arose in chapel to voice a plea for revival. Students responded with an all-day prayer meeting on Saturday. Both faculty and students confessed sin and made things right with one another.
The Wheaton campus was touched again in 1943 following a message on confession of sin during special services. The captain of the cross-country team arose to confess that he had violated college policy by leading his team in a Sunday race. Pride, criticism, and cheating were confessed by other students. Lunch and dinner slipped by unnoticed while the meeting continued into the evening service.
"Stop the bus!" a member of the Wheaton College Glee Club shouted. The Glee Club was touring in Florida in 1950. A revival that had broken out on the campus in Illinois had touched this student hundreds of miles away. He confessed he had broken the rules and other students began to turn to God. God's promise is still true. If we seek Him with all our heart, we shall surely find Him ready to pour the riches of His grace and love into the lives of His people (Jeremiah 29:13).
Just as those dead bones in the Valley were revived and resurrected, even today the spiritually dead churches across this country and around the world can be revived.
Application: We can learn three things from Ezekiel's trip to the valley -
(i) God wants dry, disjointed people to live.
(ii) We can't do anything without the breath (power) of God.
(iii) Finally, it is God's desire that people know that he is God.
You and I have been provided with dry dead bones and given the responsibility to put proclaim life giving words. God will put on them flesh and skin and implant the spirit thus resurrecting the spiritually dead and ushering in a revival in our nation.
