DRY BONES: There are moments that seem hopeless.
- Ezekiel 37:1-3a.
- The immediate context here is the life of Israel. Things had become hopeless for them.
- Their disobedience had led them to a place of despair and defeat. As they looked at their ability to stand up to their enemies, the army was dry bones. Utterly hopeless.
- This is something that is also true in spiritual life today. It might be an individual life, it might be a church, or it might something we think about as we think of the American church as a whole. It’s also an image that has resonated with people facing valleys down through the centuries. There have been a lot of time where it doesn’t seem as though God is going to be able to do very much because things look so hopeless.
- That's why this story is one that is so popular. It’s a situation most of us find ourselves in at some point. Or maybe this is where we live.
- Certainly today as I think of the church in America in general I think the image resonates. We are nowhere near where we should be. We are not seeing a massive outpouring of the Spirit. We are not seeing the Kingdom expanding in triumphant ways. It can feel hopeless sometimes.
- What does this passage teach us about how to respond?
BACK FROM THE DEAD: The Spirit can bring dry bones back to life.
- Ezekiel 37:3b–14.
- Now we get to the heart of this story: dry bones coming back to life.
- Unpack the passage.
- For Israel, it literally meant raising an army to life.
- This would provide them with the force they needed to go forward and win the necessary battles.
- For the church or the Christian, it means hope raised from the dead.
- Let’s start with the need for revival.
- We need revival today in the churches in America.
- The numbers are depressing. Churches closing, attendance dwindling, people lost and hopeless. The name of Christ is not held high and honored as it should be.
- It looks like dry bones sometimes.
- When we think of the great revivals of the past, we know that a move of God can have a transformational impact. It’s happened again and again. But there have been a lot of times that have felt like the valley of dry bones.
- Do we want to see a revival? Are we content with where we are now? Have we lowered our expectations to next to nothing?
- It’s essential to grasp the central place of the Spirit in all this.
- It’s the Spirit who makes this possible. He is the One who brings together all these dry bones.
- It’s the Spirit we need today to move in a powerful way.
- Is the problem that the Spirit doesn’t want to move today?
- No, I don’t think that's true at all. I think the problem is that we do not have a deep desire for a move of the Spirit. I believe that the Spirit is ready and eager to do great work among us but we aren’t looking to Him.
- We will talk in a minute about some of the alternate ways that we think the church can see great things happen. They are all seriously lacking.
- The need we have for the Spirit is something that is not given sufficient attention. There are numerous reasons why:
- a. We want to fix it ourselves.
- b. We don’t understand what the Spirit brings.
- c. We don’t want to give up control.
- Nothing of spiritual significance can happen without the movement of the Spirit. We need Him today.
- It’s not that He’s not moving. We are seeing powerful moves of God in Asia and Africa. But not in America and Western Europe.
- It is my deep belief that we are the cusp of seeing a powerful move of the Spirit. I think we are due for it and that there is a remnant seeking it today.
ALTERNATIVE APPROACHES:
- Having looked at the Spirit and His power, I think it would be helpful to detail some of the alternative approaches we are taking in the American church today to try to see a powerful move of God.
- There should be something here to offend everyone!
1. PROGRAMMING.
- One way we try to see our churches prosper is through programming.
- What do I mean by that?
- It usually looks something like this. A church is in decline. The congregation becomes concerned about that and wants to reverse the numbers. (It’s worth noting here that usually the main desire that motivates them is the “save our church.” That is, they are concerned about their church going out of business and they want to avoid that. It’s not as good a motive as “seeing people saved” or “wanting the Kingdom to expand.” It’s not that those things have no importance to such folks but they are often not the primary motivation, which is saving their church. This is repeated frequently because of how many churches are struggling today with aging congregations, deteriorating buildings, and no clear path toward reversal.) They look around and see what is working in other churches. Maybe it’s a particular type of children’s ministry. Maybe it’s a certain style of music in worship. Whatever the change, they pin their hopes on new programming within the church.
- Now let me speak to your objections. I am not saying that programming has no impact at all. It obviously has some importance and will make some difference. But I think the larger point here is that a church may see another church prospering and not ask spiritual questions but pragmatic questions. There seems to be a presumption that spiritual things really aren’t that important in generating outcomes. What matters is the pragmatic - that is, the programming.
- Questions like these are almost never asked: “Where have we been disobedient in the last couple decades?”, “Where have we failed to listen to God’s voice and chosen what we wanted instead?”, “Are we spiritually mature as a congregation or just older?”, “Are there people we need to go and apologize to for our behavior?”, “In choosing pastors and church leaders, have we sought people who are spiritually mature?”, and “Is the prayer life of our congregation lacking?” Those questions bring up spiritual issues. They also bring up the reality that part of our situation may be our own fault, whether because of disobedience or complacency. It is a rare congregation that delves into such issues when confronting their decline. Most simply ask programming questions. Those questions are not completely insignificant but should not be central.
- All of this reminds me of a classic church evaluation question: if the Holy Spirit failed to show up this Sunday at your church, how much would change?
- Ouch.
- Where are we looking to the Holy Spirit and pursuing things that require Him to show up if we are to succeed? Conversely, where are we working from our own resources and plans and then asking the Holy Spirit to rubber stamp that?
- Given such an approach, it’s no wonder that we see so little of the Spirit.
- A piece of the problem here is the incredible prosperity of America. There is a lot of money floating around. There are a lot of degrees floating around. There are a lot of “experts” floating around. We are people who like to pick ourselves up by our bootstraps and make things happen.
- We are not used to waiting on the Spirit. We are not used to being dependent . . . and, honestly, we don’t like it. We would rather be large and in charge. We would rather be calling the shots.
- So this is a frequent place that American Christians look to try to see something powerful happen that isn’t looking to the Spirit.
2. POPULARITY.
- A second approach is pursuing popularity.
- If the church is in decline, then maybe it’s because we are out of date. We are promoting ideas that many people no longer buy into, so we need to change.
- This is something we see happening regularly among the most liberal denominations in America. While there are complex reasons for their beliefs and how they decide the Bible promotes such ideas, the reality is that they are generally ten minutes behind popular culture and struggling to catch up.
- They would probably not state that popularity is the end they are chasing but it is a significant piece of the puzzle. “How can you expect people to come to church when we are promoting ideas that are so out of date?” they say.
- The argument seems to be that the way to reverse the declining numbers is to “modernize” our theology and approach. We have to be “relevant.” Toward that end, anything that looks odd to modern sensibilities is tossed aside.
- It is ironic that this approach is such a failure. The more liberal denominations have continued to decline despite this approach. There are more important critiques but one problem is that it simply hasn’t achieved their desired result.
- The larger problem is that the truth was never supposed to be up for debate. There are always going to be things in the gospel that offend each person and each culture.
- Timothy Keller rightly points out the gospel will offend each culture at some point. One culture might be offended at the idea of God judging each of us because they think everyone should get to determine their own truth. Another culture might be offended at the idea of God’s forgiveness because they are an honor culture.
- We believe that the Bible is God’s truth to us. When we put ourselves over it and say that we are going to be the arbiter of what is true in there and what can be excised, we are setting ourselves up for failure.
- It’s essential that we take the Bible as God’s truth and that when I find something in there that I find difficult, I don’t dismiss it but seek to understand why it’s right and why I’m wrong.
- An example might be someone who has been raised in the cultural mantra that true joy and peace comes with “finding yourself.” So you need to seek the desires of your heart and trust that pursuit will lead you to the right destination. Someone reading that might hear Jesus say, “To find your life you need to lose your life” and want to immediately dismiss what Jesus says. But they shouldn’t, because it’s true. When we dig more deeply into Jesus’ words, we begin to understand that He is telling us the truth and the world is lying to us.
3. POWER.
- The third example of how we want to see a powerful move of God without the Spirit is power.
- We want to accumulate cultural or societal power in order to make things happen.
- This is something that has obsessed the American church for decades. The fact that the church doesn’t have the cultural influence that it did 75 years ago has been an ongoing source of concern and fear. “How can we get our power back?”
- It is certainly true that we want the church to have an impact on the world around us. It’s a healthy sign when that's happening. We are called to be salt and light. We want to be representatives of God’s light and truth and let that light shine. We want to live lives that exemplify who Christ was and allow people to see that change in our lives.
- But that's not what this approach pursues. It’s more interested in regaining power.
- Where does that lead? Instead of seeing the church in decline and seeking the Holy Spirit, many using this approach have instead sought to win in politics. If we elect “our people” and work to mandate what we want, then we can regain power.
- The problems are numerous.
- a. If you pursue power without Christlikeness, some really bad things happen.
- b. It’s a misdiagnosis of the problem: the problem wasn’t that we lost power, the problem was that we were not as close to God as we needed to be. There is a natural power that happens when we are close to Christ.
- c. We already have all the power we need from Christ, so we don’t need to seek any cultural power. Jesus said in the Great Commission that all power on heaven and earth has been given to us, which ought to be sufficient.
- All these and numerous other problems have arisen from this.
- Now does that mean that politics is of no importance? Of course not. It’s an important part of cultural life and we need committed Christians who are serving faithfully in that context. My new daughter-in-law is one such person doing that very thing.
- But too often we have acted like this is what’s going to solve the American church’s problems. It’s not.
- But you say, “But the church doesn’t have the impact it used to. We’ve got to do something about that!” Yes, you’re absolutely right, but what we need to do is seek the Spirit.
- The Spirit is the One who can bring dead bones to life. What good does it do to gain political power if we still don’t have the Spirit moving powerfully among us?
- Let me be clear with regard to all three of these alternative approaches: it is only by the Spirit that we are going to see dead bones come to life. We aren’t going to program ourselves there. We aren’t going to make it happen by pursuing popularity. We aren’t going to see it come to fruition by political power.
- We need to seek the Spirit.
WHAT WAS CREATED: The Spirit created an army.
- Ezekiel 37:10.
- I think it’s worth noting what the Spirit created. He created an army.
- What can we learn from this?
- First, they were not made to sit but to do something.
- Some think of their salvation as a thing they’ve received that then requires nothing else in terms of action. It’s like having a passport to get to heaven but that requires nothing other than holding onto it.
- Some think of church life in terms of what they receive. Indeed, we have a term these days for how people look for churches: “church shopping.” This implies that they are looking for a church that satisfies their needs and desires. It is telling how many people search for a church asking “Do they have what I want?” rather than questions like “Do I sense the Spirit at work here?” or “Is this somewhere that needs my spiritual gifts in service?” or “Is the truth preached from the pulpit?” or “How good is this church at giving to missions?” The usual question betrays a self-centeredness.
- God saves us so that we can work for Him, not just sit back.
- Second, he wants us to do battle.
- He creates an army.
- We live in a world of darkness. We are surrounded by hopeless people. There is much work to be done.
- God has created us to be an army to do that work. We are meant to be His hands and feet. We have a spiritual enemy that we are fighting. We need to get in the battle.
- Too often the church is not engaged in the spiritual battles that are around us. We are working our hardest to be safely sheltered behind the church doors.
-God wants to raise up an army. The Spirit has empowered us, brought us to life. Now in His power let’s go battle for the Lord.
- We want to see our churches transformed by a powerful move of the Spirit. We want to see our communities transformed by a powerful move of the Spirit. We want to see our nation transformed by a powerful move of the Spirit. We want to see our world transformed by a powerful move of the Spirit.
- It’s the Spirit we need to look to. He is the One who can bring the dead to life. It’s never too hopeless when He is moving.
- Nothing else will do. We need the Spirit.
