Grace to you and peace in Jesus’ holy name. Amen.

The story is told of a woman, a nurse by profession, now retired, going to her brother’s Arkansas home for what she thought would be just a normal family visit. Arriving at the home, the events were anything but normal. A crowd of family members were standing around a small pond, and there on the ground was the drowned body of Bobo. Although it had been years since the woman had performed CPR she quickly reacted, almost without thinking. She was instantly on her knees. She tilted Bobo’s head back and began mouth-to-mouth resuscitation. She didn’t give up and her efforts paid off! Bobo’s eyes fluttered… and then opened. The newspapers recorded that Bobo had been brought back to life!

You might think that is a wonderful human interest story, but it’s not. You see Bobo is not a human, Bobo is a chicken. Now Bobo was a special chicken, an exotic chicken, a precious family pet, but Bobo was still a chicken. I have to confess it’s a challenge for me to think of bending down to kiss the beak of a chicken. When I see a dead chicken, I think, “ Hmm. crispy or original.” Not artificial resuscitation. …but I digress. The real topic today does deal with bringing the dead back to life. And when I say, “the dead,” I mean dead people, not dead chickens.

Can dead people be brought back to life? That was the question God asked Ezekiel in a vision which we heard in our Old Testament reading. God showed him a valley filled with the bones of dead people. Ezekiel reported that those bones were “dry.” The bones were sun-baked, parched and bleached white by the sun. These people were really, really dead. Death had put those bones there. Decay had left them stark white and stripped clean.

Although the Bible doesn’t say it, Ezekiel might have wondered, “Who these people were that had been reduced to nothing more than a pile of bleached bones? What happened to them? What brought them to this?” To give you just a little history: Ezekiel was a prophet who lived in the days of Judah’s Babylonian Captivity. It was about 600 years before Jesus was born. As had happened many times before, Judah turned away from God, and as also had happened many times before God decided to punish them. The punishment came through the Babylonian king Nebuchadnezzar.

In a great battle Nebuchadnezzar with his army took out the forces of Egypt, and became master of most of the mid-east including the kingdom of Judah. Many of the people were dragged away from their homes and transplanted in Babylon. There they faced the hard fact they were going to end their days in exile and slavery. Insult was added to injury when they got word from home that their capital city of Jerusalem had been destroyed, and the great Temple, the center of all their spiritual activities, had been leveled to the ground.

As we heard when we look at Nehemiah, the news crushed them. There was almost no hope. Their personal lives, and their spiritual lives appeared over. The people said:

Our bones are dried up,
and our hope is gone. We are cut off.¹”

Ezekiel’s questions had been answered. These dry bones were people who should have been happy but were not; who should have had a future but did not; who should have had hope but could see only a future filled with: doubt, despair, depression, dejection and death.

• Doubt, despair, depression, dejection, death. Can be familiar words to the hearts and minds of people we know.

• They Doubt anyone loves, cares, or is concerned about them.

• The Despair their future holds only gloomy shadows and darkness.

• The Depression makes them feel no matter what they do it will not be enough. No matter how hard they try they will fail. No matter how long they struggle they will not succeed.

• Dejection is the feeling of being surrounded by shades and shadows which leave one feeling so forsaken that every part of their body and soul, even their very bones, feel dead and dried up.

• Death is all they see in their future. An end without a goal. A life without a purpose.

Doubt, despair, depression, dejection and death can do that, can’t they? A wicked world with all of its sins, sadness, and sorrow, its hurts, hatreds, and horrors can do that. Challenging things which come from within, tragic things forced upon us from outside. These things all take their toll. Pleasure never satisfies, contentment never comes, tomorrow remains unwelcomed. Silently we might wonder, “Will things ever change? Will they ever get better?” God asked the same question to Ezekiel. The Lord asked, “Can these dead bones live?” It was God’s way of asking, “Can hope ever come to the hopeless?”

I can give you two answers to that question: First is humanity’s answer. You might know people whoa are in pain. They are suffering and there is nothing they or we can do to fix it. We think to ourselves, “Barring a miracle there is no hope.” We know it is impossible, humanly speaking, for those dry bones to be brought back to life.

The prophet Ezekiel knew that. When God asked, “Can these bones live?” there was only one logical, sensible, reasonable answer, “Of course not. It’s impossible.” Yet Ezekiel did not give a logical, sensible, reasonable answer. Instead knowing with God all things are possible, Ezekiel gave another answer, a better answer, the answer of faith.

Without having seen, without knowing just how dry bones could be resurrected, the prophet gave a hopeful answer. He said, “O Lord, God, You know.” God did know. God showed the prophet. He said, “Ezekiel, speak to these bones. Tell them the words which I give you… and My words will come bringing hope, life, change and salvation.”

Ezekiel did as he was instructed.

S o I prophesied as I was commanded. While I was prophesying, suddenly there was a rattling noise, and the bones came together, one bone attaching itself to another. As I looked, I saw that ligaments were on them, muscles were on them, and skin covered them. Yet, there was no breath in them. Then the LORD said to me, “Prophesy to the breath! Prophesy, son of man. Tell the breath, ’This is what the Almighty LORD says: Come from the four winds, Breath, and breathe on these people who were killed so that they will live.’” So I prophesied as he commanded me, and the breath entered them. Then they came to life and stood on their feet. There were enough of them to form a very large army.²

Can dry bones live? They can… but not by their own power. Dry bones can live when a miracle takes place. If you hear nothing else hear this: it is God’s gracious will to give you a miracle. Through His Son’s sacrifice, and by the Holy Spirit’s power, your dry bones can live. The Bible teaches us: God can, and will bring life to the driest of bones. Look at Adam and Eve after their disobedience. Death, earthly and eternal, is their unavoidable inevitable future. But God gave this condemned couple redemption and reprieve.

God guaranteed that His perfect Son would take their place. God promised to substitute His Son’s perfect life for their sinful one. This was God’s promise and at the Savior’s empty tomb He fulfilled that promise. The result was our very first grandparents found tomorrows’ terrors had been taken away and Hell had lost its horrors.

Dry bones can live when God’s miracle takes place. Abraham and Sarah were dry bones. They were very old in age but God granted a miracle and a son was born to them. Moses was exiled from Egypt but God granted a miracle and the shepherd led God’s people out of slavery.

Dry bones can live when God provides a miracle. When God’s people were being persecuted by the Philistines God granted a miracle and with a sling and stone a shepherd boy, gave a victory to His forces. Take a look at the Bible. See God grant His miracles and provide hope where there is none. Daniel lived through a night in the lion’s den, three men find God’s company and are delivered from a fiery furnace.

God’s miracles defeat the devil’s tools of doubt, despair, depression, dejection and death. Jesus entered this world so dry bones could live. Look at Jesus’ ministry of grace. The Bible describes those years this way:

T he blind receive their sight; the lame walk, lepers are cleansed; the deaf hear; the dead are raised up, and the poor have good news preached to them.³

By God’s miracle through His Son’s care dry bones lived. Dry bones can live when God provides a miracle. And a miracle for the entire world is exactly what God provided 2,000 years ago. When Jesus was born to be your substitute, to take away your sins. All who believe in Him with repentant hearts can live forever.

Before Pentecost Jesus’ disciples had been self-centered, always arguing about who would be first in the kingdom of Heaven. Before Pentecost they tried to keep little children from seeing Jesus. Before Pentecost they had doubts about Jesus’ power and purpose. They misunderstood His message and tried to talk Him out of fulfilling His mission. Before Pentecost they made promises they didn’t keep and boasts they couldn’t fulfill. Before Pentecost they slept instead of prayed.

B ut with the coming of the Holy Spirit on that first New Testament Pentecost, the disciples were transformed. They became bold witnesses, proud proclaimers of the Gospel. Sure and certain of their forgiveness, knowing without doubt Heaven waits for them and all who believe. They went out and shared the message of Jesus and the promise: Your dry bones can live.

There is no future so bad, so bleak, Christ cannot make it better. There is no sadness so profound, no sorrow so powerful it can defeat the H oly Spirit. Through Jesus’ work of salvation the Holy Spirit leads you to your Savior. The Holy Spirit puts muscle, sinew and flesh on our dry bones, assuring us, though we deserved Hell, Jesus gave us Heaven. In Jesus, the Spirit gives our dry bones the power to be conquerors over life’s sins and sorrows . Amen.

—

NOTES: