Can these bones live?

Sermon Notes from Sunday 15 March 2015

Ezekiel 37 verses 1 – 15

This is the nation of Israel that we read of in this chapter.  We can also take this chapter as a picture of the church of Jesus Christ.  Here we see a nation that has been trampled over, misplaced and a young man Ezekiel who was a prophet of God.  He has been separated, taken out into this valley full of dry bones which have been scattered as far as the eye can see.  He sees nothing but bones lying on the ground.  He must have been a tremendously humble young man.  The Lord said to Ezekiel “can these bones live.” And he replied “Lord thou knowest.” The God of heaven knows all about us.  He was a humble, obedient young man.  The Lord tells Ezekiel to preach or prophesy to these bones and that is what he did.  Can you imagine him standing there preaching?  I am thinking of a word that cropped up in the prayer meeting, that has been repeated time and time again.  It crept up again last Sunday in the context of those men who purchased this site some 28 years ago.  They saw beyond a field, beyond a place where they looked.  They saw a place of worship, where people could come together to worship in the beauty of holiness, where souls could be reached, where people could bring their families to hear the word of God, to be taught in the things of God.  The one word was vision.  Ezekiel is a very important portion of scripture.  As Ezekiel looked on that valley he saw something in his heart no-one else could see.  28 years ago men stood on the roadside out there and saw something no-one else could see.  They had a vision.  The challenge is not for 28 years ago.  The challenge is for you and I this morning.  Proverbs 29 verse 18 “without a vision the people perish”

The man of vision and power.  You see the opening phrase of this chapter is very important – “THE HAND of the Lord was upon me.”  Those first 2 words are very important because of the situation Ezekiel found himself in and the work God was setting up for him to do.  It speaks of identity, power and authority.  The man of God needs to have that special stamp upon him today, he needs the power of God.  We need the power of God working with us and through us.  Ezekiel was a man of God stamped with the authority of God.  When the Children of Israel were going through the wilderness they were on their way, travelling to the promised land.  We have been redeemed out of the world.  We are on our way to heaven.  When the spies came into Jericho on that particular day they went into Rahab’s house.  Her house was a hostelry, people would frequent it and Rahab heard what they talked about.  She had heard about the children of Israel walking through the wilderness.  She had heard so much about them, how the enemy had fallen before them.  Then she said “our hearts did melt.”  The people of God had a particular stamp on them.  They were redeemed out of Egypt with the mighty hand of God.  In Deuteronomy 6 Moses was giving instructions to the children of Israel.  He said it was important to teach your children, to hand down the gospel to the next generation.  Are we happy enough to sit back?  “Then shall ye say to thy son we were Pharaoh’s bondsmen in Egypt and the Lord brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand.”  God redeemed them and brought them out of Egypt.  Duncan Campbell was preaching in the Hebrides.  He had been invited to a village that was so hard against the gospel.  There was a lad of 15 in the prayer meeting and Duncan invited him to pray.  The lad stood up and said one word “Father”, the moment he said that something happened in that meeting.  The hardness broke, men and woman began to get saved.  The lad had identified with the hand of God on him.

We see also the presence of God.  In verse 1 “and carried me out in the spirit of the Lord.”  Not only did he know the power of God but he was filled with the presence of God.  A man needs to be filled with the Spirit of God.  Paul told the Ephesian believers “do not be drunk with wine wherein is excess but be filled with the spirit.”  The disciples were to “go into all the world and preach the gospel” but they needed to wait first for the power of God to fall on them.  Ezekiel was going out and he needed to be filled with the spirit of God.  In Acts 6 there were men needed for the furtherance of the work.  The old devil tried everything, persecution, violence, threats then he tried to sow a lie, the seed of discontentment.  Acts 6 verse 3 the advice given “wherefore brethren look ye among you seven men of honest report, full of the Holy Ghost and wisdom whom we may appoint over this business.” This situation required men filled with the Holy Ghost and they belonged to the church, people who had taken time to wait on God for the infilling and power of God.  We often quote about 1859 Revival of 4 men who went to pray in the school house at Kells.  Those people around the Ballymena area recognised something was different about the men than any other man.  They were filled with the Holy Spirit.  Ezekiel was a man of vision and he had the presence of God in his life.

Notice the man here and his placing.  He “set me down in the midst of the valley which was full of bones.”  That is what God would have this man to be.  The man of God must be in the place where God can use him.  Not talking about physical place but a spiritual place.  Where are we spiritually?  Going on with God?  Do the things of God mean more to us than anything else or have they dropped in our priority?  Verse 2 “They caused me to pass by them.”  He had to have eyes to see them.  He looked around him.  Nothing could be seen but these dry bones.  The situation was dry matter.  Verse 3 not only had to look but he had to listen.  28 years ago when men looked at this field, the place where God would direct their eyes I’m sure they thought this is not a bad spot.  They had to get before God though and began to pray, make sure they were correct in their belief.  They had to be listening to the God of heaven who told them this is it.  In Acts 16 Paul was “forbidden of the Holy Ghost to preach the word in Asia”.  He went on to Mysia and wanted to go into Bithynia and again “the spirit suffered them not”.  Paul then had the vision in the night time telling him where to go.  We have to be watching and listening for every opportunity if we want to lead the church forward.

The man of vision and his problem.  Ezekiel must have thought that there must somehow have been a battle here and this was the aftermath.  Ezekiel’s reply to God was “Lord thou knowest”.  28 years ago many problems faced the people who bought our piece of land.  Probably their biggest problem was finance.  What would they do about planning permission?  What would they do about support for the work?  “Thou knowest God all about it” when we look around us and see all the homes around the church and the problem of reaching them.  Remember when the disciples looked on the people who needed fed one day and saw thousands Philip asked “whence shall we buy bread that these may eat.”  Whenever we see these families we can only say “Lord thou knowest.”

The man of God and his proclaiming.  It sounded ridiculous to preach to dead bones but that was all he was asked to do.  That is all we are asked to do.  To take the gospel out and tell men and woman of the one who can lift them up, deliver them from shame, the one on came into the world to give them lie.  Ezekiel didn’t have any discussion with the Lord.  People around us are dead in sin and trespasses, there is a tremendous opportunity for us to reach them. That is the mission we need to reach them with the gospel.  We can make many excuses but we need to get our hearts to where God wants them to be.  They are going out into a Christless hell.  The man in Luke 16 carries to this very day.  He only wanted someone to dip their finger in cold water and place it on his tongue just to quench his thirst.  Is this where you want your family to be today, where you want your neighbours to be today?

The man of vision and prayer.  In verse 9 Ezekiel is still praying to the winds.  “Where there is no vision the people perish.”  Where there is no prayer the people perish.  We need to be people of prayer today.  We need to shake the apathy, idleness and get back to the place of prayer.  “Lord breath into these bones.”  God came and he can come again to save our family and friends today.

The man of vision and the promise – verse 14.  You pray and leave the rest with me.  Will we pick up the vision in the days ahead?  Will we pass it on to the church of tomorrow?