Resurrection Stories

Scripture: Ezekiel 37.1-14; John 11.1-45

I have always loved resurrection stories. I love the Joseph story in the Old Testament. Joseph’s brothers sell him into slavery and leave him for dead. When he reveals himself to them as the second most powerful person in all of the Egyptian empire, Joseph’s brothers look like they’ve seen a ghost. Resurrection!

I love the story of the Prodigal Son. The younger son takes his father’s inheritance and blows it. He loses all his friends and has to slop hogs and sleep in a barn just to get by. He finally comes home and his father welcomes him back with open arms: “My son who was lost is now found. My son was dead. He is now alive!” Resurrection.

I love modern stories of real and fictional characters. I love the movie Braveheart and the story of William Wallace, who sacrificed himself for his people and because he believed in life after death and the cloud of saints who watched over him. “Freedom!’ Wallace cried in his dying breath. Resurrection! I love the story of Owen Meany, who sacrificed himself in the sure and certain hope that “whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die.” Resurrection.

Now imagine a valley full of bones; piles and piles of nothing but dryness and dust and bones as far as your eyes can see. This is the scene stretches before Ezekiel, the prophet of Israel. Roy Clements notes that “for anybody in the Middle Eastern culture, and especially for a Jew, such a site would have been full of superstition and dread and ritual defilement.” Yet God seems to force the prophet into close contact with this place of death and despair. Ezekiel says, “He led me back and forth among them.”

Why did God bring Ezekiel to this place of decay and death? The answer can be found in verse 11: “Son of Man, these bones are the whole house of Israel. They say, ‘Our gones are dried up, and our hope is lost; we are cut off completely.’”

Israel has become hopeless. The things they had trusted in and relied upon were gone. They thought Jerusalem and the Temple would never be taken by an enemy. They thought God would never allow that to happen. But it did happen. They are hopeless. They are like piles of dried up bones, a cemetery of memories of what once was. Bones have no future. The people of Israel have no future.

In the middle of this outlook, God asks Ezekiel this question, “Son of Man, can these bones live?”

It’s become almost a cliché in certain circles, like AA and NA and other recovery programs that you can’t really change until you realize that all your old ways of coping aren’t working. You need to hit bottom before you can begin to climb back up. I don’t know if that’s true or not but I do know this. . .some hopeless people find hope again. Some people, who are as good as dead, find life again. Resurrection happens.

Someone described to me very recently their sense that God is alive and working in their life, “I’m feeling it. I’m excited and amazed that God is speaking to me.” How is it that some people can hear the voice of God and see amazing transformation in their attitudes and in the situations where others hear only silence and see only more of the same depressing view?

It begins with personal confession and regeneration. In Ezekiel 36.25 the Lord says, “I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean; I will cleanse you from all your impurities and from all your idols.” Did you hear that last word? Idols. All the things that you have relied upon for false security must go. Pack them up, pour them out, sweep them away. As Rick Warren says in The Purpose-Driven Life, “You’ll never know that God is all you need until God is all you’ve got.”

And then God makes this promise in 36.26, “I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you. I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh.”
This remarkable verse is echoed in the New Testament Gospel of John, when Jesus says to Nicodemus, “I tell you the truth, no one can see the kingdom of God unless he is born again.” Resurrection requires a heart transplant.

So we’re saying we need to confess our sins and receive forgiveness. We’re saying we need regeneration that comes from a new heart’s passion. How does this happen? How do dry, dessicated, hopeless bones move themselves to this? “Son of Man, can these bones live?” Ezekiel answers, “Lord, you know.” Then he said to me, “Prophesy to the bones and say to them, “Dry bones, hear the word of the Lord!”

Does this strike you as a pretty ridiculous thing for God to say? Dead bones are a pretty lifeless audience. Dead bones are the deafest thing I can imagine to preach to. . .Although I recall several times at youth group. . .

I’m telling them about Jesus’ love for them. I’m calling them to say no to some
Of the things in the culture so they can say yes to Jesus. I’m exhorting them to
Step up and commit to an everyday, every moment walk with Jesus. I’m calling
Them to be disciples and love the Lord with all their heart, soul, mind, and
Strength. I’m using wit, story, video and Bible verse. I’m using personal stories
And experience from my 14 years in ministry and my 26 years as a Christian. I’m using every resource at my command. I’m laying it on the line, holding nothing
Back as I ask them, “Is there anyone that hears God speaking to them? Is there
Anyone here that is ready to make that kind of commitment?” And a girl raises
Her hand and looks me in the eye, and I think, yes, of course, her! She is ready.
She is a disciple! And she says to me, “Rich, can I go to the bathroom?”

Preach to the bones. Why? Because when it seems that apathy and hostility are at their
Peak and all hope has long said goodbye and gone to the bathroom, still, there is no situation so hopeless that the Word of God cannot evoke a response. It is the Word of God. He can bring even dry bones to life.
Ezekiel did just that. He preached to the bones. And immediately there was a rattling, and the bones came together, bone to bone, and there were sinews and flesh and skin covered them, but there was no breath in them. They lacked Spirit. There are some people in the church like this. We listen to the word taught and preached and we even obey it in our way. We get our lives ordered and moral and proper. But beyond the nice façade, in the center of our lives there is still the same deadness. God hasn’t really changed us. There’s no passion. There’s no life. There’s no heart.

Then the Lord said to me, “Prophesy to the breath.” The Hebrew word used here is ruah, which has the double meaning of breath and spirit. The double meaning is a clear meaning – there is no life without the breath and spirit of God in us. Prophesying to the breath is another way of saying, “Pray to the One who gives us His Spirit.” Regeneration and revival never come without the serious and intent prayers of those who would be changed. Resurrection happens to people who listen to God, who speak to God, and who trusts that there is always hope; there is always life in the One who makes all things new.
Resurrection happens here and it can happen to you.