I Will Put My Spirit on You and You Will Live - May 20, 2018 - Pentecost Sunday - Text: Ezekiel 37:1-14

Today is the day we celebrate the giving of the Holy Spirit. Today we celebrate Pentecost Sunday. As we begin I am compelled to make a couple opening remarks to clarify what we now celebrate as Pentecost. First, this was not the first Pentecost celebration. Originally Pentecost was a Jewish holiday marking fifty days after Passover and was a first fruits celebration. This meant that a lot of Jews would be in Jerusalem celebrating, making this the “perfect” day for Jesus to send the Holy Spirit. This also reminds us of how perfect God’s planning truly is. Second, this is not the first appearance of the Holy Spirit. We read of the Holy Spirit back in Genesis. Remember, as we will celebrate next week on Holy Trinity Sunday, our triune God is always one, thus God is always at the same time, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, so where there is one person of the trinity there are all persons of the trinity because God cannot be divide. Now let us move on to our text.
 

Our text is the Old Testament lesson and the account of the “dry bones.” We begin with Ezekiel recounting the vision and the question, “1The hand of the Lord was upon me, and he brought me out in the Spirit of the Lord and set me down in the middle of the valley; it was full of bones. 2And he led me around among them, and behold, there were very many on the surface of the valley, and behold, they were very dry. 3And he said to me, ‘Son of man, can these bones live?’ And I answered, ‘O Lord God, you know’” (v. 1-3).
 

First, let us make note that this was a vision, not something that was actually happening to Ezekiel. So, in this vision Ezekiel recounts that the Lord had brought him out to a valley full of bones, and as he describes them, very dry bones. We notice the fact that Ezekiel points out that these bones were very dry which is what happens to bones after they have been out in the weather for a long time. In other words, the people in this valley had been dead for long enough for the skin to rot off the bones and for the bones to dry up, quite a long time.
 

And then Ezekiel is asked a question. “Can these bones live?” Ezekiel’s answer is one we would do well to emulate, especially if we do not know the answer, which it appears he did not know. Ezekiel answers, “O Lord God, you know.”
 

I do not believe Ezekiel’s answer was an answer of doubt. Rather I believe his answer was an answer of hope and faith. His answer might also be our answer that is that whenever we might be in doubt we might answer that with God nothing is impossible.
 

We continue the recounting of the vision with the command of God. “4Then he said to me, ‘Prophesy over these bones, and say to them, O dry bones, hear the word of the Lord. 5Thus says the Lord God to these bones: Behold, I will cause breath to enter you, and you shall live. 6And I will lay sinews upon you, and will cause flesh to come upon you, and cover you with skin, and put breath in you, and you shall live, and you shall know that I am the Lord.’ 7So I prophesied as I was commanded. And as I prophesied, there was a sound, and behold, a rattling, and the bones came together, bone to its bone. 8And I looked, and behold, there were sinews on them, and flesh had come upon them, and skin had covered them. But there was no breath in them” (v. 4-8).
 

Again, let me remind you that this is a vision. In this vision, after showing him the valley of dry bones, God tells Ezekiel to prophesy. He tells him to tell the bones to live. And so that is what Ezekiel did. He did as he was told. He prophesied to the bones.
 

And when he prophesied, what he said happened, not because of what he said, but because these were God’s Word given to him to speak. When he spoke God’s Word, God’s Word does what it says, the bones came to life, at least flesh and skin came upon the bones, but really, they were not yet alive as there was not yet any breath in them.
 

And so we continue with God’s second command. “9Then he said to me, “Prophesy to the breath; prophesy, son of man, and say to the breath, Thus says the Lord God: Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe on these slain, that they may live.” 10So I prophesied as he commanded me, and the breath came into them, and they lived and stood on their feet, an exceedingly great army” (v. 9-10).
 

God tells Ezekiel to prophesy and tell the bones to live. And again that is what Ezekiel did. He prophesied and he told the bones to live, just as God told him to do.
    And the bones came to life, real life. Not only did the bones have flesh and blood, but now they had breath, that is they had life. Life came into the bones.
 

And finally, Ezekiel and we are given the explanation of this vision. “11Then he said to me, ‘Son of man, these bones are the whole house of Israel. Behold, they say, “Our bones are dried up, and our hope is lost; we are clean cut off.” 12Therefore prophesy, and say to them, Thus says the Lord God: Behold, I will open your graves and raise you from your graves, O my people. And I will bring you into the land of Israel. 13And you shall know that I am the Lord, when I open your graves, and raise you from your graves, O my people. 14And I will put my Spirit within you, and you shall live, and I will place you in your own land. Then you shall know that I am the Lord; I have spoken, and I will do it, declares the Lord’” (v. 11-14).
 

At the time of this vision, the children of Israel were in exile. They had been disbursed to many places and countries around the world. Perhaps for many Israelites they had lost all hope. Now, through the prophet Ezekiel, God is giving a word of hope. Through Ezekiel God says He will restore the house of Israel. Of course, today we understand that this restoration of Israel was not simply a physical, earthly line of descent and restoration, rather this restoration was a spiritual, faith giving, forgiving restoration, so that all who believe in the Messiah will be a part of the true Israel.
 

Through the prophet Ezekiel, God promises that He will give the world a Savior through the house of Israel. These words of Ezekiel are being spoken some 400 years before the birth of Jesus. The Savior that God is promising is not a social political savior. The Savior God is promising is a Savior who will be Israel, who will live perfectly and obey all God’s laws and commands perfectly, something Israel could not do. This Savior will be one who will fulfill all God’s promises perfectly and who will save them from their sins.
 

And we will know this prophecy is true because God will do it. Just as Ezekiel answered God’s question concerning whether or not the bones could live by saying that the Lord knows, and I would suggest implied is that with God all things are possible, so we know that just as God promised to send a Savior, that this will happen because with God all things are possible. Of course, we have the luxury, if you will, of hind-sight and we can see that these things did happen and were fulfill in Jesus, the Savior of the world.
 

What does this mean? As you hear me say, continually, God’s Word does what it says. God gives us His Word, through which He gives us His Holy Spirit, faith, forgiveness, life and salvation. This morning we see, and hear the word of the Lord to Ezekiel. Yes, this was a vision, but even in the vision we see and hear God’s word doing what He says. The vision is not necessarily speaking of the resurrection of the dead in general, but the restoration of God’s people. And this restoration came about because of Jesus’ life, death and resurrection. And the small group of believing Jews in Jerusalem, along with the believing non-Jews, or Gentiles are the ones who began the restoration of the spiritual Israel.
 

This morning, then, we are reminded, again, that it always begins with God. God gives and we are given to. And God gives in particular through means. God gives us His good gifts and blessings, those gifts and blessings earned by the Savior, Christ the Lord, through His means of the cross, and these gifts and blessings are given by God’s grace, through faith, through the means of the Word and the Sacraments. God’s usual way of working with us, coming to us, is not immediately, not directly, but mediately, that is indirectly, or through means. God comes to us through His Word, which does what it say. God comes to us through confession and absolution which give forgiveness of sins. God comes to us through Holy Baptism and the Lord’s Supper to give, strengthen and keep us in faith.
 

God gives and we are given to. And because God gives through means, our desire is to make regular and diligent use of these means. We just cannot help ourselves. It’s something like being a chocoholic. A person who really likes, even loves chocolate will crave chocolate. I am told this is actually true when it comes to sugar, that when we eat sugar our bodies actually crave sugar, but if we can stop eating it we will stop craving it. So it is with God’s good gifts and blessings. So it is with us as Christians. When we are giving God’s good gifts and blessings, we simply crave them. We simply have to have them. We want, more than anything, our desire, more than anything is to be when and where God’s gifts are given out, to be in Divine Service and Bible class whenever offered. We cannot help but remember our Baptism and the fact that God has put His name on us, so we are His. We desire to confess our sins so we might hear the greatest words in the world, “Your sins are forgiven.” We desire to come to the Lord’s Table to eat His body and drink His blood and be strengthened in our faith.
 

This morning as we celebrate Pentecost and the giving of the Holy Spirit, we celebrate that at our baptism and through our reading and hear of God’s Word, we have been filled with the Holy Spirit. We celebrate that it is the Holy Spirit, working in and through us, working through the means of grace, that we are God’s children, that we are brother and sisters in Christ, that we are heirs to eternal life, that He gives us the desire to live lives of faith, and that He gives us the ability to always be ready to give an answer for the hope that we have in Christ and finally that He even gives us the words to speak and the courage to speak at just the right time. And now He moves in us to say, to God be the glory, for Jesus’ sake. Amen.