Sermon: Pentecost (OT)

27 May AD 2012

Sermon Theme: Your Dry Bones Live

Summary: Ezekiel 37 echoes, amplifies, and restores what God did in Genesis 2:7. After the Lord breathed into man the breath of life, Adam committed spiritual suicide by taking the fruit from Eve and eating. Spiritual death led to temporal and then eternal death. But we who are born without the breath (Spirit) of life find it given to us by the Holy Spirit, God’s divine Breath, as He comes to us in Word and Sacrament. The restoration of Israel’s dead bones and the promised return to their own land foreshadows the restoration of all who believe in Jesus and their resurrection to the perfection of life everlasting.

Sermon Text: The 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. And he led me around among them, and behold, there were very many on the surface of the valley, and behold, they were very dry. And he said to me, “Son of man, can these bones live?” And I answered, “O Lord God, you know.”

Then he said to me, “Prophesy over these bones, and say to them, O dry bones, hear the word of the Lord. Thus says the Lord God to these bones: Behold, I will cause breath to enter you, and you shall live. And 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.”

So 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. And 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.

Then 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.” So I prophesied as he commanded me, and the breath came into them, and they lived and stood on their feet, an exceedingly great army.

Then 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 indeed cut off.’ Therefore 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. And you shall know that I am the Lord, when I open your graves, and raise you from your graves, O my people. And 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.” Ezekiel 37:1-14

Scripture quoted from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®, © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Audio: Click to hear the MP3 of Your Dry Bones Live, preached during the early service to the saints of God at Holy Cross Lutheran Church, Kansas City, Missouri.

Other Readings: Psalm 139:1-12 (13-16); Acts 2:1-21; John 15:26-27; 16:4b-15

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