Ezekiel 37:1-14

Its easy for us to come to a cemetery and see a place of despair - hopelessness. To look at these graves and see what really is our common end in this life. Its very easy to look at all this and think that life really is very short and very hopeless.

Cemeteries are a place of final separation - from here we leave go our own way. For one moment in time we all stood here and remembered _____ who touched our lives. And, then we move on carrying only memories with us. And that has its emptiness as well.

Its hard not to see only graves and emptiness. This morning, I would like to share two passages of scripture which encourage us - no matter how despairing the circumstances - to see potential - hope - a future. To see a cemetery as a place of God’s possibilities.

The first passage is from Ezekiel 37. The nation of Israel was in exile in Babylon - it was a time of sorrow and hopelessness. The prophet Ezekiel was given a vision by God. He was taken, in this vision, to a valley - and what he saw in that valley would lead anyone to despair. The valley was filled with bones - dry - powdery - old - bones - separated and scattered about - a great cemetery for the nation of Israel.

And God asked Ezekiel, “Can these bones live?” “Can they be brought back to life?” - a question we might ask ourselves today.

Ezekiel answers, “O Sovereign Lord, you alone know.” - I have no idea - if you ask me, it’s impossible - but, you’re God.

In Ezekiel 37:4ff, we read that God spoke to Ezekiel and said, “Prophesy to these bones and say to them, Dry bones, hear the word of the Lord! This is what the Sovereign Lord says to these bones; I will make breath enter you, and you will come to life. I will attach tendons to you and make flesh come upon you and cover you with skin; I will put breath in you, and you will come to life. Then you will know that I am the Lord.”

As Ezekial began to speak to the dry bones, there was a noise - a rattling sound, and the bones came together - bone to corresponding bone - from wherever they had been scattered - tendons and flesh appeared on them and skin covered them.

Then God said to Ezekial, “Prophesy to the breath - This is what the Sovereign Lord says, come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe into these slain, that they may live.” And as Ezekial speaks to the bones - now joined together - breath enters them and they stand on their feet - a mighty army.

Look at these graves and consider the possibilities when the Sovereign God commands that there be life.

As surely as the nation of Israel was restored - we know from history that this vision and prophecy given to Ezekial was fulfilled by the work of God’s own sovereign hand - as surely as the nation of Israel was restored - so will all of God’s promises of our resurrection be fulfilled.

A man by the name of Nicodemus, a Pharisee, a ruler of the Jews, came to Jesus with questions. As they talked, Jesus explained to Nicodemus that the way to eternal life - the way to experience the resurrection power of God - is through spiritual rebirth - being born again.

Dying to ourselves - surrendering our lives to God - means that we can be reborn spiritually. When we are dead to ourselves - if we are alive, it’s because the sovereign God has caused us to live - His breath - His life is in us.

Nicodemus had problems understanding all of this. And, let’s be honest with ourselves - what God does is hard to understand.

Jesus brings His teaching down to our level. He shares with Nicodemus what has become one of the most known verses in the Bible. This is the other passage I want to share with you - John 3:16:

“For God so loved the world that He gave His only Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life.”

God came - Jesus - and no matter what our sins or attitude towards Him - He as provided the way that we might respond to His love and come to know Him - to be spiritually reborn - to know that the grave is not the end - that there is eternal life.

That may be hard to understand. For me it is hard to understand how - literally millions of detached bones - or nation in exile - could be brought back together. It is hard to understand how resurrection power works.

But, the promise and certainty of God is there - it works. And Jesus said, those who believe will experience it.

The Bible - God - encourages us - look at these graves as markers of God’s possibilities. Resurrection power works best in graveyards.