The Day of Pentecost “The Spirit of Restoration”
May 19, 2024 Ezekiel 37:1-14
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Dear brothers & sisters in Christ,
Have you ever heard that the number 8 is a very special number in the theology of the Church. Of course, the number 3 is special = as ‘trinity’; the number 4 represents the earth & the 4-points of the compass; the number 10 is completeness; and the number 12 with the tribes of Israel & the apostles. God likes all those numbers & attaches meaning to them for us. He likes the number 7, representing the six days of creation with the sabbath day; the week is important to God’s earthly relationship with His ‘crown’ of creation: man =male & female.
But the number 8 is special too. It stands for that promised future time when this creation, which man ruined, will pass away, and the new eternal day will finally dawn: the 8th day. That new day has already pre-dawned on Easter Sunday when Jesus broke death for us, and rose to new life forevermore. For now, we continue with our 7-day week; six days we labor with the 7th as a sabbath worship to the Lord of life. On the day Jesus returns, that will finally be the 8th day, the first day of the rest of our lives, as sin & death will be no more. It’s the day that will last forever with God.
In the church year, The Day of Pentecost is the finale of the season of Easter; it’s the ‘eighth’ of the Sundays of Easter. It’s the fulfillment of Easter as the gifts that Jesus won by His cross & empty tomb are poured out to believers thru the Holy Spirit. The Jewish feast of Pentecost was a harvest festival of spring grain; they celebrated the ingathering. Likewise, the NT Pentecost celebrates the beginning of the ingathering of believers from the four-corners of the earth into Christ’s Church.
You have been gathered into His church by the Spirit to eagerly await His glorious return for that life with God that will never end. All of this is true because Jesus died & rose again, and the HSp was sent to breath on you & bring you to Jesus. That means that Pentecost didn’t just happen back then in Acts 2; the harvest is still going on until the Lord of the Church returns in glory.
For today, we’ll look at that very memorable vision from Ezekiel 37, and focus narrowly on two key words: Spirit and Preaching. Our conclusion will be that the Holy Spirit works thru preaching to bring restoration.
To bring us to that conclusion, the picture the Lord gives is the valley full of skeletons. For Ezekiel, those dry bones stand for the nation of Israel; that’s the smaller, historic picture. For US, those dry bones stand for the Church of believers whose sin-dried bones have been given new life in Christ. In this vision, we keep in mind that the word ‘prophesy’ here means ‘preaching’; proclaiming the good word of the Lord.
Sometimes the word ‘preaching’ gets a bad rap, like it’s some long, boring speech, or a lecture from your parents. But, the word ‘prophecy’ (ooh!) mostly gets a revered & romantic notion. But let’s resist that false distinction. To preach IS to prophesy, and to prophesy IS to preach. Both mean to speak the words of the Lord. And the picture that the Lord gives here
is that by preaching, the Spirit brings the restoration of true life to the human being; to both body & soul, in Christ.
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So, First: the Spirit comes thru preaching. Ezekiel is shown a problem: it’s that big pile of bones. “There were very many on the surface of the valley, and behold, they were very dry.” In this vision, these bones represented real people: moms & dads, grandmas & grandpas, sons & daughters, you & me. People have real stories of troubles & triumphs, with real joys & sorrows. But in this world, all of that comes to nothing; everything cut off from God goes to death. Death is the great equalizer.
This vision is true & real for us.
Now, the Hebrew language is more clever than English. In this vision, the word ‘spirit’, ‘ruach’ is used 10 times in 14 verses. Only 2 times do we translate it ‘spirit’; the other times, it is either ‘breath’ or ‘wind’. ‘Ruach’ means all three. For our purpose this morning, I’m only going to read it as ‘spirit.’
The Lord’s solution for Ezekiel is for him to ‘prophesy’ to these bones ==which is ‘preaching.’
“Then he said to me, ‘Preach 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 Spirit to enter you, and you shall
live. And I will lay ligaments upon you, and will cause muscles to come upon you, and cover you
with skin, and put Spirit in you, and you shall live, and you shall know that I am the Lord.’
So I preached as I was commanded. And as I preached, there was a sound, and behold, a rattling,
and the bones came together, one bone to its next fitting bone.”
So we see that it is thru prophecy; that is, by the preaching of God’s Word, that the dead dry bones are put back together to live.
And so you & I are gathered together, in this valley of the shadow of death, on Pentecost,
with the promise of the Spirit of God to sustain life. The valley is filled with bones made dry & brittle by troubles & sorrows, by the sins that leech life from us, from the years that wear on us. “Then God said to me, ‘Son of man, these bones are the ‘whole house’, the Old T. & New T. house of Israel.
Behold, they say, “Our bones are dried up, and our hope is lost; we are indeed cut off” ’ ”
The Lord’s solution to OT prophets & NT pastors is the same. “Prophesy over these bones, and say to them, O dry bones, hear the word of the Lord.” In our Lutheran Confessions we say, “To obtain such faith God instituted the office of preaching, giving the gospel and the sacraments. Through these, as through means, He gives the Holy Spirit who produces faith, where and when He wills, in those who hear the gospel.” (AC V, 1–2).
Since the Spirit of God comes to us thru preaching, so God’s 3rd Command is vital to our faith-breath: Remember the Sabbath Day, to keep it holy. What does this mean? It means we fear & love God so that we do not despise preaching or His Word, but hold it sacred, and gladly hear & learn it. The Pentecost Holy Spirit is promised to blow as wind on you, and breathe in you, when you hear the preaching of the Word of the Lord. A sermon based on Holy Scripture and it’s fulfilment in Jesus as the Christ is ‘prophecy’ == it proclaims our present sin & guilt, and God’s present call to repent & His mercy in Jesus. A sermon will ‘prophesy’ the Biblical future: both the coming judgment on the unbeliever, and the coming glory of those who are calling on the name of the Lord to be saved. The Spirit comes thru preaching.
As there was one day of crucifixion, one day of resurrection, & one day of ascension, so there was one day of Pentecost. On that day, the Ruach of God came with the sound of a rushing wind, and with tongues of fire resting on the apostles, like the fire of Moses’ burning bush. By that breath, those disciples could speak the native languages of all those visiting Jerusalem for the harvest festival. And the first thing Peter does is to stand up and preach. Before him was a congregation of bones – that were dry because they had not heard the good news that Jesus is the Messiah, and the Savior for all nations. Peter preaches and the breath of faith comes to 3,000 souls that day. The Spirit comes thru preaching.
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And second, the Spirit brings restoration. We have heard & we know that the ‘nuts & bolts’ message of the Christian faith is that God sent His Son, Jesus, in our flesh, to live a perfect life, and to redeem us. The world is broken; humans are lost by sin & without a future hope. But when our Creator came among us, when He died our death of sin and rose up to life again, He has given to us what this world cannot give: a sneak-peek for what the future has for us who trust & follow Him. Jesus is our bone & sinew & flesh Savior.
And the same Spirit that anointed Jesus for that work was promised & fulfilled for us on that Day in Acts 2. Jesus has redeemed our bones & flesh, and God the Holy Spirit comes to restore to us breath & life. “And I looked, and behold, there were tendons on [those bones], and muscles had come upon them, and skin had covered them. But there was no [Spirit] in them. Then he said to me, ‘Preach to the [Spirit]; preach, son of man, and say to the [Spirit], Thus says the Lord God: Come from the four [Spirit], O [Spirit], and breathe on these slain, that they may live.’ So I preached a sermon, as he commanded me, and the [Spirit] came into them, and they lived, and stood on their feet, an exceedingly great host of living souls.”
This vision gave Ezekiel a sneak-peek to what would happen in the near future, and then again in the later future; in Acts 2 – for a NT harvest of souls. He says: “Therefore preach, 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 over sin & death, 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.”
WE are living in the fulfillment of this promise. The Lord God has placed his Spirit in us, and we are living. For all who call upon the name of the Lord, and who confess that Christ came in the flesh and rose from the dead, are being restored & made alive in Christ Jesus.
I once heard a seminary professor point out a couple of interesting things about this vision. One thing is that Ezekiel was told to simply ‘preach’; to proclaim to the dry bones whatever the Lord has promised to do for them. The Lord has promised to address their sin, and the dry troubles, sorrows, & fears that sin causes. Ezekiel was not told to entertain those dry bones, to sing to them, or to make sure they had exciting activities to do to reach various ages & interests. The devil & the world tempts people with a different sermon, & tries to say that going to plain-old worship every week, & bible study, & doing devotions are boring, & make people dry, dull creatures. But entertainments are not life; being with & hearing your Creator is life.
A second thing that professor pointed out was that Ezekiel was commanded to preach twice in order for those dry bones to fully hear & become living, breathing believers. Neither preachers nor hearers should become accustomed to one sermon once-in-a-while. The Spirit’s restoration is an ongoing thing. It’s the principal of ‘two steps forward & one step backward.’ The Holy Spirit, with the Word of the Lord, moves us two steps forward, while our daily battle with sin moves us one step backward. The Spirit is always forward, & sin is always backward.
The people of God need an ongoing restoration, with many sermons, in order to restore us & keep us breathing the life of this saving faith. As the Spirit blows over us, and breathes in us all the things our Savior has taught to us, He changes little things that bring out the fruit of faith in our lives. We learn how to treat people better, and to handle our troubles more effectively. We learn to bend with the sorrows without breaking, and to endure our shaky relationships with the hope of being repaired & rebuilt.
By this vision given to Ezekiel, and by the fulfilment of Pentecost Day, we can see that every hour we spend with the Word of the Lord is time that the very Spirit of God is working on us to redirect our attitudes & priorities to those things that our Savior knows we need most so that our days will not be spent in this valley being very dry bones. Instead, we will live.
Spirit and preaching. Between Ezekiel 37 and Acts 2, we will conclude that the HSp works thru preaching to bring restoration & life. The ultimate promise of this Spirit & the Word of the Lord will be that final restoration, when the Spirit of Jesus raises us from our tombs, & there will be no more dryness in our bones; and the Lord will place us in our own heavenly Promised Land. Then we will always know that He is the Lord. ‘O dry bones, hear the word of the Lord.’
Amen