The Spirit Gives Life to the Dead through the Word of the Lord!

I pass by Rest Haven Funeral Home and Memorial Park every time I drive to and from church. Driving by a graveyard almost each day reminds me that my time in this world is limited; there will come a day that I die. Whether you drive by a graveyard each day or not, you also face the sobering reality that one day you will die.

There is a saying that goes like this, “The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result.” So, if you watch your parent, friend or spouse try to wash their cat, and the cat lets out horrific noises and claws the persons arms, then you would be foolish to think you can wash the same cat without any injuries. If you watch a bunch of people bite into a hot chili and they scream, turn red, sweat heavily, drink half a gallon of milk and dip their head in ice water, then you would be foolish to think you could eat the same chili without pain and discomfort. If you do not use kind words with your spouse and do not listen to them causing them to get angry with you, and you continue to treat them poorly, then you would be foolish to expect them to be nice to you. If your monthly budget is something you easily overspend month after month, and you never adjust your standard of living or spending habits, then you would be foolish to think you will stay out of debt or bankruptcy or have a savings or retirement account.

If you were visiting Jerusalem as an English speaker for the festival of Pentecost about 2,000 years ago and heard someone speaking about Jesus in your language that had not been invented yet, and said that they were just babbling drunks, then you would be foolish. In Acts 2, Luke recorded the account of the coming of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost when tongues of fire appeared over the followers of Jesus’ heads. He recorded what the crowds who had come from all over the world and spoke many different languages were saying about them, 11 … “‘we hear them declaring the wonders of God in our own tongues!’” 12 Amazed and perplexed, they asked one another, “‘What does this mean?’” It was not that they were drunk and babbling as some supposed. Instead, their words were clear and purposeful. Peter got up and explained this miracle as a fulfillment of the prophecy recorded by the prophet Joel of the coming of the Holy Spirit who would guarantee this message, 21 “And everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.” And this truth leads to the most important ‘if I do the same thing over and over, but expect a different result’ which is, “If you think you are safe without calling on the name of the Lord since Christians do not seem any different when it comes to death because they die just like everyone else, then you are missing out on life.”

When a man named Ezekiel served as prophet to the people of Israel, many of them had stopped calling on the name of the Lord to be saved. Ezekiel served as a prophet to Israel during the same time as the prophet Daniel. Both Daniela and Ezekiel were taken as captives from Israel to live in the nation of Babylon almost six hundred years before Christ. While in exile, God prophesied through Ezekiel to encourage the people not to lose hope in God, even though he allowed them to be punished for their rebellion and many sins against him. Many of the Israelites lost hope in God while in Babylon embracing their new businesses, the new culture, new gods and new way of life, and forgetting their homeland and the temple where they worshipped God. In Ezekiel 37, God gave Ezekiel a vision revealing his promise of life to the people of Israel.

By the Spirit, Ezekiel was brought to a valley of dry bones. The bones were not organized or buried. Instead, they looked like the result of a brutal battle from many years ago. As God walked Ezekiel among the bones, 3 “He asked me, ‘Son of man, can these bones live?’ I said, ‘Sovereign Lord, you alone know.’ 4 Then he said to me, ‘Prophesy to these bones and say to them, ‘Dry bones, hear the word of the Lord!’” If you were standing in a field of dry bones, and someone told you to open your Bible and read to them as if they would hear you, then you would call that person foolish. Yet, God told Ezekiel to prophesy to the dry bones that they would have life.

Ezekiel listened, speaking the Word of God to the dry bones. And, as the prophet spoke, the bones began to rattle. The entire valley was filled with rattling bones that moved together to form human skeletons. Then, tendons connected the bones, flesh appeared over the bones and skin covered them. And, a vast valley of bodies lay before the prophet, but they still had no breath in them, and they were not alive. God then told Ezekiel to prophesy to the breath, and the breath entered the bodies bringing them to life, a vast congregation of people. Once they were all brought back to life, God said, 11 … “Son of man, these bones are the people of Israel. They say, ‘Our bones are dried up and our hope is gone; we are cut off.’” God’s own people who he created from the old and childless couple, Abraham and Sarah, delivered from Egypt and established in the land of milk and honey, lost hope in God because they were living in exile and were convinced their future was to die in a foreign land without their God. Yet, God’s message was, 14 “I will put my Spirit in you and you will live, and I will settle you in your own land. Then you will know that I the Lord have spoken, and I have done it, declares the Lord.” God’s people were not as good as dead. Instead, they had the promise of life.

You are surrounded with people promising you the answer to death. Science offers a few solutions like freezing your body, the promise to someday upload your mind to a computer or stop worrying about death because death will stop you from thinking at all, which means you will not have anything to worry about. Philosophy offers a few solutions like does everything around us really exist or is it just in our own minds, as if lost in the Matrix or the film Inception. The entertainment world would have you ignore death by getting lost binging and streaming in all kinds of fantasy worlds. And there are many other paths that would offer you answers related to a superior work ethic, intellect, or some hidden knowledge to unlock the answers to life, defying death and gaining eternal life. The true test of all these promises is whether they do indeed save one from death. The one who passed this test is Jesus, to which many voices in the world say, “Foolishness.” And your response to this accusation is found in 1 Corinthians 12, 3 … “no one can say, ‘Jesus is Lord,’ except by the Holy Spirit.”

The Spirit breathes life into the dead. We talk about death because it is our universal problem. Death is the great equalizer breaking down every wall, ceiling, border and barrier. When two people who could not be more different both stand in the presence of a dead human being both are confronted with fear, reality, humility and the desire to be saved from death. Jesus said in John 14, 26 “But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you.” The Holy Spirit is here teaching and reminding you. He is the one who allows you to believe the Word of the Lord, the Bible, the teachings of Jesus as we hear in 1 Corinthians 2, 12 “What we have received is not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, so that we may understand what God has freely given us.” There is no doubt that you are going to die, but the reason is you are going to die is often forgotten. The Holy Spirit gave Paul these words from Romans 5, 12 “Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, and in this way death came to all people, because all sinned.” To be saved from death, you also need to be saved from sin. The Holy Spirit connects you to the one who took away your sin and died in your place, Jesus. The Holy Spirit also connects you to Jesus so that his righteousness and his life are yours. Jesus forgave your sins through his sacrifice of a perfect life on the cross and he gives you his righteousness, his sinless good and holy record, by faith, and by his resurrection from the dead and ascension into heaven, we are confident he will return to bring you back to life and take you to be with him to live forever in heaven. This is the free gift of God.

I pass Rest Haven Funeral Home and Memorial Park every time I drive to and from church. When you pass by a graveyard it is reminder of the reason the Holy Spirit came at Pentecost. Like those dry bones, you and I need the Word of God spoken to us, so that the breath of life enters us again bringing us back to life. God’s message to his people through Ezekiel was, 14 “I will put my Spirit in you and you will live.” His promise of life remains true for you because the Spirit gives life to the dead through the Word of the Lord. Amen.