Come, Holy Spirit, fill the hearts of Thy faithful and enkindle in them the fire of Thy love.
Send forth Thy Spirit and the faithful shall be created.
And Thou shalt renew the face of the earth.
We were sitting around the upper room that early morning, praying and reading scripture for guidance. We really couldn’t do much else – Jesus had told us to stay in the city until we received power from God.
We had replaced Judas with Matthias, so we now were back up to the full Twelve witnesses. Another larger group of men and women brought us up to a grand total of about 120 people who believed that Jesus was the Son of God, the Messiah, the Savior. We were sitting around, reading scripture and praying, smelling the sweet smells of breakfast cooking, listening to the sounds of the city, when it happened.
Suddenly, the house was filled with a sound like a violent wind – but there was no wind. Instead, we saw tongues of fire that separated and settled on each of us. And we received the Holy Spirit and began to speak the praises of God to each other.
We spoke in different languages, languages we did not know, languages new to each of us – but there were people in the house and near the house who understood what we were saying! I grew up in Galilee, but I shouted “Mirabilis Deus” to a Roman standing outside the window. He looked to the sky and smiled. I turned to the Greek man next to the Romans and shouted “O Theós eínai ypérochos”, and the man waved back with a smile. And a crowd formed as more and more people heard us.
Then a woman who lived down the street asked “what is happening?”. A guy who ran a market stall across from her shouted back, “They’ve had too much wine!” and a group of men laughed with him.
But then Peter stood up on the edge of room, overlooking the street below, and the other Eleven of us stood up in a line behind him. Peter, that boat captain, shouted out in that huge bellow that only a ship captain caught in a gale can shout,
“Fellow Jews and all of you who live in Jerusalem, let me explain this to you; listen carefully to what I say. These people are not drunk, as you suppose. It’s only nine in the morning! No, this is what was spoken by the prophet Joel:
“‘In the last days, God says,
I will pour out my Spirit on all people.
Your sons and daughters will prophesy,
your young men will see visions,
your old men will dream dreams.
Even on my servants, both men and women,
I will pour out my Spirit in those days,
and they will prophesy.
I will show wonders in the heavens above
and signs on the earth below,
blood and fire and billows of smoke.
The sun will be turned to darkness
and the moon to blood
before the coming of the great and glorious day of the Lord.
And everyone who calls
on the name of the Lord will be saved.’
And the crowd shut up and listened to Peter. For a half an hour Peter preached to them. He told them of Jesus, how he did miracles, as they knew. He told them that God handed Jesus over to them to be killed on the cross and then God raised Jesus from the dead. He spoke of David’s prophecies, and he told the crowd that God has raised this Jesus to life and we are all witnesses of it – and the Eleven of us shouted our support of Peter’s testimony, Twelve men standing before the people of Jerusalem testifiying that Jesus had done miracles and signs through God’s power, that Jesus had been killed, and that Jesus had been raised by God to be our Lord and Messiah. And the crowd gasped, cut to their hearts, aware of their guilt, the mistake they had made in demanding Jesus’ death, and they asked us, “Brothers,
What shall we do?”
And Peter replied, “Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. The promise is for you and your children and for all who are far off—for all whom the Lord our God will call.”
Peter continued to speak and warned them and pleaded with them to “Save themselves from this corrupt generation. And we baptized, we baptized for hours and hours, about three thousand people that day, I lost count of my own baptisms around 250, and I probably continued for another half hour after that.
I walked over to Matthias. He was just sitting there, weeping and crying and repeating, “To think I was part of this! To think I was part of this!” And we leaned on each other, we were so exhausted. Having the Spirit’s power flow through us like it did that day, I think I have an idea what it’s like for a tree to get struck by lightning.
It was a good day! It was such a good day! I slept until noon the next day!
….
Pentecost. The day the church suddenly grew from around 120 followers of Jesus to over 3000 people. And it never looked back, growing everyday from then to the billions who follow Jesus today. We are here because of the events of that day.
But this had long been predicted. A day when the Holy Spirit would enter people who were spiritually dead had been predicted 650 years earlier, around 622 BC, Ezekiel, the son of Buzi, a Levitical priest of Israel, encountered God. Ezekiel’s name means, “God Strengthens”. He lived at the same time as Jeremiah and Daniel, about 20 years older than Daniel. He had been exiled from Jerusalem for five years and met God’s messengers in Babylon. God spoke to Ezekiel many times over the next few years, and today, we go to Ezekiel’s prophecy in chapter 37 of his book.
"The hand of the Lord was on me, and he brought me out by the Spirit of the Lord and set me in the middle of a valley; it was full of bones. He led me back and forth among them, and I saw a great many bones on the floor of the valley, bones that were very dry. He asked me, “Son of man, can these bones live?” I said, “Sovereign Lord, you alone know.”
Notice Ezekiel’s response. An ordinary man would have said, “There’s no way these bones can live.” Another man might have just laughed. But Ezekiel knew the power of God and so he said to God, “Sovereign LORD, you alone know.” God alone controls the life and death of people, the life and death of countries, the life and death of churches. God has the power – and is Sovereign. No one makes God do anything – or stops God from doing anything. So God spoke again to Ezekiel:
"Then he said to me, “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.’”
"So I prophesied as I was commanded. And as I was prophesying, there was a noise, a rattling sound, and the bones came together, bone to bone. I looked, and tendons and flesh appeared on them and skin covered them, but there was no breath in them."
Can you imagine? Simply speaking what God had asked Ezekiel to speak, the bones assembled themselves and the tendons and the flesh and the skin came back onto the bones, and there were now lying a valley filled with unliving bodies. Ezekiel tells us more about what God said and did:
"Then he said to me, “Prophesy to the breath; prophesy, son of man, and say to it, ‘This is what the Sovereign Lord says: Come, breath, from the four winds and breathe into these slain, that they may live.’” So I prophesied as he commanded me, and breath entered them; they came to life and stood up on their feet—a vast army."
Back from the dead, the people of Israel stood on their feet again. They had been destroyed by the Babylonians, but in this vision they lived again because God wanted them to live. And now God explained the vision to Ezekiel, to the people of Israel, and to us.
"Then he said to me: “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.’ Therefore prophesy and say to them: ‘This is what the Sovereign Lord says: My people, I am going to open your graves and bring you up from them; I will bring you back to the land of Israel. Then you, my people, will know that I am the Lord, when I open your graves and bring you up from them. 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 has the power to resurrect people – Jesus and Lazarus and Dorcas are the proof. God has the power to resurrect a country – Israel is the proof, resurrected in 1948 after centuries of occupation. And God has the power to resurrect a church – and this church is the proof – look at how many people are now here compared to during the darkness of the pandemic. You see, we are not dead until God says we are dead. Praise God!
For now, for our church, the only question is, “how quickly will we grow”? For that depends upon how many people are willing to speak to the dead bones around us and remind them that God wants them to live. How many people will you speak to yourself – some of you are very good at speaking to people, I’ve noticed!
You are now standing in the middle of a valley filled with dry bones, people who have spiritually died because they lost a job, people who have spiritually died because they lost a relationship, people who have spiritually died because they made a bad choice. All of these people are lying there, just waiting for someone to speak the word of God to them, to remind them that God is here, ready to bring them back to life, to give them purpose, to give them hope, to remind them that they are truly worth something. People of God, go prophesy to the dry bones around you and say, “God wants you to live and you shall live!”
For you were redeemed from the valley of dry bones yourself by God working through another person, a person following the Holy Spirit of God!
But you might be a collection of dry bones yourself. How do you know that your spiritual bones are dry? Let me ask some questions and you can answer.
Are most days a struggle? Are there so many things going wrong in your life that it is hard to think of what is going right? You may have dry spiritual bones.
Do you feel like Bill Murray in Groundhog Day, every day the same, stuck in a routine where you want more, but you can’t break free from the pattern? Do you want something more, but you can’t find it? You may have dry spiritual bones.
Do you feel like a burden to those people around you? Or do you feel like you are carrying the load of five people? Would you like to drop your load? Would you like to be able to walk, standing tall once again? You may have dry spiritual bones.
Have hope! Even now, God is preparing someone to speak with you, God is giving someone words to put flesh and tendons and meat back onto your spiritual bones. Even now God is preparing someone who will speak God’s words to you. Even now, hope is on the way. But you may need to walk a short distance to meet that person. You may need to walk or drive to a church to hear from that person – or they may be ready to speak to you in just a few minutes. Be ready to listen, for God is calling all people back to life in the Spirit.
You see, God sent His Son, Jesus Christ, to earth. This man, both man and God on earth, walked around the Holy Land for three years, teaching and training His group of followers. He repeatedly said or did something to support His claim to be God on earth, God’s Son. He said “I and the Father are one.” He healed people and brought people back to life. And then He was arrested and executed for claiming to be close to God. Yet He choose to go to His death, so He could die instead of us for all the things we’ve done wrong, all the sins we’ve committed, all the evil deeds we’ve done and the evil things we’ve said. And then, He came back alive and was seen alive again by over 500 people, witnesses that often chose to die themselves rather than deny the truth of what they’d seen. And Jesus taught that those who follow Him will also be brought back to live with Him one day. Our dry bones will come back from the grave and we will live again! But first, we must spiritually live by choosing to follow Jesus Christ.
It is possible that even now, you are a collection of dry bones that is being brought back to life by the words of God. You might be listening on the radio. If so, rejoice and come to Cedar Grove United Methodist to meet us. We can help you to spiritually come alive! You can find us at the church on the hill just past the WVU-Parkersburg parking lot. Our live services and Facebook Live services are at 10:30 am every Sunday morning.
We don’t have magic answers here. No, we just love strangers. We are simply able to accept you and lead you to Christ, the Holy Spirit, and the words of God that bring spiritual life to dry bones. No magic. Just the wisdom that comes from God, the wisest Being in the entire Universe. Just the love that comes from Jesus Christ, the man who chose to die so we would not have to die. Just the power that flows through the Holy Spirit, the Spirit that brought the dry bones back to life.
If you are fully vaccinated, you do not need to wear a mask because the vaccines are remarkably effective at stopping COVID. If you haven’t been vaccinated, we suggest that you wear a mask, because we do have children here who have also not been vaccinated, and, as we all know by now, children can have the COVID infection and not show symptoms. We want you to be safe. We want you to become alive again!
So be sensitive. Look around at the dry bones in this valley. Speak to the dry bones and tell them of God's power, Jesus' love, and the wonder of the Holy Spirit. And watch those bones come to life!
Let us sing,
Closing Song: Spirit of God, Descend Upon my Heart 500
Benediction: May words of God and the love of Jesus Christ and the guidance of the Holy Spirit give you the boldness to bring dry bones back to life this week. Do what the Spirit asks and be blessed!
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