Title: Your Resurrection Ability
Scripture: Ezekiel 37:1-14
Speaker: Eric Abbey
I'm wondering this morning, have you ever faced a task that you are hopeless to accomplish on your own? Maybe you can think of one. Have you been asked to do something that was just plain impossible for you to do? That's frustrating, isn't it? That feeling of hopelessness can be extremely discouraging. Maybe you've tried to complete a job without having the right tool.
Let's just get practical for a minute. Do you know what an oil filter wrench is? They're pretty handy. They can be very helpful.
They can be the difference between inability, which can lead to hopelessness, and ability, which provides joy and hope and satisfaction, a tool that can get the job done. Sometimes removing an oil filter is an impossible task. I like to try to change my own oil, but often with an oil filter, you're in a weird position and the filter's slippery.
You can't get your fingers to grip it. It's usually too tight because the previous mechanic has just cranked it on there. Over time, probably more than three months, if you're anything like me, the seal has dried and just glued the filter on there.
It can be a hopeless endeavor. You just want your oil changed. You want to have the job done and you can't get the filter off.
If you have an oil filter wrench, that changes everything. This handy tool can give you the grip and the leverage you need and it can enable you to get the job done. It can take you, this simple tool, can take you from inability to ability.
There's other examples that you can think of. Imagine trying to play a beautiful piece of music with an instrument that's out of tune. That would be frustrating.
Or imagine trying to throw a ball. You're an excellent baseball pitcher, but your arm is dislocated. Or imagine trying to sew when the pattern isn't accurate and so the seams never match and line up.
Now this morning, I'm wondering, what is it about your own life, your attitude and your behavior that's making you feel hopeless? Perhaps that's tempting you to feel hopeless. What needs to change but you feel powerless to do anything about? What's tempting you to be discouraged about yourself? Maybe even a little depressed if you're honest about it. And collectively, how about your health as a church? What gives you, Harvest Bible Church, the confidence that you'll remain unified? I mean, disharmony and conflict are problems throughout the church everywhere.
The devil loves to create division, doesn't he? He loves to create disunity in the church. Maybe you've even been discouraged by some pretty ugly church situations in the past. So what hope do you have that you can remain of one heart and of one mind as a body here now? Well, I think our scripture passage for this morning, Ezekiel 37, addresses these questions.
I think it holds the key for experiencing God-given ability. So if you want the tool that your soul needs to flourish, that your church needs to flourish, if you're eager to move from inability to ability, then turn with me to Ezekiel chapter 37. Let's take a look at God's word there.
I'd encourage you to grab a Bible, read along with me as I read the first 14 verses of Ezekiel chapter 37, starting in verse 1. The hand of the Lord was upon me and he brought me out by the spirit of the Lord and sent me down in the middle of the valley and it was full of bones. He caused me to pass among them round about and behold there were very many on the surface of the valley and lo they were very dry. He said to me, son of man can these bones live? And I answered, oh Lord God you know.
Again he said to me, prophesy over these bones and say to them, oh dry bones hear the word of the Lord. Thus says the Lord God to these bones, behold I will cause breath to enter you that you may come to life. I'll put sinews on you, make flesh grow back on you, cover you with skin and put breath in you that you may come alive and you will know that I am the Lord.
So I prophesied as I was commanded and as I prophesied there was a noise and behold a rattling and the bones came together bone to its bone and I looked and behold sinews were on them and flesh grew and skin 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 oh breath and breathe on these slain that they may come to life. So I prophesied as he commanded me and the breath came into them and they came to life 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 has perished, we're completely cut off. Therefore prophesy and say to them, thus says the Lord behold I will open your graves and cause you to come up out of your graves my people and I will bring you into the land of Israel.
Then you will know that I am the Lord when I've opened your graves and caused you to come up out of your graves my people. I will put my spirit within you and you will come to life and I will place you on your own land. Then you will know that I the Lord have spoken and done it declares the Lord.
Ezekiel is a large prophetic book kind of buried in the old testament. Perhaps it's a bit unknown to you maybe somewhat mysterious therefore a brief overview of the book will be helpful to set this passage in its context. Ezekiel prophesied during Israel's time of exile.
So remember Israel had been delivered from slavery in Egypt and brought into the land of Canaan. God had established them there in the promised land just as he said he would. That faithful generation under Joshua acted in obedience.
They took the land, they renewed the covenant, they recovered circumcision, restored the Passover meal, and they found rest in the land of promise. But it was short-lived wasn't it? Soon Israel was given over to unbelief once again. They had wicked kings and there was civil war and they began to sin against the Lord and they began to worship idols.
They rebelled and committed spiritual adultery forsaking the Lord. So God judged them for their sin and the first 32 chapters of Ezekiel are chapters of judgment. God punished the nation of Israel in his wrath.
And how did he do it? He did it by expelling them from their land. They were exiled from God. They were exiled from his presence which he had established in Jerusalem in the temple.
So God exiled Israel through Babylon. God used Babylon to bring about this judgment. Israel was attacked by King Nebuchadnezzar who besieged Jerusalem and took the Jewish people including Ezekiel back to Babylon.
And Israel's king at the time Jehoiachin was also taken into captivity in Babylon. So in the opening verses of Ezekiel you can read that he's prophesying in the fifth year of Jehoiachin's exile in Babylon. That's the context.
He's prophesying to exiled Israel in Babylon. That's what he's doing. He's declaring a prophetic word of judgment against Israel.
They're exiles from God's hand. He's telling them this is punishment for your sin. But in Ezekiel there's also a message of hope and redemption.
Salvation amidst God's judgment. There are glimmers of hope throughout the first 33 chapters of Ezekiel. Like in chapter 11 where God says, Though I removed them from among the nations and though I scattered them among the countries, that's exile, yet I've been a sanctuary to them.
Therefore say, thus says the Lord God, I will gather you from the peoples and assemble you out of the countries where you have been scattered and I will give you the land of Israel. See that's a hopeful promise of restoration. Even though they're in exile for their sins, God promises that he'll bring them back.
He'll restore them. So there's a glimmer of hope there in chapter 11. There's a glimmer of hope in chapter 17.
In chapter 20. But those small glimmers of hope really explode into massive promises of hope in chapters 34 to the end of the book, chapter 48. In the second half of the book, God promises to restore the nation to return them to their land so that they can rebuild the city of Jerusalem and they can rebuild the temple of God's presence.
These are chapters filled with hope. And this includes our chapter this morning, chapter 37. And in verse 1 of chapter 37, we're introduced to a vision.
Yahweh takes hold of Ezekiel and transports him by his spirit into a valley of bones. This is a low, flat place, a dark place of death, which stands by the way in contrast to the very high mountain of chapter 40 where Ezekiel will be given a vision of the restored temple from which flows the river of life. So that high place is a place of life.
Here we're in a valley, a flat place of death. And this is death on a massive scale. Death on a national scale.
There are lots of bones, an army's worth of bones. And they're on the surface. Did you note that in the text? What does that tell us? What's that mean? Well, it tells us there was no proper burial.
This is tragic destruction. This is hasty enemy destruction. And it surely would have made Ezekiel think of the destruction of Jerusalem, the result of Nebuchadnezzar's attack, Babylon forcefully taking Israel captive.
And this language also substantiates the hopelessness of the nation. I mean, this is as dead as dead can get. Not just bones, but dry bones, very dry bones.
Bones that have been on the surface and exposed to the scorching, bleaching power of the sun. The finality and futility of death is severely on display in this prophetic picture. That's what I want you to see.
The bones aren't even connected to each other. They're just lying scattered. And then in verse 3, God asks Ezekiel, can these bones live? Well, it sure doesn't look like it.
I mean, nothing could be more hopeless. So it would seem presumptuous for Ezekiel to just say, yeah, they could live. And yet God is the one asking the question.
If there's anyone who could give life to dead bones, it's God, the creator who said, let there be light. And there was light. The one who created all things out of nothing.
So Ezekiel says, Lord God, you know, that's a good answer. That's a safe answer. And now that Ezekiel is familiar with the situation in the valley, God, God commands him to speak prophetically.
So verse 4, prophesy over these bones and say to them, oh, dry bones, hear the word of the Lord. How great is this? Don't miss the wonder of this verse. What's Ezekiel told to do? God tells him to talk to dead people, to talk to a collection of dead people.
Those, those bones that are helplessly dead, I want you to speak to them. Ezekiel, tell them what to do. Moreover, in verse 5, God himself speaks to the bones.
He says, behold, I'll cause breath to enter you and you shall live. Or behold, I'll cause a spirit to enter you. It's the same word, this, this word breath that was translated spirit back in verse 1. And God repeats the statement in verse 6. You can see that he's, he's forming the bones into a, a new man is what he's doing, a new Adam.
This is like what God did back in Genesis 2.7. Do you remember Genesis 2.7 when, when God formed Adam? It says, then the Lord God formed the man of the dust from the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life. And the man became a living creature. God forms Adam and then he, he fills him with breath.
He gives him a life-giving spirit. And God promises to do the same with, with dead Israel here. He'll form them into a new man, sinews and flesh and skin, and then he'll, he'll breathe life into them.
He'll give them his spirit and cause them to live. So do you see that, that God's promising a new creation here? He's promising a new creation work through the prophetic word of Ezekiel. When Ezekiel speaks to the dry bones, God will be speaking and he'll be creating new life, making Israel into a new Adam, as it were.
And that's exactly what Ezekiel sees happen in verse 7. He, he speaks to the dead bones. He prophesied just as he was commanded. And then he hears a sound, a rattling, a jostling of bone against bone until skeletons are formed and they're clothed with flesh and clothed with skin.
But they're, they're still lifeless, aren't they? There's not yet any breath in them. There's not yet any spirit in them. So God tells Ezekiel to prophesy again, this time to the breath.
He's to prophesy to the spirit. Again, this word is used 10 times, 10 times in just our 14 verses. The spirit of the Lord, verse 1. My spirit, he says in verse 14.
Breath, repeated in verses 5 and 6 and 8 and 9 and 10. Even the word winds in verse 9 is the same word in the original. So Ezekiel prophesies to the breath.
He speaks to, or you could say prays to, the spirit of Yahweh and says, come breath, come O spirit, breathe on these slain that they may live. And as he does, the, the breath comes into them and they live. They rise.
These dry, scorched bones rise. They stand on their feet, an exceedingly great army. And there you have it.
That's the vision. A valley of very dry, super dead bones, which are made alive through Ezekiel's prophetic word and by the power of God's life-giving spirit. And then in verses 10 through 14, Ezekiel is given an explanation of the vision.
God says very plainly in verse 10, these bones are the whole house of Israel. So what's happening in the vision? What's happening in the vision? Well, the dead bones represent Israel in exile. All of Israel has been exiled by their land and they've been taken into captivity.
They were delivered out of captivity in Egypt. Now they've been brought back into captivity. The nation in its entirety is dead.
Exile from God's presence is viewed as death. Israel's guilty of sin. And they've been, once again, separated from God.
They've been cast out of God's presence, just like it was with Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. You remember, Adam was told in the day that you eat of the tree of knowledge of good and evil, in that day you shall surely die. You shall surely die.
And when they sinned, they died. They ate the forbidden fruit and they were thrown out of the garden. They were exiled.
They eventually died, physically, yes, but death occurred immediately when they were separated from God. And they were cast out of his presence. And so it is with Israel.
Like Adam, Israel has sinned and Israel's been cast out of the land and the nation is dead. That's why Psalm 4411 says, you've made us like sheep for slaughter and have scattered us among the nations. Israel's experienced death on account of their sin.
They're a bunch of exposed dry bones. But God is promising to restore them. He's promising to bring them back into their land as a nation.
He's promising to resurrect them in our passage. He's giving them a prophetic word of hope. The hope that he will recreate them as one new man, a kind of new Adam.
He'll do a new creation work, a new Genesis 2-7 work for his son Israel. Ezekiel's bringing them hope. Chapters 34-48 are chocked full of hope for Israel.
And Israel desperately needs hope. You can see that in the second half of verse 11. This is what Israel has been saying.
Our bones are dried up and our hope is lost. Do you see that? Our hope is lost. We are indeed cut off.
In our exile we're cut off from the life-giving, joy-giving presence of God himself. They're feeling hopeless. God has cut off the nation by exiling them.
So they are indeed all dried up and dead. Babylon's a superpower. It's in complete control.
Jerusalem has been completely destroyed. God's glory has left the temple and now it's been destroyed as well. But God who can give life by his spirit is able to resurrect them.
He has power. He has resurrection ability. Indeed he can make these bones live.
And so God responds to hopeless Israel in verses 12, 13, and 14 with five great I wills. I will open your graves and raise you from your graves. I will bring you into the land of Israel.
I will put my spirit within you. I will place you in your own land. I have spoken and I will do it, declares the Lord.
So what's God going to do? What will this restoration look like? First God will act in the historical context of the Babylonian captivity to release Israel to return to the land. After 70 years he'll move powerfully to bring his hopeless people, his helpless people back to Jerusalem. And this happens through a king named Cyrus.
God stirs up the spirit of Cyrus. He sovereignly moves in his heart to send the Hebrews back to their land. And so Cyrus endorses the return of Israel and even helps supply them to rebuild their temple.
You can read about this in Ezra chapter 1. God moves the heart of a pagan king, Cyrus, to show favor to the people and they miraculously and powerfully return to the land. Likewise God moves upon the heart of another king, Artaxerxes, in the book of Nehemiah. And because of God's favor to him, King Artaxerxes helps fund the Jerusalem rebuilding project.
So God clearly moves to restore and to resurrect the nation of Israel in the context of the Babylonian captivity. He moves kings to send them back. God will powerfully bring his people out of captivity and enable them once again to return to the land of promise.
By his grace they will be restored as a people into their land. It's a new exodus. In the past God brought Israel out of Egypt and into the land of Canaan.
You know that very well. Now, I want you to catch this, now God is saying that there will be an even greater exodus. A new exodus.
He will bring Israel not out of Egypt, but he will bring Israel out of the grave through resurrection and into the land. That's new exodus language. That's a future more wonderful exodus.
And it begins with Israel's return to Jerusalem. So this is God putting sinews and flesh and skin upon the nation. There's a rattling in return.
They rebuild their temple and they rebuild their city, but there's no breath in Israel. Not yet. There's no spirit.
There's no inner renewal. The restoration under Ezra and Nehemiah falls short of God's ultimate promises in Ezekiel's prophecy. There's more to the story.
The new exodus is only getting started. And that's because God's design for Ezekiel 37 is meant to show you events beyond the immediate return of ancient Israel. It's a prophetic word about Jesus Christ.
Ezekiel 37 verses 1 through 14 is a prophetic word about Jesus Christ. God intends for you to see him, his beloved son, in this text. You know Jesus said in Luke 24 and verse 27 that all the prophets speak of things concerning himself, which includes Ezekiel.
Everything written in Ezekiel finds its fulfillment in him, in the Lord Jesus Christ. He's the true Israel. He's the son of God who never fails.
See Israel failed didn't they? They sinned. I mean that's why they're in exile because of their sin and their failure. So there needs to be something more.
There needs to be someone better. There needs to be a messiah who can succeed where Adam and Israel both failed. And the whole Old Testament points to that messiah.
That whole Old Testament is beckoning you to see the true son of God, the last Adam, the Lord Jesus Christ. See Jesus came to this earth on a rescue mission and he did everything that Israel failed to do. Jesus was brought out of Egypt by God, Matthew 2 15, in fulfillment of the Old Testament scriptures.
Jesus was tempted in the wilderness, just like Israel, but he never sinned. Never sinned. Matthew 4, Mark 1, Luke 4. Jesus fulfilled all the words of the law and the prophets.
He says that in the Sermon on the Mount, Matthew 5 17. He upheld the law perfectly. He was flawless.
Can you imagine? Jesus never sinned. He didn't serve idols. He didn't commit spiritual adultery.
He never once dishonored the Father. He upheld the law. Yet, yet, Jesus was exiled.
Like guilty Israel, he was punished with exile. Now you say to me, how was Jesus exiled? Well, when he went to the cross, Jesus became an atoning sacrifice for sin. He was judged and condemned because he stood in the place of sinners.
And as a sin offering, he was forsaken by the Father. You know what Jesus said, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? He was separated from the Father. He was cast out of the Father's presence.
He was exiled from his presence. And God the Father poured out all his wrath against his beloved son, the Lord Jesus Christ. Isaiah says it pleased the Father to crush him.
And then Jesus died. I mean, the wages of sin is death. So Jesus died as a sacrifice.
His body fell limp. A spear was thrust into his side to prove that he was dead. Clearly, Jesus was dead.
The soldiers didn't even break the bones of his legs because they knew him to be so certainly dead. His corpse was bound with linen cloths. He was embalmed with spices.
And then he was placed in Joseph's tomb. He was dead and buried in the grave for three days. And what do you think, Harvest Bible Church, can those bones live? Yes.
Yes, they can. And they did. On the third day, Jesus rose from the dead by the power of God.
His bones surely lived. God put breath in him and he lived once again. He conquered sin and he overcame the grave.
And this was predicted all throughout the prophets. Christ's three-day resurrection was spoken of the prophets in the scriptures. Again, Luke 24.
Jesus himself said, everything written about me in the law of Moses and the prophets and the Psalms must be fulfilled. And then he opened their mind to understand the scriptures and said to them, thus it is written, that the Christ should suffer and on the third day rise from the dead. That's what Jesus said.
All the scriptures said that on the third day he would rise from the dead. Now, where do the prophets speak of Christ's third-day resurrection? Paul puts it this way in 1 Corinthians chapter 15 verses 3 and 4. He says, I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received, that Christ died for your sin in accordance with the scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the scriptures. Now, how can Paul say that Jesus was raised on the third day according to the scriptures? Where in the Old Testament scriptures does it say that Jesus would be raised on the third day? Well, it's said many times in the context of typological prophecy.
In other words, there are stories in the Old Testament that speak of three days and they signify the resurrection, they prophesy of the resurrection. The most famous example that you know of is what? I heard it, Jonah. Yeah, the Lord, Jesus says this, and the Lord appointed a great fish to swallow up Jonah.
I'm sorry, this is from Jonah itself. The Lord appointed a great fish to swallow up Jonah and Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights. Now, Jesus says of that in Matthew 12, for just as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish, so will the son of man, referring to himself, be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth? Do you see what he's doing? That story of Jonah was a typological prophecy of the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.
So when the great fish vomited Jonah up on shore after three days and three nights, it was a type of the resurrection. It was a prophetic picture of Christ's resurrection. The grave couldn't hold him.
It vomited Jesus up into new life. So Jonah is designed to put God on, to put Jesus on display, and so is the nation of Israel in its exile and restoration. Turn to Hosea chapter 6 because I'd like you to see this with your own eyes.
If you're in Ezekiel, you just go Daniel, Hosea, two books to the right, and I'd like you to see chapter 6. This is too good for you to not look at and read with your own eyes. This is exiled Israel speaking in Hosea chapter 6, and I'll read verses 1 and 2, and I'd ask you to follow along with me. Hosea chapter 6. Again, this is exiled Israel speaking.
Come, let us return to the Lord, for he has torn us, but he will heal us. He has wounded us, but he will bandage us. He will revive us after two days.
He will raise us up on the third day that we may live before him. You see that? He will raise us up on the third day that we may live before him. God tore Israel by sending them into exile.
He struck them down through the Babylon captivity. It's a national death, just as Ezekiel 37 depicts, and in verse 2 of Hosea 6, it says, on the third day, he will raise us up. Do you see it? The restoration of Israel from captivity, their return from exile, is a picture of resurrection, and it's designed as a type and a prophecy of Jesus Christ, who was raised on the third day.
This third day language is everywhere in the Old Testament, enough so that Paul could say he was raised on the third day according to the scriptures. And here in Hosea, you see it with the nation of Israel. That's why I want you to see Hosea 6. So the resurrection of Israel in Ezekiel 37 is a picture of Christ's resurrection.
And if you're in Christ, if you've been united to Jesus Christ by faith, then it's a picture, brother and sister, of your resurrection in him. It's a picture of your conversion. It's a picture of your salvation.
Brother and sister, if you know Jesus Christ, you've experienced this. You have. What used to be true of you, brother and sister, you who are in Christ this morning? Before you were a believer in Christ, what was your problem? What was your predicament? You were dead in trespasses and sins.
You were exiled from God. You were alienated, having no hope and without God in the world. Turn to Ephesians chapter 2. Let's look at Ephesians chapter 2 together, New Testament, page 1170, if you need help getting there with one of the Bibles in the chair rack there.
Ephesians chapter 2. These are, these are verses worth getting excited about. I want you to be enthusiastic about your gospel resurrection this morning. Let me read the first 10 verses of Ephesians chapter 2. And you were dead in your trespasses and sins in which you formerly walked, according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now working in the disobedience.
Among them we too all formerly lived in the lusts of our flesh, indulging the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, even as the rest. But God, being rich in mercy because of his great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ. By grace you have been saved, and raised us up with him, and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the ages to come he might show the surpassing riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.
For by grace you have been saved through faith. And that, that not of yourselves, it's the gift of God. It's not a result of works, so that no one may boast.
For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them. See, brothers and sisters, you were, you were dead. You were dead.
You were dead in trespasses and sins. Not just a little dead. Completely dead.
Totally dead. As verse 12 says, we didn't read it, but having no hope and without God. Your soul was exiled from God.
You were like a corpse in the valley, exposed to the heat of the sun. You may have had peak vital signs in your physical body, but your soul was dry. Spiritually speaking, you were nothing but dry bones, dead and hopeless.
You were a child of wrath, under God's condemnation, and destined to spend an eternity in hell. And then verse 4. You experienced verse 4, didn't you, believer? God being rich in mercy because of the great love with which he loved you, even when you were dead in your trespasses, made you alive together with Christ. By grace you have been saved.
God rescued you in power. He resurrected you in power, all by his grace. Because God's able to speak life into that which is dead.
He's able to raise the dead by his mere word. And that makes sense, doesn't it? It's intuitive that it's by grace. I mean, who gets the credit for raising the dead? The one performing the resurrection, right? Israel was hopeless because it couldn't resurrect itself.
They needed God to act in power. Likewise, the dead sinner, he doesn't contribute anything, does he? I mean, what can the dead guy do to raise himself from the dead? He can do nothing. I think Lazarus is the best example of this.
You know the story from John chapter 11, don't you, of Lazarus? I mean, Jesus is told that Lazarus is sick unto death, and he does the strangest thing. He stays where he is. I mean, he knows what's going to happen, but he delays in going and healing Lazarus, and Lazarus dies, and he's buried in the tomb.
In fact, Mary and Martha, if you remember the story, take umbrage with us. They both say, Lord, if you had been here, our brother wouldn't have died. I mean, they get it.
Jesus could have saved Lazarus from death, but no, Lazarus died, and he was dead how many days? Do you remember? Four. Yeah, somebody said it. Four days.
So dead that when Jesus said, roll aside the tomb, Martha objected. Do you remember? Behold, there'll be an odor, or you love the King James. Behold, he stinketh, right? Yeah, I mean, his body was beginning to decompose.
He had been buried in the tomb for so long, and Jesus says, no, no, roll it, roll aside the stone, and what does Jesus do? I love it. What does he do? He speaks to the dead guy. I mean, only the divine Savior could do this, am I right? Jesus Christ speaks a word of command to a dead man, and the dead man obeys him.
Jesus says, Lazarus, come forth, and the dead guy does exactly what he's told to do. In fact, the text is a little nonchalant about it. He says he comes out of the grave, the guys take off his linen clothes, and he goes on his way as alive as ever, and what I want you to see, brothers and sisters, this is exactly what God did for you.
You were dead in your trespasses and sins, and through the preaching of the gospel, God said, Eric, come forth, and in my experience, suddenly there was life and power and resurrection ability to know Jesus and to be freed from my sins. This is what he's done for you, dear Christian. According to the working of his might, he made you alive together with Christ.
This is the immeasurable greatness of God's power towards all who believe. God raised you up with the same power that he used to raise Jesus Christ from the dead. The working of God's great might was at work in Christ when God raised him from the dead, so too his great might, that same power, was at work in you when you were converted and brought to faith in Christ.
You were powerfully united to Jesus Christ, and you were given all the promises of the new covenant. You experienced a new exodus. You were beneficiaries of God's new covenant restoration, just as we read in Ezekiel chapter 37, verse 14, when he said, I will put my spirit within you.
I will put my spirit within you, he said. That's new covenant language, and it's drawn right out of the previous chapter, Ezekiel 36. In fact, go back there.
Look at Ezekiel chapter 36. This is the context in which we find our passage in chapter 37, and when in verse 14, he says, I will put my spirit within you, he's recalling what he has just said in chapter 36, beginning in verse 25. In verse 25, he says, then I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you'll be clean.
I will cleanse you from all your filthiness and from all your idols. Moreover, I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you, and I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. Verse 27, I will put my spirit within you and cause you to walk in my statutes, and you will be careful to observe my ordinances.
Now there's power, that's resurrection power, the power and the ability to obey God's commands that comes with a new heart. That's the new covenant. That's the promise of inward cleansing, the promise of a new heart, the giving of God's spirit.
These are new covenant promises. So God's promise of restoration and return includes all that, and you've experienced it, Christian. You were born again.
You were given new life in the spirit. God cleansed you from within and gave you a new heart and gave you inward power, and is this of your own doing? Of course not. He raised you from the dead, so it's all by his grace.
He recreated you, and now Ephesians 2.10, you're his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works. You're now part of a new creation. That's the power of God's grace, and this is what you've experienced if you're truly a disciple of Jesus Christ.
This is why I'm naming our church plant in September Christ Transformation Church, because when you come to know Christ, your life changes. You're transformed from the inside out. You go from powerless to able.
God takes you from inability, and he gives you gospel ability with resurrection power. Now undoubtedly in a room this large, in a group this big, there are some here who think that they're Christians, but aren't. You'd say you were a Christian, but you've never been made alive together with Christ.
You've never been born again. There's religious activity, an outward expression of Christianity, the appearance of godliness, but you have no power, no ability to live godly from the heart. You haven't personally experienced the power of the gospel, and I want Ezekiel's prophetic picture to capture your attention this morning.
Listen, if you're trying to live the Christian life without having experienced the grace of the gospel, without having been born again, without having experienced resurrection so that you're no longer dead in your sins, then you'll be plagued with discouragement. You'll be plagued with ongoing frustration. There's nothing more frustrating and hopeless than trying to live the Christian life when you haven't been born again.
And so maybe you're trying to follow Jesus without having ever been given a new heart. I don't want to assume that there isn't anyone like that in this room. Maybe you've never been converted, and you're powerless to live in actual obedience to Christ.
How tiring it is to strive after Jesus, to want to follow him, but to be unable to do it. It's tedious. It's discouraging.
It only produces ongoing guilt and frustration and shame, a life characterized and marked by inability. I know because I lived more than 10 years professing to be a Christian, but living enslaved to my sin. I knew biblical truth in my head.
I yearned to follow Jesus, but I had no power. I had no ability. For over a decade in college, I joined a campus ministry.
I served on staff of Campus Crusade for Christ. I even went to seminary. I was studying biblical theology, and I'd never been born again.
I had the appearance of godliness, but I was denying its power. I had no ability to walk in holiness. My life was not characterized by righteousness.
So I ask you, dear friend, have you truly experienced the power of the gospel? Have you been given supernatural ability through the new birth? Ability to obey God from the heart? Not perfectly, of course. Not flawlessly. I'm not talking about perfection, but has that truly been your experience? To characteristically and consistently live in righteousness and obedience to Christ.
Have you been made alive together with Christ? When I experienced the new birth, everything changed. I had new found power over anger and lust. I was set free from sexual immorality and judgmentalism.
I had a new ability to obey Christ, to love my wife. Ask Shannon what it was like when I was born again. Everything changed.
I had new ability to serve my church. There was unprecedented joy and rest because my heart had been set free from the shackles of sin. I'd come face to face with the reality that I deserved hell and that I was personally guilty for having rebelled against God.
My sin was against him. It was offensive to him, and he would be just to cast me eternally and headlong into hell. So I'm convinced if I had died at age 25, I would have gone to hell, even though I was in full-time ministry.
If I had died at age 30, I would have said, Lord, Lord, did I not do mighty works in your name? And he would have declared to me, I never knew you. What a scary verse. Depart from me, you worker of lawlessness.
Depart from me into the eternal fire. Even though I was a seminary student. You don't want to hear those words, do you? Jesus will speak this way to you if you merely say that you're a Christian, but you've never been born again.
And I'm wondering, perhaps, are there some in this room who've learned Bible truth, who are churchgoing and religious, but have never experienced God's gospel power? And I guess I'm convinced in a room this size that's probably true. Maybe you've had an affinity for Jesus. Maybe you find him compelling.
That doesn't make you a Christian. Perhaps you long to follow him. Perhaps you want to live the way he lived.
Does that make you a Christian? It doesn't. I'm fearful today in the American church that there are many who are attracted to Jesus. They esteem Jesus, but they don't know him.
They haven't been made alive together with him through faith. And he doesn't know them. He hasn't saved them from their sins.
And I'm just wondering, are you one of those? Is it possible that you desire to walk with Christ? You even want to be like him, but you've never personally and intimately encountered him. And perhaps that's why you're plagued by perpetual discouragement and hopelessness. I'm not talking about small temptations, but there are some churchgoers that are just enslaved to hopelessness and discouragement.
And maybe it's because God hasn't given you yet the divine ability that comes with a new heart. And I'm begging you, if that's you this morning, if you're even concerned that that's you, seek the Lord. Seek to put your faith in the Lord.
If you're frustrated by a form of Christianity that's powerless, if you're guilty and discouraged because you're unable to break free from sin's power, then seek the Lord with all your heart to be made alive together with Christ. And some of you here might just know you're not a Christian. If you know you're not a Christian, let me encourage you to call out to Jesus for rescue.
Likewise, ask him to rescue you from your sin and from your judgment. Ask him to save you and to make you alive, to give you the ability to overcome sin and to walk in holiness and harmony. And talk to someone after the service.
Share with your spouse or with the friend that brought you. Or come to me with questions. Find one of the elders who can give you pastoral counsel.
But don't ignore this moment. Don't move hastily past this moment. Resolve that you'll do whatever it takes to lay hold of Jesus Christ for eternal life.
Seek him until you have full assurance that he's your Savior and that he's delivered you from your sin. When you're joined to Christ by faith, he's indeed your personal Savior. And then you truly have power.
And so Harvest Bible Church, brothers and sisters, you have the power of Christ now living in you by his Spirit. And I want that to be a reminder this morning. God has given you power.
You have resurrection power. You've been made alive together with Christ and raised up with him. And so now you have the ability to overcome sin and to walk with him.
You have the ability to repent. You have the ability to live in harmony with one another. So what's tempting you to be hopeless these days? Where do you need to see God act in power? Maybe you're experiencing pain and suffering.
It doesn't seem like there's an end in sight, no apparent solution to the problem. Maybe there's a burden that you're bearing that feels extremely heavy, maybe a burden that is even oppressive. It's weighing on you and you you see no way of escape.
You've tried everything and nothing seems to have worked and it seems hopeless. Perhaps you have a besetting sin that's dogging you. The temptation seems overwhelming and the sin has unsettled your soul.
Now you have no promises that your circumstances are going to change. God can powerfully intervene, no doubt about that. He's able to remove pain and suffering.
He's able to heal broken relationships. He's able to provide you whatever you need, but often God chooses not to. I think most commonly what he does is he asks you to walk the path of your savior who suffered and who was weak and had no place to lay his head and had enemies, who was tempted in every way as we are, without sin, but underwent temptation.
But here's the kind of promises you do have. God's word guarantees you that you can live like Christ. You really can.
He always empowers you to live like Christ lived. You have the very spirit of Jesus Christ dwelling in you, brothers and sisters. The Holy Spirit is empowering you to be holy.
The spirit of Christ is empowering you to live like Christ. Well, how do you lay hold of that? What does that look like? First, it's a mindset. It's an attitude.
An attitude of faith in Jesus Christ. So I think spiritually speaking, you get on the balls of your feet. You make sure your soul has a slight bend in the knees.
I was a linebacker in high school. And to play that position, you have to be aggressive and confident. You can't be timid.
You can't be hesitant. My coach would always yell at me to run hard and to break down for the impact. Abby, shoot the gap and break down.
I heard him say that all the time because if I was going to make the tackle, I had to run at the ball carrier with determination. And I had to be confident and in a confident tackling stance at the point of contact. I just couldn't stand up straight on my heels with no momentum.
That wouldn't go well. I'd get pancaked. No, you break down on the balls of your feet, knees bent, head up, arms out, ready to uncoil and take down the ball carrier.
And Christian, I'm asking you this morning, can you approach repentance this way? What would it look like if you attacked sin in your life like this and attacked temptation like this? What if you addressed your bad attitude this way? Your spouse would love that, by the way. But if you identify a bad attitude and you see that you can repent confidently and aggressively because God's power is pulsing throughout, that will change everything. Can you imagine what it would be like to manage anger and discouragement and your temptation to get sideways with God, perhaps, in this way? No longer a victim or a passive bystander, but actively as a man of faith, as a woman of faith who's decided to be aggressive and confident towards sin according to God's power.
I'm a small guy. I wasn't any bigger in high school. And I always imagined what it would be like to be 6'5 and 240.
Then I really could have been a linebacker. And I want you to see this morning, dear church, that in Christ you are everything that you need to be. You are 6'5 and 240.
You have all the resources necessary to live the Christian life well. God has given them to you personally. He's custom-made them for you and refit you with a new heart accordingly.
God's taken you from hopeless to able. And you're now able to obey what God commands. So you can endure difficulty with joy.
You can resist temptation with strength and with poise and with self-control. He's given you a spirit of self-control. You can go without and still be content.
You can face a seemingly hopeless situation with faith-filled optimism and with confidence, not because God promises to immediately make everything easy and pain-free, but because he's placed resurrection power within you. And he's enabling you to navigate every circumstance in your life with godliness and with grace, with your eyes fixed on Jesus Christ and his promise of salvation and his gift of eternal life. That's what gives you hope.
That's what gives you hope. Hope is an individual and hope is the church. And so, dear family gathered at Harvest Bible Church, I close with this.
In Christ, collectively, brothers and sisters, you are a powerhouse. You're a powerhouse. If our passage is true, if Ezekiel's prophecy is a sure word from God, then you've been made able to walk together with resurrection power in holiness and in harmony with one another.
Do you think this word is true? It's true and it's true for you in Christ. And so, my encouragement this morning is to believe it with all your heart and to apply it with vigor. You're not powerless.
You're not powerless. You've not been tasked to do something that you're unable to do. No, you're able.
God has graciously given you resurrection ability and so you can be confident. Are you convinced that you have been equipped with everything you need? Together, you can strive for holiness and God will enable you to walk in it. You can strive for unity and harmony and God will enable you to walk as one by faith.
This is your hope, dear church. This is your hope. Let me pray.
Father, thank you for your word. Thank you for the power that's available to us through the death and resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. Thank you that your word is all about him.
We love to see him. We're transformed as we behold him. And so, we long to see Jesus with the eyes of our hearts.
And I pray for Harvest Bible Church that you would give it grace and strengthen it with an increasingly strong vision of Jesus Christ. Help this church to be of one mind and one heart, powerfully giving witness to the gospel of Christ here in Gilmanton and beyond, and enable those who are here to lay hold of Jesus Christ and to walk in holiness and in harmony with one another. We give these things to you, praying that you'd help us by your grace.
In Jesus' name, we pray. Amen.