St. Luke Ev. Lutheran Church of Watertown

Sermon delivered by Pastor Anthony E. Schultz

The Feast of Pentecost June 1 and 4, 2006 Ezekiel 37:11-14

Then he said to me, “Son of man, these bones are the whole house of Israel. They say, ‘Our bones are dried up and our hope is gone; we are cut off.’ Therefore prophesy and say to 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.’”

People of God—rescued from the flaming lake of fire in hell by the innocent blood of the very Lamb of God:

It happened in a place called Garden Grove, California. When the police got to the house—there was no sign of forced entry—so—they say the family probably knew their attackers. Somebody came into the home—and took the life of the daddy and the mommy—and a little 6 year old boy. They also did terrible harm to a little baby girl—just 1 year old. They left them all for dead. How horrible is the unspeakable evil that people are capable of? Is there no end to the hurtful evil that people can do to one another? The fact is—the little baby girl was not dead. She was alone and helpless for days. When a police officer picked her up—she clung to him and he hugged her! As helpless as that little baby girl was—we were even more helpless—dead—spiritually dead in trespasses and sin. Only Jesus could save us. Only the Holy Spirit could make us alive again—working saving faith in our hearts through the power of the Gospel.

Faith Is A Matter of Life and Death

I. We were dead in sin

II. Only the Holy Spirit makes us alive

This Pentecost Day—the part of God’s Word we are concentrating on—is from the scroll of the Prophet Ezekiel. To understand Ezekiel—it’s important to remember some history. It seems we are not very big on history—things that happened in the past. Most people don’t remember very much about Viet Nam. Most people don’t remember very much about Korea—except maybe they like to watch M*A*S*H late at night. Most people don’t remember very much about WWII—except maybe they watched Band of Brothers. Most people don’t remember very much about the Great War—the War to End All Wars. The Civil War—the American Revolution? Who remembers? What’s the point? Is this going to be on the test? When are we ever going to use this? The fact is—as wise King Solomon wrote—There is nothing new under the sun. There is trouble in Iraq? Are we surprised? If you are—you should read what happened say in Berlin in Germany after WWII ended. Even after the war was over—American soldiers continued to die in Germany. Newspapers complained that we didn’t have enough soldiers over there—that we were not winning the hearts and minds of the German people. That we were in a quagmire—that we had no exit strategy. That rebuilding was taking too long and was costing too much. That the whole war had been a colossal mistake! It is important to learn and understand history. To see the powerful hand of our Heavenly Father in the past! Part of being wise as serpents and harmless as doves means knowing world history. Even unbelievers who are wise as serpents know about the fall of the Northern Kingdom of Israel—ten tribes of Israel carried off into captivity by the cruel and bloody Assyrians—from where? Up by Nineveh? Even unbelievers know about the battle of Carchemish—where the Babylonians crushed the army of Pharaoh Necho. Thus Babylon became the only super power in the world. Perhaps a lesson for us in that—the super powers the Egyptians, the Assyrians, the Babylonians, the Medes and Persians, the Greeks, the Romans, the Holy Roman Empire, the sun never sets on the British Empire—and now the United States! In the year 597 before baby Jesus was born—Nebuchadnezzar came with the mighty army of Babylon—and brought back home to Babylon—the brightest and the best of Jerusalem. This included a 25 year old priest named Ezekiel. How frustrating that must have been for Ezekiel. Born and trained to be a priest—offering sacrifices on the altar at Solomon’s Temple in Jerusalem—and now 1,000 miles away—he couldn’t! He couldn’t do what he had trained and prepared all his life to do. He could not offer the whole burn offerings, the fellowship offerings, the sin and guilt offerings that the law demanded. He could not pour out the sweetest wine, the finest oil, the finest grain and flour, the sweetest incense. He couldn’t!

Ezekiel could preach and teach law and gospel and he did. He preached a crushing law. And when the Holy Spirit convicted people of their sins—they were on the brink of complete and utter despair. They say, ‘Our bones are dried up and our hope is gone; we are cut off.’ How painful is that? To be in such despair—it feels like you have some kind of bone cancer? I heard on the news the other day—that a police officer—accused of a terrible crime had despaired. They say that’s understandable—when you are supposed to uphold the law. When you are entrusted to enforce the law—and then you yourself do something so terrible—the guilt and shame is overwhelming. If you read about this on the Internet—there is a little ribbon that goes across the bottom of the screen that says every 22 hours—a police officer in the United States utterly and hopelessly despairs. That’s more than one—every single day—day in and day out. When I was younger my father was an insurance man—it was reported again and again that dentists as a group were very prone to despair. Dentists? Why would that be? I think in part—because what they do is so difficult! Who ever says with happiness—I am going to the dentist? Who is happy to have them clip on that little paper napkin—put your head way down—and hear those words, “Open wide…” Followed by—do you want a shot of Novicaine? Followed by the sound of the drill! How old do we have to be—to truly understand that life is not about how many things we own—how much stuff we think is ours? Life is about forgiveness—the forgiveness of all our sins—purchased and paid for with Jesus’ innocent blood! We will not despair when we remember how much Jesus loves us and completely forgives us! Jesus’ love is unconditional, powerful and complete!

Then you, my people, will know that I am the LORD, when I open your graves and bring you up from them. We are the people of God—by faith—by baptism—adopted into the family of God. The LORD—the great I AM—the one who changes not—as much as opened our spiritual grave—and made us alive in faith! They say in part the price of gasoline has gone up in our neighborhood—because there was a pipe line accident in Nigeria. If you look into it—it comes to light—that someone hacked into the pipe line—not a line full of crude oil—but gasoline. What happens next is the gasoline comes spraying out. Then people—painfully poor people come running with their 5 gallon plastic pails and do what they technically call “scooping”. They start scooping up the free gasoline—standing in a pool of gas that continues to spread—they scoop up the gas. Then it always happens—someone makes a spark or lights a cigarette or something—and suddenly all that gasoline catches fire—the gas people are standing in becomes a burning lake of fire. People—grown ups and teenagers and small children are suddenly horribly burned. The police don’t come because there are too many to arrest. The paramedics don’t come—because there are too many hurt—and the hurt they count self-inflicted. People hide in their mud huts—embarrassed and ashamed to get medical attention for their 3^rd degree burns because they were burned while stealing. And so they get terrible infections and die. As terrible as these burns must be—they pale to insignificance compared to the forever fires of eternal destruction. How precious the forgiving love of the Great I AM—that he has spiritually opened our graves and brought us up out of them. He has given us eternal life—washed all our sins away—made us heirs of a place in heaven! We have quite literally gone from death to life eternal!

Then you, my people, will know that I am the LORD, when I open your graves and bring you up from them. We are saved by grace alone. WE love him because he first loved us. We were born dead in sin and unbelief. To be sure little newborn babies look so innocent. Their skin pink and pruny—their little fingers with sharp little fingernails—so they put little soft thick socks on your hands so you don’t scratch yourself. Your little tiny nose—and they do that suction thing. With your first breath you start to cry that your once safe warm dark world with the reassuring woosh, woosh, woosh sound of your mom’s heart beat has been replaced with a world that is bright and cold and hard and loud! These little people—wearing little tiny Pampers—with little one-sies—little pink or blue or mint green or yellow stocking hats—making little indescribably baby noises—are in fact infected with sin and guilt. Inherited from your mom and dad who got it from their mom and dad—all the way back to Adam and Eve. Add to our inherited sin—the actual things we do wrong—and the ten thousand good things we fail to do—and we are spiritually dead and doomed—forgiven and saved by grace alone!

Then you will know that I the LORD have spoken, and I have done it, declares the LORD.’” The LORD keeps his promises. What he says comes true. That’s not the way it works in this world. The Weather Channel 30 day forecast is actually wrong more than 50% of the time! That means without any of the satellites and computer models—if you predicted the opposite of what they predicted—you would be right more than they are—right more than half of the time! They are trying to predict the number of hurricanes this year. Last year they were woefully off! Global warming—the whole planet 2 degrees warmer after 100 years? Nobody knows for sure! Who will be the next President of the United States? No one knows! Where will the Stock Market go after the worst month in two years? No one knows! What will happen with the Iranians and their nuclear program—or the North Koreans? People don’t know—but Jesus does! God’s Word always comes true. Surely I am with you always—to the very end of the age. He will give his angels charge over you to keep you in all your ways. Peace I leave with you—my peace I give unto you. Before you call I will answer. While you are yet speaking I will hear. Never will I leave you. Never will I forsake you. All God’s Gospel promises are true!

God’s Word says, I will put my Spirit in you and you will live… Jesus made the same promise when he said, “I have come that they may have life and have it more abundantly!” Remember the family I told you about in Garden Grove, CA? The father of that family was in trouble with the law. He spent time in prison—some 4 years for robbery—for taking by force and threat of bodily violence—the things and stuff that belonged to somebody else. He also spent more than 2 years in prison for the destruction of jail property. Think about that! If I was ever put in prison—I would think—I would do my very best—to follow all the rules—so I could shave off as many days as possible for that “good behavior” thing. That’s not to mention the fact that from what I have seen—most of prison stuff—like walls and bars and beds and washrooms—is all made pretty indestructo—so you can’t break out—or wreck stuff. How angry and frustrated and absolutely out of control would you have to be—to have to spend more than 2 years in prison—for succeeding in destroying part of the prison? It is for criminal fathers and little one year old babies—who look so innocent on the outside—yet are sinners deep inside—that Jesus came to die. Jesus was condemned—bearing the crimes and sins and mistakes of every one of us. Jesus died and rose again—that by grace alone our Heavenly Father will put his Spirit in us and we will life—not just for years but forever. Amen!