Can dead, hopeless things live again? In Ezekiel 37, God sets the prophet down in a valley full of dry bones and asks, "Can these bones live?" Dr. Toby Holt unpacks one of the Bible's most vivid pictures of hope.

The bones picture God's people in exile, who said, "Our bones are dry, our hope is lost." As Ezekiel preaches God's word over them, the bones come together, take on flesh, and the breath of God brings them to life as a great army. God brings spiritual life through the preaching of His truth. The chapter ends with a promise to reunite His divided people under one King, "David My servant," pointing to Christ.

Questions this study answers:

1. What did the dry bones symbolize? God's people in exile, who felt dead and without hope. The vision answered their despair with a promise of new life.

2. How did the bones come to life? Only after Ezekiel prophesied God's word over them. It shows the life-giving power of God working through His proclaimed Word.

3. Why was this vision so encouraging? Because it promised that God could revive what seemed beyond hope — and would gather and restore His people under one King. "Thus says the Lord GOD to these bones: 'Surely I will cause breath to enter into you, and you shall live.'" — Ezekiel 37:5 (NKJV)

Dr. Toby Holt is President of New Geneva Theological Seminary, and his sermons have been downloaded more than 1.9 million times on SermonAudio. Find more verse-by-verse Bible teaching at newgeneva.org; support this ministry at newgeneva.org/give.

You know, one of the most helpful and instructive places for you and I to ever visit is a place

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that none of us wants to go. Can you guess what I'm talking about? Graveyard. No one likes to go

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to a graveyard. By nature of my job, I go to a lot of hospitals and I go to a lot of graveyards.

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Spoiler alert, I don't love it. These are difficult places for me as they are for you.

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And yet they're instructive. Standing in the midst of the cemetery, you know what I come

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into great contact with theologically, philosophically, ontologically, I come into

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contact with my own mortality in ways that I otherwise might not. You see, it's in a graveyard

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that we come face to face with our mortality, and you can't help it. You can't help it. You can't

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help but be reminded when you look at row after row after row of tombstones, you can't help but

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be reminded that you have an expiration date. You can't help but be reminded what scripture tells

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us repeatedly that life is like a fleeting mist or vapor. You can't help but be reminded that it's

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appointed for man once to die and then the judgment. In a graveyard, in a cemetery, our

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mortality is highlighted to us against the backdrop of a valley of dry bones, so to speak.

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Now, as I consider this at the outset of my sermon prep, I thought that's not the most

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encouraging way to start a sermon. There's nothing encouraging about the prospect of death.

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There's nothing encouraging about the idea that our own bones might be dumped in a field someday

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or thrown down a hole. At face value, our mortality should scare us. It's intended to.

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At face value, your mortality and the fact that you have surgeries and needs and gray hair and

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bald spots, all that stuff that you don't like, all that stuff that frightens and scares you about

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the future, it's supposed to. It's supposed to give you a sense that you were made and you were

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called for someplace else. With that said, the next time that you happen to be in a graveyard,

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whatever circumstances there may be, I want you to ask yourself a question. It's the same question

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we see in today's text. The question is this, son of man, son of man, can these bones live?

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Son of man, can these bones, can that which is buried, can that which is six feet deep,

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ever walk once again, ever have a future beyond the grave? That's the question that God asked the

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prophet Ezekiel. He takes them into this dark and somber and dank valley in Ezekiel 37. And the first

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question he has for the prophet is, son of man, you see this? You see these bones? Tell me, can

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these bones live? Now what was his point? What was the nature of these bones? Why was God asking if

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they could live again? Let's return now. Let's look at verses one through three of our text and

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we'll work our way through and see what this text is all about. Okay, verse 1. So the hand of the

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Lord came upon me and brought me out in the spirit of the Lord and set me down in the midst of the

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valley, and it was full of bones. Then he caused me to pass by them all around, and behold, there

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were very many in this open valley, and indeed they were very dry. And he said to me, Son of man,

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Can these bones live? And I answered, O Lord God, you know. You know the answer. All right.

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Before we can explain what these verses are all about, we need to go back and we need to remember

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what we're doing here in Ezekiel 37. There's been 36 chapters leading up to this point. So what

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happened to lead up to this particular juncture? Let's try to briefly summarize these things.

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As you might remember, the book started out with a vision. You had this young priest

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who had been exiled from Jerusalem into Babylon.

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He had been taken away from his people.

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He's in a place called Tel Aviv near the River Chebar.

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He has a vision, a chariot of fire comes on the clouds in flames.

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God is on top of a throne, on top of this chair that's held up by the angels and the wheels

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and all the things we talked about in the first couple of weeks.

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And immediately thereafter, God gives Ezekiel, gives this young priest a commission

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to serve the people, not as a priest, because there would be no more temple, but instead as a

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prophet, as a watchman, to tell the people what had happened, what they had done so wrong, and why

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judgment was to befall them. So across the past number of weeks, we've seen God share and speak

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to Ezekiel, both before the temple was destroyed and after, and tell the people why. Remember,

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the people, they had been wicked to the extreme. They had gone into the temple of God, into the

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courtyard. They'd set up various idols. They had inscribed creeping things, abominations was the

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word that we saw earlier in the book, within the courtyard walls. They had done all manner of

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things to demonstrate to the God of heaven they were done with him. They preferred Tammuz. They

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preferred worshiping the sun, just about anything that they could bow down before they were willing

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to do. Meanwhile, they kept God at arm's length. Well, God had noticed, and God had been patient

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for a very long time with his people, and he had sent them prophet after prophet to tell them,

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hey guys, this is not the way to be. Hey guys, maybe you should stop this, because although I'm

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a merciful God, I'm also a God of justice, and judgment is coming. Well, at a certain point,

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the saddest two words in the human language came to fruition, too late. At a certain point,

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judgment was no longer a theoretical possibility. At a certain point, judgment was coming. God tells

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Ezekiel and tells the people through Ezekiel that his hammer of justice is coming down.

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And because he hates sin, because he hates wickedness, and because he hates idolatry as

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much as he did, God says, you know what? I'm going to do something that you would never expect I would

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ever do in a million years. I'm going to destroy my own temple. You see, the people thought for a

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while, nah, not going to happen. We can do just about anything. Why? Because we're the chosen

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people, right? God would never destroy us. He would never level and flatten Jerusalem. He would

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never take out his own temple. Not going to happen. We can keep on doing what we're doing

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and everything's going to be fine. And God says, not so much. In Ezekiel chapter 10, you remember

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just this terrifying vision that Ezekiel has, more terrifying than the idols, more terrifying

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than the creeping things, more terrifying than the abominations. He has a vision of God, the glory

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of God in the temple, leaving, departing from the threshold, going off towards the Mount of Olives

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and up. And the reason I was almost terrified is because in that moment, God was taking away

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His manifest glory, his presence, and his protection.

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And Ezekiel saw it, and it was shortly thereafter

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that the Babylonians came calling.

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They'd already exiled some of the people,

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but now they came for the rest

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and to level the city to the ground.

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Now, after that, you've got some people,

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some Jews, some Israelites,

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but they're no longer in Jerusalem.

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They've all been taken away.

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They've been taken into exile.

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most of them into Babylon at this point they have a different assumption their first assumption was

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that God will never judge us he'll never do what he would do he would never destroy the temple

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not going to happen well after he did that they came to a different assumption it was just as

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wrong-headed now with Jerusalem gone the temple gone and them being exiled out of Babylon now

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they came to the conclusion that it's over there's no hope now no future the smoldering ash pile that

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was Jerusalem, with its smoke rising up in the air, was testament to them that it's over. It is

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officially too late. This is the end. That was their thought process. Well, God knew what they

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were saying. You see, they made the claim. They made the claim that our bones are dry, our hope

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is lost, and we're cut off. Now, do you hear that statement? That's their words. They were crying

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out as they looked at the smoke rising to the west. They were crying out, our bones are dry,

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our hope is lost, and we are cut off. That's an exact quote from them later on in today's chapter.

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They're expressing their hopelessness and saying that we're done. God knew that's what they were

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saying. God knew they were talking about the dryness of their bones as a sign of their despair.

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And so guess what? God takes Ezekiel to a graveyard, to a place where there are dry bones.

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And it was there, amongst all these motionless, decaying corpses,

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that God uses the people's complaint about the dryness of their bones

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to make an encouraging point about their future.

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See, the people were saying, our bones are dry, we're cut off, we have no future.

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And God takes his prophet Ezekiel into a valley of dry bones

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in order to prove to them that future still existed.

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Son of man, can these dry bones live?

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Can these dry bones live?

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That's what we see in verse 3.

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Was God asking for Ezekiel's medical opinion?

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No.

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What he was asking Ezekiel was, he said,

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Ezekiel, the people are saying that their bones are dry and they're cut off.

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You see these bones?

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Let me ask you, can these bones live?

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Now, Ezekiel answered God in a very wise way.

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What did he say?

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You know.

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If God should come to you tonight, ask you a question,

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you know what a safe answer is?

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God, you know the answer.

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That's what he does here in this text.

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All right, let's look at verses 4 through 10.

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So again, he said to me,

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Prophecy to these bones, say to them,

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O dry bones, hear the word of the Lord.

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Thus says the Lord God to these bones,

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Surely I will cause breath to enter into you, and you shall live.

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I will put sinews on you, I will bring flesh upon you,

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I will cover you with skin and put breath in you, and you shall live.

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Then you will know that I am the Lord.

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And so I prophesied as I was commanded.

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And as I prophesied, there was a noise and suddenly a rattling,

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And the bones came together, bone to bone.

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Indeed, as I looked, the sinews and the flesh came upon them,

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and the skin covered them over, but yet there was no breath in them.

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And then he said to me, prophesy to the breath.

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Prophesy, son of man, say to the breath, thus saith the Lord God,

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come from the four winds, O breath, breathe on these that are slain,

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that they might live.

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And so I prophesied as he commanded me.

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Breath came upon them, they lived, they stood on their feet,

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an exceedingly great army.

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All right, as we said before, the bones that you see in this chapter do not represent just

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bones per se or dead bodies per se. They represent the hopelessness of the people.

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The people were saying, our bones are dry. This is a simple euphemism. Euphemism for saying,

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we have no hope. Our bones are dry. And God says, not so fast. Son of man, can these bones live?

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God, you know. God says, well, let's just see. You tell the bones, Ezekiel. You tell the bones.

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You prophesied to the bones that they should live, they should walk.

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You prophesied to the breath that should fill them.

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And let's just see, let's just see what happens.

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These verses describe something amazing.

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They describe this valley of dry, brittle, spiritual corpses,

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devoid of any life whatsoever, suddenly becoming animated

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and gaining sinew and flesh and skin.

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And if you're Ezekiel, imagine you're seeing this.

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It sounds fascinating just to read about it, but imagine if you saw this.

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If you were Ezekiel, this is not an average everyday event.

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Now, on the one hand, he had to be astonished by what he had saw.

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On the one hand, he had to be astonished by what his eyes were detecting.

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On the other hand, he had to be really amazed and excited,

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not just about what he saw, but about what God meant,

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what God was doing through these bones.

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See, if the people thought that their bones were dry,

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we got no future, and it's all over, and God's done with us,

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Well, when Ezekiel saw breath enter into these bones, forming up an exceedingly great army,

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he knew that the end was not near, that there was a future, that the people who said our bones are

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dry and we're done with, and we're going to go the way of the dodo. Ezekiel knew when he looked

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at this army, he says, not so fast. There is a future. There is a future beyond the grave.

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there's a hope beyond the pit. There is a future beyond even our errors and our sins and our

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mistakes and that by which God would judge us. That's what we see here. Now, let me ask you a

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question, though. What caused, as we think back to this text I read just a minute ago, what caused

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the bones to start rattling? What was it? Did God snap his fingers? No, that's exactly right.

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God did not snap his fingers. Did he clap his hands? Did he stomp his feet? Did he do any of that?

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No, that's exactly right.

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Yeah, he could have.

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He's God, right?

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God could have snapped his fingers, stomped his feet, done any number of things.

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But what did he do?

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He told Ezekiel.

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He says, you do it.

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You prophesy to them.

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You open your mouth and you preach.

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And let's see what happened.

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Let's see what occurs here.

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He specifically said this.

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He says, prophesy to these bones and tell them, oh, dry bones, hear the word of the Lord.

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A few verses later, Ezekiel says, I prophesied as he commanded me.

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I opened my mouth, I preached, I did what he said.

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I spoke, and as a result of me speaking, breath came to them, and they lived.

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Now, what's the implication of that?

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What's the implication of this happening?

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Not just because God snapped his fingers, not just because God stomped his feet,

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but rather because he had this man speak.

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What's the implication?

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Well, the implication is this, that there must be great power in the preaching of the word.

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That God, although he could do anything he wants, of his own sovereign volition,

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he has chosen the foolishness of preaching, and the foolishness, honestly, of the men who preach,

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as still, still the instrument by which bones begin to rattle, by which faith is stirred within us.

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What we see in this text is that there's power when God's people speak,

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speak words of life to those that are dead.

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And God has determined that that's an instrument, that's a tool that he will use

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to bring spiritual corpses unto new life.

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Now, that's not just in the Old Testament.

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You see that in the New Testament as well, in the book of Romans.

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Paul said what?

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Paul said that faith, saving faith, faith by which any of us has hope for tomorrow,

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faith comes from hearing, and hearing from what?

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The Word.

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And how does anyone hear the Word?

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Because someone shares it.

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It doesn't have to be a pastor.

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It can be a parent.

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It can be a teacher, a friend, a neighbor, a co-worker, brother, sister, mother, father, whoever.

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Faith comes from people doing what they've been commanded to do,

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being ambassadors for a kingdom and sharing the good news of the kingdom to those who are lost

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and those who are dying, those who are dead. That's what makes bones rattle together,

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the preaching of the word. That's what we see in 1 Peter 1. Apostle Peter says those who are born

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again are those who have responded to the word of God. Spiritual life is imparted through the

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preaching of God's word. And that's what you see in the valley of dry bones. The bones didn't start

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rattling until Ezekiel opened his mouth. And at that point, through God's power, through God's

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grace, through God's spirit, at that point, they were enabled and persuaded to come to new life.

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You know, if we look outside our doors, if we look at our culture and we see our culture in a death

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spiral, what does the culture need? How are they going to hear them? Through God's word as spoken

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and preached by God's people. You know, one of the great weaknesses in our own day and age

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is the weakness of the pulpit. You want dead bones to rattle. You want the culture to come

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out of a death spiral. You want to see new life come around us. You want the valley of dry bones

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in which we now live to take on new hope and faith and life. What has to happen? Preaching.

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It's the same thing we see in Ezekiel. We need to have men who are willing to open up the book,

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say, thus saith the Lord. Not stand in a pulpit, offer conjecture and opinions, but rather point

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to the book. If I should fall into a cliff tomorrow, someone else needs to stand in this

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pulpit and do the same thing on into the future. It's not a function of the man, it's a function

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of the book. It's a function of the word, and that's the calling that we have. Ezekiel was

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ultimately replaced by other prophets. Their job didn't change. Preach the word to those who

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otherwise will die apart from him. All right, let's look at verses 11 through 14. Then he said to me,

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son of man, these bones are the whole house of Israel. So let me stop for a second. God's going

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to explain all this. To prove our earlier point, God is now saying, hey, here's what this is all

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about. Verse 11, he said to me, son of man, these bones are the whole house of Israel. And these

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bones indeed say, our bones are dry. Our hope is lost, and we ourselves are cut off. You see, the

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bones represent Israel, and Israel at this time was without hope. They said, our bones are dry.

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Therefore, prophesied, say to them, thus saith the Lord God, behold, O my people, I will open your

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graves. I will cause you to come up from your graves. I'll bring you into the land of Israel.

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You think you're never going to go back. You see the smoke spiraling up in the sky, and you think

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that's the end not so much a day is coming i'm going to bring you back i'm going to bring you

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back into your land then you will know that i am the lord when i've opened your graves on my people

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and i brought you up from your graves i'll put my spirit in you and you shall live and i will place

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you in your own land and then you shall know that i the lord have spoken it and performed it

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Again, in verses 11 through 14, God explains what this vision of bones is all about.

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In verse 11, he says the bones represent Israel.

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Now, is there a lot of other things that we could assign to this text?

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Can we extract other meanings?

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Possibly, but the safest meaning is the meaning that is explained here deliberately by God to Ezekiel.

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He says these bones are Israel.

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These bones are the people.

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We're saying our bones are dry and we have no future.

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Our history, our progeny, our future's cut off.

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And in verse 12, God says, your future's bright.

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Your future's bright, even if you don't know it yet.

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He says, I'm going to bring you back.

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I brought you here, didn't I?

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I brought you in exile as a discipline, you know, refinement.

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We needed to purge all these silly, stupid idols from you.

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So because you loved paganism so much and because you were bowing down to Tammuz

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and all the other Mesopotamian gods, I brought you in for a season

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and where you could see how that is and how that works

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and what the future of idolaters is.

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So I brought to here, but I can also bring you back.

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And in fact, I'm going to do that.

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And it's not going to be that far off.

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You do have hope.

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Stop saying you don't have hope.

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You do have hope.

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Your future is brighter than you now.

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No.

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He says, I will put my spirit in you.

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You shall live, and I will place you in your own land.

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God was not going to leave his people in a hopeless state.

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Now, given how terrible and wicked they'd been, why not?

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I mean, didn't they deserve punishment and judgment and wrath?

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Dear heavens, yes.

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Just go back and read earlier in Ezekiel.

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For the love of Pete, they deserved everything that was coming their way.

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But God, remember what we read earlier?

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God doesn't always give us what our punishments deserve.

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But he's merciful to us.

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And he desires for his own people to separate our sin from us as far as the east is from the west.

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So yes, these people had earned God's wrath, but he had made them a promise.

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He made Abraham a promise and Moses a promise and David a promise

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that even if his people should be faithless and do that which was wrong

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and silly and stupid and sinful, that yet still he would be faithful

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and they would still have a future, even though

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they might have to go through some difficult seasons. Those hard seasons would

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not be the end. And a day would come, a day when they thought

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all hope is gone and their bones were as dry as could possibly be, when God says, I'm going to

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breathe new life in you. I'm going to fashion sinews of hope all around you. And then I'm going

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to bring you home. Now, this wasn't just a message that he preached through Ezekiel. You also see it

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in one of Ezekiel's contemporaries, a man named Jeremiah. Jeremiah once talked about that hope

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and that future this way. He said, for thus say the Lord, after 70 years are completed with you

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in Babylon, I'm going to visit you and I'm going to perform my good word toward you and I'll cause

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you to come home. I'll cause you to return to this place. For I know the thoughts that I think

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towards you. I know the thoughts I think towards you, says the Lord, thoughts of peace and not of

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evil, to give you a future and to give you hope. And then you will call to me and you'll go and

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pray to me, and I will listen to you, and you will seek me, and you will find me. When you search

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for me with all your heart, I will be found by you, says the Lord, and I will bring you back from

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your captivity. I will gather you from all the nations and from all the places that I have driven

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you, says the Lord, and I will bring you back to the place from which I have carried you captive.

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You see, whether it's Ezekiel or Daniel, whether it's Jeremiah, Isaiah, God had no problem telling

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people, I will deal with sin. Don't think I won't. But because I'm a loving parent, even though I

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must discipline you when discipline is due, yet I still show mercy. And my relationship with you is

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not severed just because you did something wrong. Isn't that a hope for you and I as well? Dear

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heavens, how many things did we do wrong this week or this month or this year? Again, more than we

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can count. And yet, is God done with us? We're Presbyterian, but you can say no. No, he's not

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done with us. Amen. He's not done with us. Although he could be, you could even argue he should be

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based on how bad we've been. But he's not done with us. This is not just hope to exiles long

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time ago in a place far, far away. It's hope for us. It's hope that even though we've messed up,

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God's not done with us. And even when he disciplines us, it's with the intention of reshaping and

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forming us into something better tomorrow than we are today. As parents, don't you do that for

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your kids? Don't you discipline them because you love them? I hope so. If you discipline them

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because you love them, how much more so is God's discipline a tool and a means of expressing his

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love? Now, do you know that at the time you're undergoing it? No. No, it doesn't feel good to

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be disciplined, and yet it's done out of love. But God, even when disciplining his people,

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even when they're in exile, he says, yes, you're being disciplined, but you have a future. You have

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a future. You have a future. After seven years are done, I will visit you. I'll perform my good

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word towards you. I will cause you to come home. Your future is brighter than you know.

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Now, if we were just to stop there in Ezekiel 37, which is where most sermons do, honestly,

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That's really the totality of the dry bones.

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Again, there's other things you could read into the book, read into that,

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but that's really what it's all about.

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But for our purposes this morning, I want to look at what he says next.

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I want to look at the balance of the chapter,

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because it's just as important to the people of Israel and to us as that which preceded it.

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Let me read now the block of text, verses 15 through 28, and then we'll look to wrap up.

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Verse 15.

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So again, the word of the Lord came to me, saying,

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as for you, son of man, I want you to take a stick and write upon it for Judah and for the

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children of Israel, his companions. Then take another stick and write upon it for Joseph,

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the stick of Ephraim, and for all the house of Israel, his companions. Then I want you to join

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them together into one stick, and it will become one in your hand. And when the children of Israel

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speak to you, saying, will you not show us what you mean by all this? Say to them, thus saith the

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Lord God. Surely I will take the stick of Joseph, which is the hand of Ephraim and the tribes of

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Israel, his companions, and I'll join with it, the stick of Judah, and make them one stick, and they

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will become one in my hand. And the sticks on which you write it will be in your hand before

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their eyes. Remember, God's big on object lessons. He knows some of us learn visually, and he says

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they're going to learn visually what you do when you take this stick and this stick and you put it

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together. So then say to them, after you've done that, thus saith the Lord God, surely I will take

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the children of Israel from among the nations, wherever they've gone, and I will gather them

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from every side and bring them into their own land. And I will make them one nation in the land

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on the mountain of Israel. One king shall be over them all. They shall no longer be two nations,

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nor shall they ever be divided into two kingdoms again. They shall not defile themselves anymore

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with their idols, nor with their detestable things, nor with any other transgressions,

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but I will deliver them from all their dwelling places in which they've sinned, and I will cleanse

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them. Then they'll be my people, and I will be their God. David, my servant, shall be king over

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them, and they shall have one shepherd. They shall also walk in my judgments, and observe my statutes,

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and I'll do them. Then they shall dwell in the land, which I have given to Jacob, my servant,

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where their fathers dwelt. And they shall dwell there, their children, their children's children

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forever. My servant David shall be their prince forever. Moreover, I'll make a covenant of peace

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with them, and it shall be an everlasting covenant with them. I'll establish them and multiply them.

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I'll set my sanctuary in their midst forever.

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My tabernacle also shall be with them.

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Indeed, I will be their God.

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They will be my people.

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The nations also will know that I, Lord, sanctify Israel

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when my sanctuary is in their midst forevermore.

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You know, sometimes we forget,

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when we don't pay attention to the history of the Bible,

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sometimes we forget that what we call Israel

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was divided at a given point into two separate kingdoms.

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You had the northern kingdom, which is called what?

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Israel.

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And a southern kingdom is called what?

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Judah.

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Now, how many tribes were in Judah?

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Two.

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So how many tribes were up north?

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Ten.

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Right, right.

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So we got the basics here.

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It was a divided kingdom.

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A divided kingdom by which ten of the tribes were up to the north,

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two of the tribes were down to the south.

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And centuries earlier, the northern kingdom had been taken over by who?

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the Assyrians. And now in 586, the southern king of Judah had been taken over by the Babylonians.

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But God says, even though there had been two kingdoms, they'd split, they'd gone different

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directions, a time's going to come when they're going to come back together and they will be but

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one. This is a great and a glorious thing. And it's a reminder that God's people, wherever they

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are gathered on this entire globe this very day, will one day also be one at the wedding supper

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of the Lamb. God unites his people to himself, people of every age. All right, as we look to

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wrap up this morning, I want to just very briefly transition from history, which we've just looked

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at, to the future. You know, at the outset this morning, we talked about graveyards.

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Specifically, I said graveyards are a place you don't like to be. We don't like to go. And the

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reason we don't like to go there is, again, because they remind us of our own mortality.

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The remind us of those that we've lost, which has its own hurt.

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When we look into a graveyard and we see the grave slab of one that we missed,

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one that we've lost, that hurts the heart.

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But when we look at all the gravestones, we're reminded that unless Jesus comes back first,

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we're going to one day join them.

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Now, when you think about something like death, it can make you lose some hope.

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You could say, is there really something beyond the veil?

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Make me fearful and anxious.

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You can be like the Israelites who thought we're cut off.

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There is no hope. There is no future beyond a certain point. There is no future beyond the veil.

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Well, for the Christian, here's the thing. Dry bones are never the end of the story.

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The graveyard is not the end of the story. If you're worried about death, if you're worried

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about your own mortality, if you wonder if there is hope beyond the veil, God wants to put your

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fears to rest this morning, just as he did with the people of Ezekiel's day. They thought they

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had no hope. They thought they had no future. They thought their present reality was the entire

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reality, that there was nothing that was going to be better beyond. And of course, God comforted

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them using this vision of dry bones who gain new life. But for those of us in the New Testament

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economy who are fearful and anxious about death, God also wants to comfort your heart

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and encourage you that there is a future. There's a future beyond the grave. There's a future beyond

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these things. Listen to this New Testament promise from 1 Thessalonians 4. I don't want you to be

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ignorant, brethren, about those who've fallen asleep, meaning those who died. I don't want you

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to keep being ignorant about those who've died, about those whose bodies fill those graves. I

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don't want you to be ignorant, lest you are to sorrow as those without hope. See, what the author

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is saying here is, I don't want you to go into a graveyard, see those who have passed, and be

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sorrowful as if you have no hope for them or for yourself. Stop it. He says, that's not who we are

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as Christians. We're a people of hope and expectation, not as those who sorrow without

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any hope. For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so God will bring with him those

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who sleep in Jesus. If we believe that one man defeated death, that so will you. If we believe

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that one man defeated the grave, that one man came up, he's the first fruits by which all of us

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will one day rise. That's what we're saying here. For this we say to you by the word of the Lord,

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that we who are alive and remain until the coming of our Lord Jesus,

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which I hope is any day now,

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will by no means precede those who are fallen asleep.

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For the Lord himself, he will descend from heaven with a shout,

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with the voice of an archangel, with a trumpet of God.

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And the dead in Christ, they'll rise first.

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Then we who are alive at that point,

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we who are alive and remain, shall be caught up together with them.

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What a reunion that is.

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being caught up in the air with those who have pre-deceased us.

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Caught up in the air, the dead in Christ will rise first,

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then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them

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in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air.

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And thus we shall always be with the Lord.

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Therefore, comfort one another with these words.

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1 Thessalonians 4 and Ezekiel 37 have a great deal in common.

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In both cases, we see dead bones.

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We see those sorrowing without any hope for the future.

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In both these cases, we see bodies that can't move of their own.

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They can't move of their own accord.

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In both these cases, we see what seems to be the end of the line for those who have died.

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And yet in both cases, we also see this, that dead bones can rise.

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See, God is in the business of granting new life.

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God is in the business of granting new life.

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And in time, our Lord will descend with a shout, and every grave will be emptied.

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And when that happens, you and I will be gathered up together with those we've lost, those that we love.

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What are we supposed to do until then?

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Assuming that doesn't happen tomorrow, which I'm sure it would be very nice if it did.

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Assuming it doesn't happen tomorrow, what should we do?

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What should we do if tomorrow is kind of dark and scary?

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What should we do if next week's no better?

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What should we do?

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Well, what did 1 Thessalonians 4 close with?

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Listen, until that happens, until that day, comfort one another with these words.

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Cling to the promise.

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Have faith that he who has defeated death has gone to prepare a place for us.

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And in due time, he'll take us to be with him.

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Ever as assuredly as he brought Ezekiel into the promised land,

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even after there were nothing but dead, dry bones,

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ever as assuredly as he brought them into the promised land,

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He will yet return to bring you and I to a greater promised land,

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a place in which we will dwell for all time without a single tear in our eyes.

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We look forward to that day, and for those who are sad, for those who are depressed,

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for those who are anxious, we comfort one another as we look forward to what God will yet do.

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Let's pray.