Structure:
·
V1-3: Ezekiel brought by the hand of God to the
valley of dry bones and asked if these bones can live.
·
V4-6: Ezekiel was then commanded to prophesy to
the bones, and when they come to life, they will know God.
·
V7-8: Ezekiel prophesied as commanded.
·
V9-10: Climax: breath entered, a living army
arose.
·
V11: Identity of these bones revealed.
·
V12: “Hope is gone” as a prior clause of
“therefore prophesy”: raised from graves and brought back to land.
·
V13-14: Two repeats regarding knowing God, live,
brought back to the land.
Big idea:
·
Our sovereign God raises the dead through the
work of the Spirit, giving life and hope.
Theme statement: what God’s doing in this text
·
God’s power in raising the dead to life/ the
resurrection. Question: Can God save?
Doctrine: how it relates to a theological textbook
·
“The restoration of all things (future of hope
of the kingdom).”
Need: who cares? From the perspective of the congregation
·
In the text: Dead to be brought to life, a hope
for Israel.
·
In our world: Victory over death, salvation for
humanity.
Image:
·
The reverse decomposition process.
Mission:
·
What are some of the ways we can try and
“prophesy over dry bones” today? Catch up with one of your non-Christian
friends. Sponsor a child, volunteer for meals on wheels, etc.
4 big movements:
·
Trouble in the text: Lots of dry bones, which
represents the public defeat of a vast army, of the covenant people of God, due
to Israel’s public unfaithfulness to God.
·
Trouble in the world: All people will die
because of sin.
·
Grace in the text: The restoration to a people
who have experienced a full outpouring of the wrath of God. God restores
Israel’s slain through the word and the Spirit and gives Israel hope.
·
Grace in the world: God’s gift of salvation and
hope through Jesus and the work of the Holy Spirit.
Peace to you all, brothers and sisters. I’m glad for the opportunity to
study the word of God together today. The passage I am sharing with you today
is Ezekiel 37:1-14, the Valley of Dry Bones. Firstly, let’s come before our God
and pray.
Dear heavenly Father,
Thank you for the opportunity for us to hear the word of God together.
We are all here this morning because of the amazing things you have done in our
lives. I pray that you will open our hearts and open up our eyes. That you will
transform for hearts, our minds so we will become more like Jesus. We pray for these
in the powerful and wonderful name of God. Amen.
Recently a train derailed in Taiwan. One of the families on board lost eight
loved ones in an instant. Everyone will experience losing loved ones at various
points in our lives. Are you longing to see them again? Do you wish that they
can come alive again? My father passed away several years ago and I really hope
to see him again. But is this possible? This is what we’re going to explore in
the message today.
Trouble in the text:
·
Text:
o
The Bible says, 1 The hand of the LORD was on
me, and he brought me out by the Spirit of the LORD and set me in the middle of
a valley; it was full of bones. 2 He led me back and forth among them, and I
saw a great many bones on the floor of the valley, bones that were very dry.
·
Illustration:
o
Imagine dead people’s bones. Lots and lots of
bones. Bones scattered all over the surface a valley. Very very dry bones,
indicating that the people have been dead for a long long time. Bones white and
dry. They’ve been there for so long that there’s no longer decomposed material
on it. I am sure no one in this room has ever seen such a sight before. We may
have seen the very dry bones of our relatives after a cremation. We might have
seen some extremely gruesome photos from WWII. But nothing like this. This is a
very strange and disturbing sight.
·
Question:
o
What had happened? What’s with all these dead
people?
·
Explanation:
o
Now, let us try and orientate ourselves here. It
was the 6th Century BC. The Israelites were being punished by God for their rebellion against God! Israel had been taken captive by the
superpower Babylon. The voice of this passage is Ezekiel. Ezekiel is a prophet
from Jerusalem who had been exiled to Babylon.
·
Text:
o
This text begins with the statement “The hand of
the Lord was upon me.”[1]
This is the formula that introduces each of Ezekiel’s other visions.[2] So the
genre of this passage is a vision. Here again, Ezekiel is brought up by a
supernatural power, and transported elsewhere.[3]
o
This time, he is transported to the kind of
valley-plain, where armies would engage in battle.[4] And
there are many bones.
o
We can assume that Ezekiel is extremely appalled
by this sight. As an Israelite, and especially a priest, Ezekiel knows how
important the proper treatment of human corpses is. These unburied bones are
extremely dry. Which indicates they have been dead for a long time.[5]
o
In v3, God asks Ezekiel, “Can these bone live?”
o
Ezekiel responds to God’s question with the emphatic
pronoun, “Only you know.”
·
Question:
o
There is no indication of the tone of Ezekiel’s
response: Did he snort in disbelief? Did he state his answer with bold
assurance? Or did he respond with the indifference of depression?[6]
o
God certainly has the power to bring the dry
bones back to life. The question is whether it is his will to do so.[7]
·
Explanation:
o
God obviously knows the answer to this question.
He commands Ezekiel to prophesy over these bones.
·
Text:
o
Verse 7: So I prophesied as I was commanded. And
as I was prophesying, there was a noise, a rattling sound, and the bones came
together, bone to bone. 8 I looked, and tendons and flesh appeared on them and
skin covered them, but there was no breath in them.
·
Illustration:
o
Lo and behold, now we see a stranger sight! We
see a reverse decomposition process happening!
o
As Ezekiel starts prophesying, the bones begin
rattling. And because there are so many, it sounded like an earthquake as they
come together.[8] Bone
on bone, joining one another.
o
Then the tendons appear, muscles mount, and skin
covers over them. But then, they have no breath, like puppets. Looking like
humans but no breath.
·
Text:
o
Verse 9: Then he said to me, “Prophesy to the
breath; prophesy, son of man, and say to it, ‘This is what the Sovereign LORD
says: Come, breath, from the four winds and breathe into these slain, that they
may live.’”
o
10 So I prophesied as he commanded me, and
breath entered them; they came to life and stood up on their feet—a vast army.
·
Illustration:
o
God then commands Ezekiel to prophesise for “ruach”
to enter these people. The Hebrew word “ruach” can mean breath, wind, Spirit.
Then the wind from all corners of the earth blows into them, they came alive
and stood up! A vast army of them!
o
This is like two-stage process in the creation
of the first human in Genesis 2:7:[9]
The Lord God formed a man from the dust of the ground. And breathed into his
nostrils the breath of life. And the man became a living being.
·
Text:
o
Verse 11: Then he said to me: “Son of man, these
bones are the people of Israel. They say, ‘Our bones are dried up and our hope
is gone; we are cut off.’
·
Explanation:
o
God reveals to Ezekiel what the vision means.
That these bones are the people of Israel.
·
Illustration:
o
Now, let me explain the background of this
situation further.
o
First, to understand the hopelessness felt by
the Israelites, we have to realise that what the people of Jerusalem endured in
their exile. It was beyond horrifying. Hundreds of thousands of Babylonian
soldiers surround the walls of Jerusalem. The people are cut off from their
food supply for 1.5 years. Starvation led to reduced immunity. And diseases are
everywhere. With the children perishing first. People resort to cannibalism and
corpses pile up all over the street. The Babylonian army used siege machineries
to pound their walls, creating deafening noises. Finally, the Northern Gate got
breached, and the Babylonian army troops bursts in. Raping women and slaughtering
Israelites everywhere. Cries of people, especially the children, women and
elderly, are heard in every corner of the city. These people lost many loved
ones within a short span of time. And to be sure that Jerusalem can never rise
again, the majestic temple of Solomon and every houses in the city were burnt
to the ground. Finally, the wall of Jerusalem got knocked down to its
foundations. The exiles marched to Babylon. Carrying their musical instruments
among their meagre possessions. The great melodies of worship played in
Jerusalem became muted and out comes the tones of lament.
·
Explanation:
o
It was a hopeless situation for God’s people. The
exile is more than national displacement. The people are disillusioned about
their God.[10]
o
And it is also important to understand what the
dry bones signify. When people have broken contracts and oaths, it is ancient
Near Eastern practice to throw these people’s bodies out, for wild animals to
eat.[11] So the dry bones
represent the public defeat of a vast army, of the covenant people of God, due
to Israel’s public unfaithfulness to God.[12]
·
Statement:
o
What Israel faced was a “total-death”
experience. They were as dead is it was possible to be. And they knew it.
Because in v11 we hear them say, “Our bones have dried up and our hope is gone;
we are cut off.”[13]
These people’s hope dried up to the point where they feel cut off from the rest
of humanity.[14]
Trouble in the world:
·
Transitioning:
o
Now, to put this into the modern context.
·
Question:
o
Can any one of you here think back to your
childhood memories? Can you remember when you first became aware that you will
die one day?
·
Illustration:
o
When I was seven, I asked my dad, “will everyone
die eventually?” He said “yes.” Then I asked him, “then why did you give birth
to me?”
o
Seriously, what’s the point of being born if
we’re just going to die anyways? When death is added to the equation, even a
child can logically deduce the meaningless of life.
·
Text:
o
Ephesians 2:1 tells us, “You were dead in your
transgressions and sins.”
·
Explanation:
o
And because of our sin we are under God’s wrath.
This applies to everyone. Because of our sin, none of us are right with God. So,
by nature, we are all cut off from God’s presence. Relationally, we are cut off
from God.
o
And the penalty of sin is death. So all of us
will die. This death is both spiritual and physical.
o
On a horizontal level, things are not right in
the world either. People suffer. The majority of the people in the world are born
into horrible situations. Eg. nations in war and severe starvation. According
to the World report on child labour in 2015, 168 million children around the
world are currently in forced child labour! This is 11% of the overall child
population! Around half of these children are engaged in hazardous work. Which
means their lives are constantly in danger. The world is not free of slave
trade today. This is modern day slave trading! Many people in the world are
isolated and marginalised. Through no fault of their own. These people feel
totally powerless in their situation. In the developed world, people are not
immune to this sense of powerlessness either. The pains of chronic illnesses
and cancer are widespread in the developed world. And natural disasters such as
earthquakes and tsunamis can strike anytime, anywhere. Be it in developing
countries like Indonesia, or developed countries like Japan.
o
Furthermore, many of us are not aware of what’s
happening globally. Many of us are so tied down by our daily struggles. Such as
encounters of conflicts and difficulties in our families and in our jobs, that we
don’t tend to look beyond our immediate environment. And, really, these
difficulties should not be dismissed as trivial matters either. Like caring for
terminally ill, chronically ill or mentally family members. And dealing with
work overload and workplace bullying. And even when we are aware of these
global issues, we tend to feel there is nothing we can do about it anyways.
o
So the question to be asked is not merely, “Can
God in general raise dead people to life?” Rather, the question is whether or
not God is willing to raise rebels like us to life.[15]
o
Death is the penalty for sin. God’s wrath
against sin demanded that a just penalty be paid.[16]
Someone has to pay the price.
·
Statement:
o
V11 of Ezekiel 37 is the spiritual condition we
all share. We are all dead. All destined to die. All destined for the same
final destination.
Grace in the text:
·
Transitioning:
o
But then, Ezekiel 37 also shows us a big twist
to this.
·
Statement:
o
The infusion of the “ruach” or breath brings
about the regeneration of the dry bones. As Ezekiel prophesises to the “ruach” or
wind, these people came alive. We see the coming together of the Word and the
Spirit. Prophesising the Word of God brings what he declares into reality.
·
Text:
o
V6 says, “You will come to life, then you will
know that I am the Lord.”
·
Explanation:
o
If you flip to the earlier chapters in the book
of Ezekiel, you will find that Ezekiel himself had personally experienced a
similar infusion of the “ruach” at the outset of his ministry (2:2; 3:24).[17]
·
Text:
o
Then the scene suddenly shifts to the graves in
V12.
o
… the Sovereign Lord says: My people, I am going
to open your graves and bring you up from them; I will bring you back to the
land of Israel. 13 Then you, my people, will know that I am the LORD, when I
open your graves and bring you up from them.
·
Question:
o
God declares he is going to open the graves of
his people. And bring them back to the land of Israel. This shift seems rather
bizarre.
·
Explanation:
o
In actual fact, the vision of graves is more
comforting than the bones in the valley. At least, the Israelites are buried
properly.
o
Here, we see God dealing with Israel’s public
unfaithfulness with an act of public faithfulness. In raising them out of the
graves, and bringing them back to the land of Israel.
o
And no, this is not like the scene of some sort
of scary zombie movie. The people resurrected are not some scary walking dead
crawling out of shabby graves. They are fully alive! Warm, with bright colours
to their faces, and a pulsating heart! Fully alive people who knows immediately
that God is their Lord as soon as they come alive!
o
At first sight, Ezekiel seems to be a proof text
for the resurrection of the body described in the New Testament. However, what
the prophet is depicting is not an expected universal resurrection. Because he
did not ask “will bones in general be resurrected?” But that “Will these bones live?” These bones meaning
the people of Israel.
o
So when we take into account the broader context
of this book, this passage is a message of restoration to a people who have
experienced a full outpouring of the wrath of God.[18]
·
Statement:
o
Here, the dead is brought back to life. There is
hope for Israel.
Grace in the world:
·
Transitioning:
o
But within the context of the text, it is
talking about Israel.
o
Now, I’ll give one of my recent personal experiences.
·
Illustration:
o
I have just attended my aunt’s funeral in
September. She had passed away from terminal cancer. She went through extremely
difficult times. She got baptised in May this year.
o
The Bible quote on her epitaph/headstone is John
1:12, which says, “Yet to all who did receive him (with him meaning Jesus), to
those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God.”
o
So she is a child of God.
o
Even though she had experienced excruciating
pain during the final days of her life on earth. Even though she is no longer
with us now. She is now with Christ, and without pain, and I know I will see
her again. Not just as a spirit, but in her resurrected body. Which is a fully
physical body.
o
She is like the kernel of wheat mentioned in
John 12:24. A kernel of wheat that falls to the ground, and dies, and produces
many seeds. None of the extended family attending the funeral are Christians. And
through this gathering as a family unit, the extended family is introduced to
the gospel.
·
Explanation:
o
Christian hope is not hope without death. To
preach resurrection, we must acknowledge the presence of death, which envelops
our lives. Hope of the resurrection arises out of death of the crucifixion.[20]
o
We see from the passage an Old Testament
anticipation of the end times, or what we call eschatological fullness. All of
which are fulfilled in Christ.[21]
o
What God does for the Christian, he has first of
all done for Jesus. On the cross, Jesus took on himself the sins of his people,
and was cut off for them. In Matthew 27:46, Jesus said on the cross, “My God,
my God, why have you forsaken me?” This sense of “cut off” was more than the
“cut off” experienced by the Israelites. It is for the sin of all humanity! Jesus
died an exceedingly painful death!
o
And just as the dry bones did not remain dead,
Christ did not remain in the tomb. Jesus came out of the tomb fully alive. With
warm body temperature and a pulsating heart! Resurrected!
·
Application:
o
The resurrection of Christ is something entirely
new.[23]
The first event of its kind. It is different from the other bodily
resurrections described in the preceding parts of the Scripture.
o
Romans 6:8 tells us, “Now if we died with
Christ, we believe that we will also live with him.”
o
Ezekiel 37 is a powerful declaration of hope.[25] The
“ruach” is the Spirit of God. Or as we know today, the Holy Spirit.
o
This metaphorical illustration of Ezekiel 37 foreshadows
what is eventually fulfilled in Christ. We are all spiritually dead because of
our sins. But Jesus brings the outpouring of the Spirit for the spiritually
dead.[26]
Through the Holy Spirit, Jesus awakens
us.
o
In Romans 8, Paul paints a picture of hope using
the Holy Spirit.
o
Paul presents the Spirit
as groaning due to “the sufferings of this present time.”[27]
Meaning that we can still see many unsolvable problems in the world currently.
This is because we are still living in the time of the “already but not yet.”
Which means, the kingdom of God has come partly but not fully.
o
Even though we have hope, the walk is not an
easy walk.
o
Just like how Ezekiel is filled with the Spirit
to equip him for his task.[28]
But if you study the whole book of Ezekiel, you will find that he walked a very
difficult path. Commanded by God to do some very painful tasks, and mocked by
his beloved people.
o
And today, many people also experience difficult
walks. For example, those walking through the painful road of cancer. And there
are still many places around the world where people get marginalised and persecuted
for their faith.
o
The Spirit groans, but all are empowered by the
Spirit when we accept Christ. Since we are indwelt by the Spirit, we are
equipped to walk according to the Spirit.
·
Conclusion:
o
We also need to know that God not only resurrected
the dead. Not only is there victory over death and salvation for humanity. As
Christians, we live with the hope that ultimately, there will come a day where
we see the restoration of all things! Our time on earth is short. Sometimes we
have to remember our eternal home is not on earth. Therefore, I give thanks to
God that my father and my aunt are the children of God, and I will see them again
one day.
o
V2 tells us there are “a great many bones,” so
the human need is communal. Collectively as humans, we all need
resurrection from the dead. And this need applies to all! This is a collective
human need.
o
So this walk in the Spirit is not a walk alone. But
in community. Impacting on communities and transforming communities.
o
Today, the Christian community constitutes this
resurrected army. An army resurrected by the Spirit and the Word of God. To
prophesy over the dry bones of our age.
o
That is, to spread the gospel to unbelievers, so
there is a chance for the Holy Spirit to awaken them!
o
What are some of the ways we can try and
“prophesy over dry bones” today?
o
Is it to fly off to become missionaries in the
Middle East or Africa right now? Thinking we can save the world? Probably not a
good idea to jump that far without a clear calling from God. It is God who
saves, not us humans. It is God who calls and equips us with the Spirit to do
what he wills. We can start off with things in our everyday lives, such as
catching up with one of our non-Christian friends this week. Or we can financially
sponsor a child in the developing world. Or supporting missionaries. We can
also ask God for help to open the doors of opportunities to take up some
volunteer work in the community. So that we can meet a greater variety of
people. And be more in touch with the community we are living in. And when we read
the global news, we can also take time to intercede for these current affairs.
o
There are “a great many bones.” And dry bones
need to come to life! May we be those who prophesise over the dry bones of our
generation. God brings dry bones to life! May God cause an outpouring the Holy
Spirit over this generation. Let us close with the worship song, “This
Generation.”
Closing prayer:
Dear heavenly Father,
May today’s message enter deep into our hearts. May we enter into your
calling for us. May every one of us seated here be a living message,
transmitting the message of the gospel to people around us. May God’s presence be
with us through difficult times, and give us peace and joy in our hearts. May
the Holy Spirit pour out over this generation. In Jesus’ name, Amen.
Reflection on sermon preparation:
I took into account the feedback from the in-class sermon when I
prepared for this sermon: 1) I need to refer more to the big idea in the
introduction and in the conclusion. 2) There can be more emotional involvement,
personal examples, and connection with the audience.
I identified the big idea as,[29]
“Our sovereign God raises the dead through the work of the Spirit, giving life
and hope.” The theme statement is, “God’s power in raising the dead to life.” I
used a recent news event that suggests the flip side of the theme statement:[30] A
news event involving the sudden loss of many loved ones within a family. Then I
described the common experience of losing loved ones and my own experience of
losing loved ones, in the hope that this may generate listener interest. I
tried to describe the bones and the exile in a more lively matter by using a
more visual and sensory type of description, and give more personal examples of
my own experiences, to try and engage the audience better. I tried to stick to
present tense so the audience can feel more engaged with the story.[31]
I structured my sermon according to Wilson’s “Four Pages” method:
- Trouble in the text: Lots of dry bones,
which represents the public defeat of a vast army, of the covenant people
of God, due to Israel’s public unfaithfulness to God.
- Trouble in the world: All people will die
because of sin.
- Grace in the text: The restoration to a
people who have experienced a full outpouring of the wrath of God. God
restores Israel’s slain through the word and the Spirit and gives Israel
hope.
- Grace in the world: God’s gift of
salvation and hope through Jesus and the work of the Holy Spirit.
I followed Wilson’s advice on the “three-part understanding of trouble”
when I structured my page two, “trouble in the world,” which includes
transcendent trouble,[32]
immanent trouble,[33] and
human trouble:[34] For
the section on grace in the text, Wilson says one of the Persons of the Trinity
will be the subject of the sentences. The text describes the work of the
Spirit. Therefore, the Spirit is the subject.
Although this passage is an Old Testament vision and not a narrative, I
feel it has enough of a story here to apply some concepts we learned from the
OT narratives lecture on it, eg. taking note of where in salvation history this
text is and pointing out that within the context of the text, this passage is
talking about the message of restoration to a people who have experienced a
full outpouring of the wrath of God, so that the audience doesn’t get confused
and think the text is talking about the universal resurrection described in the
New Testament.
Translating my sermon into Chinese was the most difficult task for me.
I only had primary school level Chinese. Interestingly, the translated sermon
actually sounds very colloquial as a result.
Reflection after sermon delivery:
Prior to the delivery of the sermon, I prayed a lot and had
intercessors praying for me. The in-class sermon helped me process my aunt’s
death, and I became more focused on God again. I had more time to prepare for
this sermon. I heard horror stories about how anxious people can get when they
preach their first sermon to a congregation. I was nervous when I initially
stepped up, but by God’s grace the nervousness went away very quickly. Being
familiar with the content of the sermon helped me vary my voice in a more
natural way and improved my eye contact with the audience. I believe praying
helped a lot and it’s the most important step of a sermon preparation.
I received feedback formally via the sermon feedback forms, filled out
by the senior pastor and two other people in ministry, and informally, through
conversations with friends from the congregation after the service. The passage
is very heavy in the beginning, especially for the Chinese culture, which is
particularly apprehensive about the notion of “death.” However, I don’t know
how I can open it on a lighter note, especially when “page one” involves
talking about “trouble in the text.” I feel I can only lighten it a bit by
describing the coming alive of the bones in a more animated way. I was given
the feedback that the way I described the bones did capture audience interest
because it sounded like an interesting story.
Another feedback is that I can do the whole contextualisation all in
one go at the beginning rather than split it into two places so it’s less
confusing for the audience. In my approach, I split the contextualisation to
keep up a tension: First giving a basic background, so the audience can have a
bit of orientation. Then, after the audience realises that the bones are the Israelites
in V11, I gave more details about the exile to illustrate why they felt so
dried up and hopeless. The senior pastor thinks both approaches work fine. I
will consider doing the contextualisation all in the beginning the next time I
preach and see whether that works better.
I received conflicting feedback about my eye contact with the audience.
People sitting in front of me thought I maintained good eye contact, while
people sitting on the sides think I don’t give them as much eye contact. That
was because I couldn’t turn my head to the side much: the media person asked me
to put my mouth really close to the microphone so the sermon gets recorded
properly, and whenever I tried to turn my head, my mouth shifts away from the
microphone. Perhaps wearing a microphone on my head or taking a microphone in
my hand will help in the future.
I received conflicting feedback about my illustrations. Some believe my
illustrations are real-life and relevant to the message. Some believe they are
too personal and not about the text. I believe preachers cannot expect to
please everyone in the audience as people’s response to illustrations are very
subjective. Someone said my conclusion is a bit rushed, so I can try slowing
the pace of my conclusions in the future and perhaps add in a closing prayer.
I will preach the same sermon at another church a week later and will
try implementing some of these changes. The senior pastor has placed me on the
preaching roster for 2019 which gives me more opportunities to develop my
preaching.
Reflection after preaching the same sermon a second and third time:
Even though I am preaching the sermons for the “Introductory Preaching”
subject, it was an amazing process of spiritual formation. On the day when we
were supposed to write down the time when we want to do the “in-class” sermon
(preaching in the classroom), I forgot to write my name down and became one of
the first students to give the sermon in class. The timing was at a very stressful time,
close to my aunts funeral. I had some very intensive Bioethics assignments due
in late August/ early September, then two days of intensive Bioethics classes (two
consecutive days of 9am-5pm classes), and scooted off to the airport right
after the intensive class to fly to Taiwan for my aunt’s funeral, stayed
overseas for a week, then came back and had to preach the in-class sermon the
following day!
However, I am not the only one experiencing these stressful things. Three
other classmates had to postpone their in-class sermons because loved ones from
their families had passed away!
The in-class sermons done by other students also helped greatly with my
spiritual formation, especially the one on 1Kings 19 done by a classmate whose
sister had recently passed away.
I am very thankful for the opportunity to preach the fieldwork sermon
three times! I did my first one in the church I am attending on 4Nov. I got
invited to give the same sermon on 11Nov at the 1503 Mission Network. So I got
the opportunity try out some of the feedback suggestions on the second week,
and get a feel of how different it is to preach the same message in different
locations! Interestingly, a really freakish thing (related to the dreaded C-word)
had just came up during the week in between the two sermons, which indicates that
a strong spiritual warfare is about to strike again. May God reveal his amazing
works in the midst of this.
Slides can be accessed at:
https://photos.app.goo.gl/RnLTk3Gt4V2un8Eg8
[2] Odell,
Ezekiel, 454.
[3]
Leslie C. Allen, Word Biblical Commentary
Ezekiel 20-48 (Dallas: Word Books Publisher, 1990), 184.
[4] Odell,
Ezekiel, 454.
[6] Bowen,
Ezekiel, 227.
[8] Bowen,
Ezekiel, 228.
[12] Matt
Andrew, Chapel, Morling College, May 16, 2017.
[18] What
the Old Testament writers understood about life after death in generally is a
much debated topic. There is no widespread expectation of bodily resurrection
of the kind that appears in the New Testament. The OT is vague about the future
of the righteous. It is not opposed to
the idea of a resurrection. But the resurrection of the bones in Ezekiel 37 has
much more in common with the incidents from the ministry of Elijah and Elisha
than it does with the later ideas of a general resurrection of the dead on the
last day.
[19] John Witvliet, Worship Seeking Understanding: Windows into Christian Practice (Grand
Rapids: Baker Academic, 2003), 307.
[20] Luke A. Powery, Dem Dry Bones: Preaching, Death, and Hope (Minneapolis: Fortress
Press, 2012), 11.
[21] Duguid, Ezekiel, 430. The importance of the resurrection of Christ is
not simply the survival of the soul in general or that life goes on beyond the
grave. Otherwise, the resurrection of Christ would have no more significance
than other resurrections recorded in Scripture.
[25] Daniel
I.Block, The Book of Ezekiel Chapters 25-48
(Grand Rapids: William B Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1998), 392.
[29] Gary
Millar, and Phil Campbell. Saving
Eutychus: How to preach God’s word and keep people awake (Kingsford:
Matthias Media, 2013), 25. Big idea identified using Millar and
Campbell’s method.
[30] Paul
Scott Wilson, The Four Pages of the
Sermon: A guide to biblical preaching (Nashville: Abingdon, 1999), 43.
Wilson describes six ways to start an introduction. I used two out of the six
ways he recommended: flip side of the theme statement, and a recent news event.
[31]
The English sermon that is. The Chinese language don’t make such distinctions.
[32] Wilson,
The Four Pages of the Sermon, 110.
[33]
Ibid., 112.
[34]
Ibid., 115.
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