We are returning, following the Easter season messages, to the previous series we were doing “Israel: “God's timepiece.” Prophecy is being fulfilled that will count down to the return of Christ and the nation of Israel will be in the center of it.
So today we're returning to some Bible prophecy and I want to talk about one of the most important ones that is in process of being fulfilled even as we speak and that's found in Ezekiel 37. God is in the process of bringing dead things to life. Last week we celebrated the resurrection and God is all about raising the dead.
For thousands of years the nation of Israel has endured unbelievable hardship- through the Greek and Roman Empires, the 20th century German extermination of the Jews in Auschwitz; it seemed like the nation of Israel was all but dead; but God had other plans. He is into making new, restoring - making it better than new. And in 1948 the unthinkable happened when Israel was declared to be a nation again just 3 years after the Second World War. It was a beginning of a fulfillment of scripture that was prophesied in Ezekiel 37- Ezekiel prophesied this 2,528 years before it happened.
Ezekiel 37:11 Then He said to me, “Son of man, these bones are the whole house of Israel. They indeed say, ‘Our bones are dry, our hope is lost, and we ourselves are cut off!’ 12 Therefore prophesy and say to them, ‘Thus says the Lord God: “Behold, O My people, I will open your graves and cause you to come up from your graves, and bring you into the land of Israel.
Notice the state of the deadness of these bones; this nation that is about to be resurrected.
1. Dry - Our bones are dry…
2. Despair - our hope is lost…
3. Destitute - and we ourselves are cut off!
God says “I'm going to do the impossible”. I'm going to bring life into a hopeless situation - I'm going to make things new. I'm going to exhume your body from the grave and make it live. And what is beautiful about what God promised to do for Israel, in anointing them, making them alive and bringing them into their land; is what He has promised to do for us….. Jesus says I'm going to prepare a place for you and one day I will come and receive you unto Myself that where I am, there you will be too. I’m going to take you home…
Join us in person on Sunday at 10:00 a.m. or via livestream by going to https://www.firstbaptistsudbury.com and clicking on livestream for “ Dem Bones.”
Blessings,
Kevin