WEBVTT
00:01.130 --> 00:05.146
Grace, mercy, and peace be to you from God, our Father, and our Lord
00:05.178 --> 00:06.240
Jesus Christ.
00:06.610 --> 00:07.630
Amen.
00:09.410 --> 00:10.590
Checkmate.
00:11.170 --> 00:15.530
This term for the winning move in chess comes from the Persian phrase,
00:15.610 --> 00:17.790
the king is dead.
00:18.690 --> 00:22.910
In chess, if your king is killed, you lose.
00:23.250 --> 00:24.870
Game over.
00:24.980 --> 00:30.022
The opening scene of our reading from Ezekiel today
00:30.156 --> 00:32.549
looks like checkmate.
00:32.890 --> 00:37.566
God has just pronounced judgment on Judah and the surrounding nations
00:37.618 --> 00:43.770
through the prophet Ezekiel, God's covenant people have been cut off
00:43.920 --> 00:45.770
because of their idolatry.
00:46.350 --> 00:51.134
They have been driven out of their homeland and put into exile all
00:51.172 --> 00:52.202
throughout Babylon.
00:52.266 --> 00:54.080
Nothing is left.
00:54.770 --> 00:55.920
Game over.
00:56.450 --> 00:57.630
Checkmate.
00:58.450 --> 01:02.894
Anyone who assessed the odds that the Lord would keep his promise to
01:02.932 --> 01:07.730
send a Savior in King David's line certainly would be betting against
01:07.800 --> 01:08.914
those odds now.
01:09.032 --> 01:10.414
Israel is dead.
01:10.462 --> 01:12.062
Jerusalem is dead.
01:12.126 --> 01:13.246
Their kings are dead.
01:13.278 --> 01:14.782
The temple is dead.
01:14.846 --> 01:17.110
Their hopes are dead.
01:17.770 --> 01:22.934
To illustrate the devastation Ezekiel reveals to his people, the
01:22.972 --> 01:28.406
people of Israel are like very dry bones in a valley, scattered on the
01:28.428 --> 01:28.718
ground.
01:28.754 --> 01:31.734
And these aren't skeletons that are scattered on the ground.
01:31.782 --> 01:36.778
These are bones torn limb from limb, disjointed, scattered on the
01:36.784 --> 01:37.174
ground.
01:37.222 --> 01:41.626
And whoever did this doesn't even consider them worthy of burial.
01:41.738 --> 01:46.894
The whole house of Israel calls out and says, our bones are dried up.
01:47.012 --> 01:49.150
Our hope is lost.
01:49.490 --> 01:52.320
We are indeed cut off.
01:53.190 --> 01:54.370
Checkmate.
01:55.510 --> 02:01.458
While it may look like game over for the Israelites, the Lord has made
02:01.544 --> 02:03.086
a covenant of peace.
02:03.198 --> 02:07.606
He's made an everlasting covenant with those who walk by faith, with
02:07.628 --> 02:08.130
believing
02:08.210 --> 02:08.994
Abraham.
02:09.122 --> 02:13.542
The Lord is going to honor that covenant, and he is going to keep his
02:13.676 --> 02:14.658
promise.
02:14.834 --> 02:19.414
And the Lord gives this vision to Ezekiel of bones coming together,
02:19.532 --> 02:22.694
bone to bone, tendons and flesh, covering them.
02:22.732 --> 02:27.850
His spirit breathed into them, giving life to the dead.
02:28.270 --> 02:32.490
The Lord will open their graves, and they will rise from their graves.
02:32.570 --> 02:37.774
And so the Israelites may know that the Lord has not abandoned his
02:37.812 --> 02:38.158
people.
02:38.244 --> 02:43.120
The Lord has spoken, and the Lord will do it.
02:43.650 --> 02:47.230
God's word is not empty.
02:48.210 --> 02:52.126
Now, we fast forward a few hundred years, and now the Israelites are
02:52.148 --> 02:56.326
under a new ruler, the Roman Empire and a prophet greater than
02:56.348 --> 02:56.914
Ezekiel
02:56.962 --> 02:59.650
all the other prophets appears on the scene Jesus.
03:00.410 --> 03:05.246
Who John the Baptist calls the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of
03:05.268 --> 03:10.970
the world, and who, as God did in Ezekiel's vision, can raise the dead
03:11.130 --> 03:12.400
with his word.
03:13.250 --> 03:19.018
Jesus says to the little girl, I say to you, arise.
03:19.194 --> 03:22.442
And Jairus' daughter is made alive.
03:22.586 --> 03:26.338
Jesus says, Young man, I say to you, you arise.
03:26.514 --> 03:30.546
And the son of the widow at Nain is alive.
03:30.738 --> 03:34.120
And Jesus says, Lazarus, come out.
03:34.810 --> 03:40.329
And Lazarus walks out of his grave alive.
03:41.870 --> 03:46.250
Now, the rulers and leaders in Jerusalem did not like this, and they
03:46.320 --> 03:49.130
reject Jesus, and he's crucified.
03:50.130 --> 03:54.926
Jesus, who lived in perfect obedience to the Father's will, takes the
03:54.948 --> 03:55.770
world's sins.
03:55.850 --> 04:03.314
The world's disobedience upon himself your sins and my sins, and he
04:03.352 --> 04:09.090
suffers the punishment for those sins on the cross, and he is killed.
04:09.590 --> 04:13.986
And Jesus does something even more miraculous than raising other
04:14.007 --> 04:15.146
people from the dead.
04:15.278 --> 04:21.714
He himself is raised from the dead and gains victory over sin, death
04:21.762 --> 04:22.482
and the devil.
04:22.546 --> 04:29.770
What looked like checkmate, what looked like game over was a victory
04:30.270 --> 04:35.690
for you, for me, for all who walk by faith with Jesus.
04:36.750 --> 04:39.778
You who once were dead.
04:39.974 --> 04:45.210
Nothing but a pile of dry bones scattered across the valley of death
04:45.290 --> 04:50.810
and sorrow are united to Christ through your baptism
04:50.890 --> 04:53.358
and you are made alive, too.
04:53.524 --> 04:53.902
St.
04:53.956 --> 04:57.742
Paul writes in Galatians Three, for as many of you as were baptized
04:57.806 --> 04:59.938
into Christ have put on Christ.
05:00.024 --> 05:01.614
There's neither Jew nor Greek.
05:01.662 --> 05:03.346
There's neither slave nor free.
05:03.448 --> 05:05.258
There's no male and female.
05:05.374 --> 05:08.274
You are all one in Christ Jesus.
05:08.322 --> 05:15.110
And if you are Christ, then you are united in Christ.
05:15.180 --> 05:16.086
You are Christ.
05:16.188 --> 05:20.566
You are Abraham's offspring according to the promise. You're
05:20.598 --> 05:28.106
incorporated into the body of Christ, where you receive all that the
05:28.128 --> 05:30.702
Lord has promised to his holy people.
05:30.836 --> 05:32.909
You are his holy people.
05:32.980 --> 05:37.385
The Lord has promised you that your graves will be opened.
05:37.418 --> 05:40.159
He has promised you life.
05:41.090 --> 05:46.926
Now, it may still feel like you're in the valley of dry bones today.
05:47.108 --> 05:50.720
It may feel like checkmate for you right now.
05:51.490 --> 05:54.026
Maybe you have assignments that are piled up past due.
05:54.058 --> 05:55.861
You don't know how they're going to get them done.
05:55.996 --> 05:57.000
Call day.
05:57.370 --> 05:59.620
It's 27 days, 9 hours away.
06:00.570 --> 06:02.494
Feels like it may never come.
06:02.692 --> 06:05.054
Or maybe you don t want it to come.
06:05.172 --> 06:09.598
Maybe you are scared to death to go out into the harvest field.
06:09.684 --> 06:13.902
You look around the world, you see a culture increasingly hostile to
06:13.956 --> 06:14.778
Christianity.
06:14.874 --> 06:15.998
Where are you going to go?
06:16.084 --> 06:17.646
Is it going to be a good fit?
06:17.748 --> 06:19.502
Are my kids going to be in a good school?
06:19.556 --> 06:23.982
Is my wife going to fit in? With so few workers in the harvest field
06:24.036 --> 06:28.630
is the burden just going to be too much for me to handle?
06:31.740 --> 06:36.490
Yes, some days maybe the burden will be too much.
06:37.180 --> 06:42.168
But that's when you remember your baptism.
06:42.264 --> 06:46.284
You remember the new life that you have through the water
06:46.402 --> 06:56.796
and the word, you are a baptized child of Christ. The old Adam that's
06:56.828 --> 07:02.076
in you, that causes you to stumble and to fall, is by daily contrition
07:02.108 --> 07:06.832
and repentance, drown and killed with all sins and evil desires.
07:06.896 --> 07:12.340
And a new person will emerge daily and rise to live a new life in God,
07:12.409 --> 07:14.992
in righteousness and purity forever.
07:15.056 --> 07:21.304
So despite what you may be feeling right now and what you think your
07:21.342 --> 07:27.000
future looks like, know that your future is not uncertain.
07:27.740 --> 07:31.070
We know exactly what our future looks like.
07:31.840 --> 07:39.724
Hear the words of Ezekiel 37 again, this mind, a portion of Ezekiel 37
07:39.842 --> 07:45.409
with judgment Day in mind, with your bones in mind.
07:46.740 --> 07:49.980
So I prophesied as I was commanded.
07:50.140 --> 07:56.464
And as I was prophesying, there was a noise, a rattling sound, bones
07:56.512 --> 07:58.752
coming together, bone to bone.
07:58.816 --> 08:03.216
I looked, and tendons and flesh appeared on them and skin covered
08:03.248 --> 08:06.707
them, but there was no breath in them.
08:06.874 --> 08:11.352
And he said to me, prophesy to the breath, prophesy, son of man.
08:11.406 --> 08:17.032
And say to it, this is what the Sovereign Lord said come, breath of
08:17.086 --> 08:23.230
four winds, and breathe into these slain that they may live.
08:24.400 --> 08:25.580
And boom.
08:25.919 --> 08:26.904
Out of the grave
08:26.952 --> 08:33.056
you come flying out of the grave at the word of Jesus, and you are a
08:33.078 --> 08:37.890
new creation, fully human, just as God said he would do.
08:38.580 --> 08:43.264
And then we get John's revelation in chapter seven again.
08:43.382 --> 08:45.904
Picture yourself. After this
08:45.942 --> 08:50.223
I looked, and there before me was a great multitude that no one could
08:50.262 --> 08:54.800
count, from every nation, tribe, people and language standing before
08:54.870 --> 08:58.675
the throne in front of the Lamb, all wearing robes and holding palm
08:58.708 --> 08:59.590
branches in your hands.
09:00.170 --> 09:01.786
And you cry with a loud voice
09:01.898 --> 09:06.394
Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne and to the Lamb.
09:06.522 --> 09:08.814
And the angels and all standing around
09:08.852 --> 09:11.566
and the elders, the four living creatures, they bow down on their
09:11.588 --> 09:14.990
faces, worshiping God and saying, Amen.
09:15.570 --> 09:19.854
Praise and glory and wisdom and thanks and honor and power and
09:19.892 --> 09:23.886
strength is to our God forever and ever.
09:24.068 --> 09:24.822
Amen.
09:24.996 --> 09:30.386
And one of the elders asks, who are these in white robes?
09:30.418 --> 09:30.838
Who are they?
09:30.844 --> 09:32.200
Where do they come from?
09:32.570 --> 09:35.078
And I say, Lord, you know.
09:35.244 --> 09:40.426
And he said, These are the ones who have come out of the great
09:40.528 --> 09:41.350
tribulation.
09:41.430 --> 09:45.946
They have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the
09:45.968 --> 09:46.294
Lamb.
09:46.342 --> 09:50.474
Therefore, they are before the throne of God, worshipping and serving
09:50.522 --> 09:56.970
day and night, before the throne and in His temple.
09:57.130 --> 10:05.330
And He puts his tent over them where you will never hunger again.
10:05.480 --> 10:07.022
You will never thirst.
10:07.086 --> 10:09.314
The sun will not beat upon you.
10:09.352 --> 10:11.826
The scorching heat will not affect you.
10:11.848 --> 10:17.266
For the Lamb at the center of the throne will be your shepherd.
10:17.458 --> 10:22.040
And He will lead you to springs of living water.
10:22.650 --> 10:27.310
And God will wipe away all your tears.
10:27.490 --> 10:30.140
This is your future.
10:30.990 --> 10:35.146
The Holy Spirit, given to you through the word of God and the
10:35.168 --> 10:41.790
assurance of your baptism gives you the power to face today and every
10:41.860 --> 10:42.334
day
10:42.452 --> 10:43.550
confidently.
10:44.050 --> 10:49.150
You'll be able to handle whatever Satan tries to throw at you because
10:49.220 --> 10:52.010
you know how the story ends.
10:52.170 --> 10:55.150
There will be no checkmate for you.
10:55.300 --> 10:58.800
The game is rigged in your favor.
10:59.330 --> 11:00.906
Because of Jesus
11:01.098 --> 11:03.726
victory is certain.
11:03.908 --> 11:06.440
Life is certain.
11:07.130 --> 11:11.880
The Lord has spoken, and the Lord will do it.
11:12.330 --> 11:13.350
Amen.
11:14.330 --> 11:18.226
The peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, guard your hearts
11:18.258 --> 11:21.750
and minds in Christ Jesus to life everlasting.
11:22.170 --> 11:23.090
Amen.