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.