We are about to begin the lengthy church season of Pentecost with the next Sunday and the festival of Pentecost. The 3 assigned readings are Ezekiel 37:1-14; Acts 2:1-21 and John 15:26-27; 16:4b-15. While most sermons will discuss the event of Pentecost as found in Acts 2, we choose to use the Old Testament verse of Ezekiel 37:10, “So I prophesied as He commanded me, and breath came into them, and they lived, and stood upon their feet, an exceedingly great army.”

Unfortunately, the key teaching that resulted in the Reformation is no longer held in many evangelical congregations. That key teaching is that we are saved by grace through faith and that not of ourselves; it is the gift of God. What makes it even more sad is that most evangelicals do not realize that they no longer hold to this Biblical teaching as they continue to insist on a Decision theology. At first reading, one might conclude that Ezekiel 37 provides them with the ammunition they need. For obeying God’s command to speak to the dead bones, it appears that Ezekiel has the power not only to bring the bone togethers (verse 7); but also to have sinews and flesh come upon them and skin (verse and finally to give them breath (verse 10).

However, Scripture interprets Scripture. That means we look at the immediate context and then the wider context of the Bible to help interpret a particular passage. In this case we need go no further than the immediate context. While God indeed commands Ezekiel to say the words, God makes clear that it is He that is doing all the miraculous action. Verse 5 reveals God saying, “Surely I will cause breath to enter into you, and you shall live.” Similar verses where God takes all the credit for bringing these dead bones to life are verses 6 and 12.

What we find here is something that many Christians have not fully grasped and that is the way God normally works to effect salvation. He does it through other means. He does His work by using the hands, legs and voices of His children Who repeat to the listeners what God has originally said to them. Because many Christians are unaware of God’s working through us, they do not regard Baptism and the Lord’s Supper as sacraments but only as signs or evidences we want to give to the world that we believe in Jesus and that we remember what He did on the cross.

The radical nature of the sermon is to shock the listener into realizing that it is not our responsibility to convert anyone. That is the work of the Holy Spirit. However, the holy Trinity has revealed that such work is done only when the Word of God is taught in its purity and the sacraments adminstered rightly. On the Day of Pentecost Peter and the others were the Ezekiels for God as the Holy Spirit worked through both the word preached and the sacrament of baptism administered. There is no hint in the entire Bible that God does not get all the credit for our salvation. Yet many are under the delusion that we can contribute to that salvation by making the right choice or doing the right work. The text from Ezekiel discredits such a notion as it plainly reveals that God and God alone saves.