Scripture Ezekiel 36:26-27a
Acts 17:22-34
Paul then
stood up in the meeting of the Areopagus and said: "Men of Athens! I see
that in every way you are very religious. For as I walked around and looked
carefully at your objects of worship, I even found an altar with this inscription:
TO AN UNKNOWN GOD. Now what you worship as something unknown I am going to
proclaim to you.
"The God
who made the world and everything in it is the Lord of heaven and earth and
does not live in temples built by hands. 25 And he is not served by human
hands, as if he needed anything, because he himself gives all men life and
breath and everything else. From one man he made every nation of men, that they
should inhabit the whole earth; and he determined the times set for them and
the exact places where they should live. God did this so that men would seek
him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from each
one of us. 'For in him we live and move and have our being.' As some of your
own poets have said, 'We are his offspring.'
"Therefore
since we are God's offspring, we should not think that the divine being is like
gold or silver or stone — an image made by man's design and skill. In the past
God overlooked such ignorance, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent.
31 For he has set a day when he will judge
the world with justice by the man he has appointed. He has given proof of this
to all men by raising him from the dead."
When they
heard about the resurrection of the dead, some of them sneered, but others said,
"We want to hear you again on this subject." At that, Paul left the
Council. A few men became followers of Paul and believed. Among them was
Dionysius, a member of the Areopagus, also a woman named Damaris, and a number
of others.
Adam receives the Breath of Life
Genesis 2:4-7
This is the account of the heavens and the
earth when they were created. When the Lord
God made the earth and the heavens —
and no shrub of the field had yet appeared on the earth and no plant of
the field had yet sprung up, for the Lord
God had not sent rain on the earth and there was no man to work the
ground, but streams came up from the earth and watered the whole surface of the
ground — 7 the Lord God formed the man from
the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and
the man became a living being.
Dry bones receive the Breath of Life
Ezekiel 37:1-14
The hand of the Lord was upon 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. 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. He asked me, "Son of man, can these bones
live?" I said, "O Sovereign Lord ,
you alone know."
Then he said to me, "Prophesy to these bones and say to them, 'Dry bones, hear
the word of the Lord ! This is what the Sovereign Lord says to these bones: I will make breath enter
you, and you will come to life. I will attach tendons to you and make flesh
come upon you and cover you with skin; I will put breath in you, and you will
come to life. Then you will know that I am the Lord .'"
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. I looked, and tendons and flesh appeared on them and
skin covered them, but there was no breath in them.
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 from the four winds, O breath, and breathe into these slain,
that they may live.'" So I prophesied as he commanded me, and
breath entered them; they came to life and stood up on their feet — a vast
army.
Then he said to me: "Son of man, these bones are the whole house of Israel.
They say, 'Our bones are dried up and our hope is gone; we are cut off.'
Therefore prophesy and say to them: 'This is what the Sovereign Lord says: O 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.
Then you, my people, will know that I am the Lord , when I open your graves and
bring you up from them. I will put my Spirit in you and you will live, and I
will settle you in your own land. Then you will know that I the Lord have spoken, and I have done it, declares the
Lord .'"
God breathes into us an Eternal Breath
Illustrate how God raised Jesus
form the dead - entering the sealed tomb, kneeling and breathing into his
nostrils the breath of life - the ETERNAL BREATH OF LIFE!
In The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, C. S.
Lewis introduces us to four children who find their way into a wondrous land
through the back of a wardrobe closet in an uncle's house. The children, two
boys and two girls, enter this magical land called Narnia, with its rolling
hills, towering mountains, and rich, deep forests populated by the most
remarkable beasts—all of whom can speak. However, they find the land covered
with snow, cursed by perpetual winter.
We're also introduced to a wicked queen.
She is a usurper to the throne. She is also a witch who is empowered with
extraordinary gifts. She is the one who holds Narnia under her spell for this
curse of perpetual winter. Lastly we're introduced to a lion. He's a
mysterious, wondrous beast who comes from beyond Narnia and from beyond time.
He's spoken of in hushed, reverent terms. In fact, when one of the girls asked
a beaver, "Is this lion safe?" the beaver responded, "Safe? Oh
my, no. But he's good."
This lion, throughout the Chronicles of
Narnia, is Christ. This lion lays down his life for Narnia, dies on a stone
table, and then rises from the dead more glorious and majestic than ever. In
his majestic risen state he proceeds to reverse the effects of the curse upon
Narnia. Wherever he goes or leads his troops, the effects of the curse are
reversed. You need not see him physically to know he is near. You know he is
near because the trees begin to thaw and the crocuses bud and bloom, and the
flowers begin to break through the surface of the snow.
Toward the end of the story, Aslan, this
lion, leads a troop of liberators into the castle of the wicked queen and finds
the courtyard strewn with stone statues. These statues were creatures that had
been turned to stone by the curse of the wicked witch. One wonders, as Aslan
strides into this castle, how he is going to free those who have been turned to
stone. We find out immediately because the great beast strides to the first of
these statues, lowers his regal head near it, and breathes upon it. As the
breath of the lion touches the stone, the stone ripples into flesh. As his
breath fills the lungs of those who were once stone, they awaken and begin to
sing and dance and shout the glories of the one who freed them: Aslan, the
great and mighty one.
Ezekiel
36:26-27a
I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you;
I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. And I
will put my Spirit in you.
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