When the day of Pentecost came, they were all altogether in one place. Suddenly there was a sound like the blowing of a violent wind that came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting. They saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each them. All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit entered them.

If you would like I’d encourage you to open your Bible to Acts 2.1-4 and put a maker there and then back in Old Testament open to Ezekiel 37.1-14

The title for today’s sermon is “Great Staging”. Some of you may wonder, what is God up to? Some of us wonder that from time to time, but today, what is God up to with this Valley of Dry Bones and how does it tie to Pentecost?

Ezekiel the Old Testament prophet is led by the Spirit, 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 filled with dry bones. What does this mean? A little background information: the nations of Israel and Judah had been overrun by the Assyrians and Babylonians. Ezekiel and his people were in captivity. There is no way for this conquered and captive nation to ever rise again- they are as good as dead. They are like a valley filled with long since decaying corpses- they are a valley of dried bones.

Some will be tempted to say, then as now, “It is hopeless,” and from a worldly point of view they would be right but what we call hopeless I want you to consider as “good staging.” “I,” says the Lord, “will do what is impossible for man.” Bring life to a valley of dried bones this is good staging- pay attention!

In our Acts lesson all the disciples are gathered in one place and suddenly there was a sound like the blowing of a violent wind that came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting. This blowing is a neon sign. It means pay attention. God has a way of using natural events in unique and special ways to get our attention.

When I was in Amherst we had what many described as a “micro-burst of wind a few miles north of the parsonage. This incredible wind took a large section of nearly waist-high corn and in a matter of moments spun the corn stocks down to six inch stubs. People were drawn from all over to see what had happened, and it was amazing to see.

Drawn to see, God uses His forces of nature to get people’s attention- that is good staging. Pay Attention! Moses was drawn to a burning bush, a bush that burns but is not consumed by fire. (Exodus 3.2) That is great staging- pay attention. Pharaoh was presented with a series of plagues. Just coincidence? I don’t think so! Plagues of flies, gnats, and water turned to blood were neon signs, “great staging”- pay attention. Jesus hanging on the cross, the one whom people mocked as they passed by, saying, if you are the Son of God come from there and we will believe in you. (Matt 27.42) And darkness came over the whole land from sixth to the ninth hour. At His death there was a great earthquake and the curtain in the temple was torn in half from top to bottom. Coincidences? I don’t think so what we have is great staging- we have God saying pay attention! And there was the blowing of a violent wind, a micro-bust in this one place and people came to see what had happen – great staging God!

How often do we miss the great staging whether we read about it in the Bible which after all gives first hand accounts or even events in our life that are great staging? How often do we fail to pay attention?

About these people who were there, they were in Jerusalem from all over the Roman world for the Festival of Weeks, the gathering of the first fruits of the grain harvests. The Festival of Weeks was one of the three great festivals that the Jews were to observe, and observe in Jerusalem if possible. God has gathered in one place all these people from all over and after hearing Peter’s great speech about the life, death and resurrection of Jesus will take the message of the risen Messiah to other far flung places that others may hear. Just coincidence or God’s great staging?

Back to the prophet Ezekiel, the Spirit spoke to him saying, speak to these bones, prophesy to them: I will make breath come into them…I will attach tendons and cover you with skin; I will put breath into you and you will come to life. Then you will know that I am the Lord. (Ezekiel 37. 5-6) Your hope was cut off, but I bring you back to the land of Israel…I will put my Spirit on you, I will again settle you in the land, and you will know that I am the sovereign Lord.

Back to Acts, the disciples gathered in the room are filled with the Holy Spirit. Just a quick note: they, like all of us, already had the Holy Spirit. What we see happening at Pentecost is the Spirit turns up the volume if you will, making Himself more known and active within them- they can’t stop from proclaiming the message of God, if they don’t they will surely burst! Again, great staging by the Spirit! It is this action of the Spirit compelling them, creating such an overwhelming desire within to go and tell, that I pray He would create in each of us.

In Acts, the text reports that when (the people gathered in Jerusalem) to hear the sound (of the violent wind) a crowd came together in bewilderment because they heard (the disciples) speaking in each of their own languages. Utterly amazed they asked: Are not all these men speaking Galilean (uneducated commoners)? How is it then that each of us hears them in (each of our own) languages? Hardly a coincidence but nothing short of great staging, staging that says even today “Pay Attention!” Maybe we ought to pay more than polite attention to not just the fact that they were talking but what they were talking about.

(Now turn over to Acts 2.22) The message to pay attention to was: Men of Israel (people gathered here today) listen to this: Jesus of Nazareth was a Man accredited by God to you by miracles, wonders and signs, which God did among you through Him, as you yourselves know. This man was handed over to you by God’s set purpose and foreknowledge; and you, with the help of wicked men, put Him to death by nailing Him to the cross. But God raised Him from the dead, freeing Him from the agony of death, because it was impossible for death to hold Him. (Acts 2.22-24) And death will not hold those who believe in Jesus as Lord and Savior.

All this is nice Pastor, but I am not dead and I am not, as far as I know, dying right now, so how does all this good staging effect me? How can it make a difference today and tomorrow and the next day? When I was in New Orleans, Pastor Simenoux shared some pictures of the damage the storms had done to his church. One picture stands out in my mind. It was of one of the Sunday school rooms. The rain water that poured down through the roof, which the violent wind had torn off, and the soggy, drooping ceiling was collapsing from the weight of water and mold. But what makes the picture important is not what your eye sees at first but what your eye misses that which Satan would want you to miss: there on the wall in the midst of all this destruction is a picture of Jesus. He is there reminding us that He is with us even in the midst of storms and the destruction they bring. He isn’t just a man. He is God in flesh appearing who proved Himself, accredited Himself by all that he did through His life, death, and resurrection. This One from heaven, this all-powerful God has promised to see us through all the storms of this life. He didn’t promise because we believe in Him to magically lift us out of our struggles or say if you believe in Me all your troubles will be gone, no but He did promise to see us through them in time calming them, altering them and at times calming and altering us. All this He does through the work of the Spirit who was poured out upon us in our baptism and the hearing of His Word. All this He assures us by and through communion- all of Jesus coming to us in a real way- taking hold of us in very real, tangible way. Coincidences or great planning and great staging that we might believe, and by believing have a life, peace, and hope now even in the midst of storms and one day in heaven eternally?

It is this Spirit within us that reassures us to believe, to cling to, to trust the Words of Jesus, the God/man, that declared: In this world you will have trouble, but take heart! (for I have overcome the world. (John 16.33) and surely (Jesus says in Matthew) I am with you to every end of the age. (28.20)

All around are people who are nothing but dry bones cut off from any real hope. Oh, to the world and to each other they look alive enough, but to God they are dry bones. They need to hear of our Jesus who restores life, but how will they hear if no one tells them? Will you pray with me? Holy Spirit, I ask that you fill our hearts full to the point of bursting with the message of the stable, the cross, and the empty tomb so others would hear and marvel at the message of the real salvation found in Jesus. Make us bold for the Gospel!

Amen