Tips for Teaching This Week’s Session of The Gospel Project for Adults

Listen to this week’s leader training podcast with Y Bonesteele, team leader for The Gospel Project for Adults, for a summary and guidance in leading your group.

This week’s additional resources for study and preparation:

• Article: “Yes, Preaching Really Does Change People” by Mike Bullmore 
• Sermon: “The God Who Makes Alive” by Tim Keller
• Sermon: “Spiritual Restoration” by Jim Richards 
• Sermon: “Dead Bones Live” by Ricky Harris

Transcript of Leader Training Podcast:

Hi, this is Y Bonesteele, team leader of the Gospel Project for Adults. Welcome to another Leader Training podcast. Today we are in Unit 15, Session 5: God’s Revival Promised, with the core passage of Ezekiel 37:1-14 and the key concept of: God revives His people when hope seems lost.

Like the Context states, Ezekiel was brought up to be a priest in Jerusalem, but he was carried away to Babylon during the exile. He served as a prophet for the Israelites in exile. He prophesied through symbolism and analogies in the way he acted and the words he spoke. Early on, he prophesied about the destruction of the temple and Jerusalem and the condemnation on Israel and the nations because of their unfaithfulness and idolatry. But by chapter 37, God gave him a message of hope as well, as God always does for His people because of His love and compassion.

So God gave Ezekiel a vision, a valley full of bones: “He led me all around them. There were a great many of them on the surface of the valley, they were very dry” in verse 2. Now, you can imagine, anything like a valley of bones is going to be menacing, somber, maybe even scary. This description emotes a scene that is catastrophic in that the bones were never properly buried which is major issue for the culture. The bones are many and they are dry which means they’ve been dead for a very long time. This conveys the idea of utter hopelessness of life.

And God asked Ezekiel, “Can these bones live?” And Ezekiel not knowing the answer, answered correctly in saying, “Lord, God, only you know.” And God told him to prophesy to the bones. And the first command? “Dry bones, hear the word of the Lord!” in verse 4. This “hear” is the same as listen and obey, the same words seen in the famous Shema that Jews pray in Deuteronomy 6:4, “Listen, Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one.” So Ezekiel told the bones to hear God’s words. And God told them that He would cause breath to enter them and they would live. He would put tendons on them, make flesh grow, cover them with skin, and put breath in them.

And God would do this so that “you will know that I am the Lord” in verse 6. Only God could bring back life for so many from death that was so dry.  So Ezekiel did as was told, probably starting with the tendons, and flesh, and skin. And immediately, while he was prophesying, the noise of rattling bones coming to life, with tendons and flesh came about. “But there was no breath in them” in verse 8. So God told Ezekiel to continue prophesying for breath to come from “the four winds,” from the north, east, south and west.

Now the word for breath, “ruah,” appears 10 times in verses 1-14. It is not only translated as “breath” but also as “Spirit” in verse 1, as well as “winds” in verse 9. If you count it all up and see only 9, the CSB in verse 9 translated “Say to it” in the Hebrew is literally “say to the breath.”  Though there are distinct definitions here, Ezekiel is emphasizing the word, thus emphasizing the idea of the Spirit and breath at work to make life happen.

So as Ezekiel obeyed God, breath entered the newly formed bodies, they came to life, stood on their feet as “a vast army,” servants for God, ready to battle the spiritual forces before them. God was able to revive and restore life from utter hopelessness, from dry bones lying in a valley.

How does this passage challenge your faith in God’s power to work in hopeless situations? If God can revive life from dry bones, He can do anything. And only God can do so. Only God can restore and renew and bring life and hope, warriors, from death and decrepit bones. Only God can do that and because He can do that, He can do anything—restore marriages, restore families, transform the greatest atheist to the strongest believer. God can do it all.

And after Ezekiel’s vision of dry bones coming to life, God explained the vision.

What is God’s role in our understanding of His Word, and how should we submit to that?

God and His Spirit help us understand His Word more as believers. We understand it differently than those who don’t believe and read His Word because we have the Spirit in us and they don’t. Because we do and can understand better what His Word says and means, (although there may be much we don’t understand), we submit to God’s word and try to obey with the Spirit’s help.

So God explained His vision. Some may initially read the idea that the vision may refer to the end times or bodily resurrection of the future, but God clearly stated that it was a metaphor, “These bones are the whole house of Israel” in verse 11. Israel was in exile, and they were like dry bones, feeling “dried up,” as if their “hope has perished,” like they were “cut off,” because they were, from their own doing, because of their years of unfaithfulness.

But God had a message of hope. Because the Israelites felt cut off, “therefore,” God gave them a message through Ezekiel: “I am going to open your graves and bring you up from them, my people, and lead you into the land of Israel.” God would not abandon His people forever; they would not be cut off forever. God would open their graves, restore them, give them new life and bring them back to the land. And even moreso, God says, “You will know that I am the Lord, my people, when I open your graves and bring you up from them.” How? “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 am the Lord.” God giving breath to the dry bones is like God giving His people His Spirit, giving them life as He meant them to have all along.

How can we rely on the Holy Spirit to live out God’s purposes for our lives? By surrendering to God’s will and asking daily for the Spirit to guide us and teach us and lead us in His ways. The more we pause and rest on the Spirit’s strength and guidance, the more we will be able to live out God’s purposes for our lives.

And to confirm God’s statements, He said, “I have spoken, and I will do it. This is the declaration of the Lord.” He stated it as a promise and a confirmation. God does not abandon His people for long. He gives them hope in the midst of exile, in the midst of persecution and suffering, so that they may know Him.

And it is still true today. Because of sin, we deserve death. But God sent His Son, Jesus, to die so that we might have hope and live. Like the Gospel Connection states: Though sin, guilt, and shame may have a hold on us, God’s resurrection power brings renewed life to those who trust in His Son, Jesus, who conquered sin and death through His resurrection. For God is a God who revives His people when hope seems lost.

Onto the Group Activity, then, prepare to bring a pencil, wooden spoon, and cardboard box to the group. Follow the instructions on page 156 of the Leader Guide for the Arrival engagement, looking at things that came from the life of a tree, something growing and transforming, to inanimate and lifeless. Transition to the Context, reminding the group that Ezekiel lived through being taken captive by the Babylonians and in exile, prophesying continued judgment on Israel and the surrounding nations. But in the midst of all that desolation, hope remained because God does not abandon His people forever.

Then Recap with the question, “Why do you think God led Ezekiel ‘all around’ the bones before asking if the bones could live?” God wanted Ezekiel to see the many bones and the seeming hopelessness of it all. Being so many and so dry, without God, it would have been impossible for life to come from those bones at all. Continue with asking what else stood out to the group from the passage.

Move into the Group Activity pointing the group to page 126 of the Personal Study Guide. Have someone read Ezekiel 37:1-14. Ask everyone to listen with eyes closed, picturing the scene. The Leader Guide tells you to ask, “What did the bones represent in light of Ezekiel’s ministry?” but hold off on that question for now. Instead, first identify how Ezekiel described the bones in verses 1-4, and write the answers in the left column, even doodling it if desired, but use the top half. The bones were many, they were on the surface of the valley, and they were dry.

Then looking at verses 5-10, ask: “What took place to bring the bones from dry to living?” and write them or draw them in the middle column, top half. God told Ezekiel to tell the bones to hear the words of the Lord. And when Ezekiel prophesied, immediately the bones rattled and came together, and tendons appeared, then flesh grew, and skin covered them. And Ezekiel prophesied that breath would come.

Then fill in the right column with the descriptions of the now-living bones in verse 10, that breath entered the newly formed bodies, they came to life and stood on their feet, like an army.

Now look at verses 11-14, guiding your group to draw a line on the chart in their PSG to use the bottom half of each column, interpreting the vision. In the first column then, the many, dry bones are Israel, dry because of their years of unfaithfulness and idolatry. In the second column, the bones turning into flesh is God restoring the people to their land, also to a coming new covenant, where they are revived with His breath, His Spirit. And in the last column, the newly formed standing army is God’s restored people because of the Spirit working in them.

Debrief with: “What is the significance of the breath in these verses? What does “breath” represent throughout Scripture?” It is God’s Spirit and only God’s Spirit can give life, physically and spiritually.

“After all that the nation of Israel had done to reject God, why would He choose this course of action? What was His purpose in revealing this scene to Ezekiel?” Because God is compassionate, loving, and merciful, He always has a plan of hope that restores His people. Though the people rejected God, they would return to Him. And God wanted them to know that He always provides a way. He would revive and restore them because He loves His people.

Summarize and tackle the Heads question if time is limited: “How does our understanding and faith in God impact our obedience to Him and our proclamation of His gospel?” Ezekiel’s faith knowing God knows all things allowed him to obey God in prophesying for the bones to live again. For us today, when we have faith in God and His character, His ability to do anything, we can obey Him quicker and easier because we know He will accomplish His purposes. Nothing is too difficult for God and He allows us to partner with Him if we choose to obey.

Challenge your group to go through one or more of the Next Steps options like praying for hope and revival in our world. End in prayer request and praises and pray through Psalm 80: 17-19: “17 Let your hand be with the man at your right hand, with the son of man you have made strong for yourself. 18 Then we will not turn away from you; revive us, and we will call on your name. 19 Restore us, Lord, God of Armies; make your face shine on us, so that we may be saved.”

Hey, thanks for joining me on another Leader Training podcast. Write me at [email protected] and hope you have a great group time!