From the July-September 2008 Issue
Preaching to Dry Bones
Evangelos and Georgia Sikoutris
Again he said unto me, ‘Prophesy upon these bones, and say unto them, O you dry bones, hear the word of the Lord. Thus saith the Lord God unto these bones. Behold, I will cause breath to enter into you, and you shall live’ (Ezekiel 37:4,5).
It is always an awful thing, if not foolish, to preach or prophesy to the dead, in a cemetery or elsewhere. Nevertheless, this is exactly what the Almighty Lord said to his servant Ezekiel, in his vision of a valley which was full of dry bones. The people of God were in captivity and in a desperate situation, because of their apostasy from God. They say, ‘Our bones are dried up, and our hope is gone; we are cut off’ (verse 11).
Yet, this is exactly what we have been doing here in Patra by the grace of God, for more than twenty years. We are called to a pioneer situation, to give our testimony, preach and prophesy unto people who are, like we were all of us, dead (spiritually) in trespasses and sins (Ephesians 2:1). Their real need and only hope is the Gospel of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, which is the power of God unto salvation to all who believe.
However, it seems like we speak and prophesy to people in a cemetery. They don’t feel, understand, or respond to spiritual things. For to them the word of the cross is foolishness (1 Cor. 2:14). Nevertheless, this is the appointed and powerful divine way, if these people are to be made alive and eternally saved by the gracious Spirit of God. ‘It pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe’ (1 Cor.1:21). There is always at least a twofold danger or temptation for the preacher or the prophet. First, to get easily discouraged by preaching and prophesying to the dead, and second, to alter or compromise the message. Our attitude always should be, ‘So, I prophesied as he commanded me’ (Ezekiel 37:7,10).
A few made alive
By the grace of God, for more than fifteen years, as well as distributing leaflets, copies of the New Testament, calendars and Bible correspondence lessons, we have been printing and circulating a few thousand copies of the regular bi-monthly evangelistic paper Times of Refreshing. Through door-to-door work, personal testimony in the streets and in squares, in the university, in hospitals and in prisons, almost every house in our city has received at least one copy, twice or three times. It always is our great joy to see the breath of God upon a few of these ‘slain’, making them live.
The outcome from all these years by the grace of God is the establishment of a small church, gathered in rented premises in the centre of the city, to shine forth the light of the gospel. Some of the members in past years moved with the gospel to other places for different reasons. Besides this, there is a small monthly home meeting for Bible study in the town of Pyrgos, one hundred kilometres south. Recently our gracious Lord brought us in contact with some more people where His breath is upon them to make them live. Gifts and talents are being developed and exercised in our church and beyond, for which we thank and praise His Name!
…but the majority?
However there is no life in the vast majority, which makes us not only continue to prophesy unto them, but cry to the Lord also, ‘O breath of God…Come and breathe upon these slain…’ (verse 9). There are a few hundred of them (regular subscribers to our paper), and it seems that, ‘bones came together, bone to bone’; on some others, ‘sinews and flesh came upon them and the skin covered them, but there was no breath in them (yet)’ (verses 7, 8). These last ones, are those who come from time to time to our special evangelistic and other meetings, only to remind us of our weakness apart from the breath of the Sovereign Lord, because it is written, ‘Not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit saith the Lord of hosts’(Zechariah 4:6).
Opposition
One final word about prophesying to the dead in this great cemetery is this. Strange to say, there is opposition from them! Church history teaches us that it was always like this. John Wesley was preaching in the cemeteries in the eighteenth century and thousands of people gathered to hear the gospel. In our place here from time to time we face some threats and opposition, even when we prophesy to the dead. I had to appear myself in the court years ago, as the enemy was trying to stop our regular meetings. Next month, a Greek pastor in Athens has to appear in court to face the charge of proselytism, because during the Olympic Games in Athens 2004, together with others, he distributed copies of the Gospel to the public!
However, none can stop this great divine work. The Lord’s purposes will be fulfilled, ‘and the breath came upon them and they lived, and stood up upon their feet, an exceeding great army’ (verse 10). May our gracious and Almighty God be pleased to enable us to continue to sound forth the Word of life boldly for His glory and the extension of His kingdom. Please remember us in your prayers.