Pastor Sherry’s message for March 22, 2026 

Scriptures: Ezekiel 37:1-14; Ps 130; Romans 8:6-11; John 11:1-45

The story is told that…

“In a remote Swiss village stands a beautiful church–Mountain Valley Cathedral. It has high pillars and magnificent stained glass windows, but what makes it special is the most beautiful pipe organ in the whole region. People would come from far off lands just to hear the lovely tunes of this organ.

“One dreadful day something went wrong with the pipe organ. It released the wrong tones and produced only sounds of disharmony. Musicians and experts from around the world tried to repair it. No one could find the problem. It was uniquely made; it had been customized, so no one really knew how to fix it. They gave up.

“After some time, one old man arrived for a worship service. “Why wasn’t the pipe organ used?” It’’s not playing right” said the church staff. “Let me try to fix it,” replied the man. Since it had been lying there essentially useless, the staff reluctantly agreed to let the old man try his hand at it. For two days the old man worked in almost total silence. The church workers were, in fact, getting a bit nervous. Then on the third day at noon, suddenly music poured forth from what had been a dead instrument. The pipe organ gave off the best music after so many years. The people in the village heard the beautiful music. They came to the church to see. This old man was playing at the organ. After he finished, one man asked, “How did you fix it? How did you manage to restore this magnificent instrument when even the world’s experts could not?” The old man said, “It was I who built this organ fifty years ago. I created it, and now I have restored it.”

(James S. Hewett, Illustrations Unlimited, Wheaton: Tyndale House Publishers, 1988, pp. 244-245.)

It took the creator of the organ to restore it. The congregation of Mountain Valley Cathedral were totally blessed when the fellow who built the organ showed up. The old fellow had designed and constructed it; so he certainly would know what needed to be done to restore it.

Now think about us. Who is there who is in the best position to restore us?

Medical science knows a lot about the human body—and I am not trying to disparage them, as they have been gifted by God to help–but their medicine doesn’t always heal us does it? We can read self-help books or listen to podcasts by “experts,” regarding what ails us, or even order supplements off the internet said to be healing, but even they often disappoint.

Our divine Creator is both knowledgeable enough and powerful enough to restore us. Nicodemus (from John 3)came to Jesus wanting to know how to enter heaven-→Jesus, the King of Heaven, told him to be “born again”—to develop a personal relationship with His Savior, which he did. The woman at the well (from John 4) wanted water she would not have to draw from the well daily—Jesus told her He is the Living Water, God’s Word made flesh. If she repented of her sins, and drank in His words daily, she would never spiritually thirst again. The man born blind (from John 9) was given his sight by Jesus,

He then gazed upon the Messiah. The skeptical Pharisees missed out, but the newly sighted man perceived the Light of the World. In today’s Gospel, John 11, Jesus demonstrates His power over life and death, revealing Him as the Resurrection and the giver of Life.

Our Scripture lessons today all stress our Lord’s ability to bring us to bring us exactly what we need, to bring us to complete restoration: 

A. Let’s begin with our Old Testament lesson from Ezekiel 37:1-14. The prophet Ezekiel is foretelling the restoration of the nation of Israel. At that time, the Israelites—due to their idolatry and rebellion– had been taken captive by the Babylonians and exiled away from the Promised Land. While still in captivity, God sent His mouthpiece, Ezekiel, to tell them the Lord meant to revive them spiritually, and to bring them home. In a sense, they are just like the dry, desiccated bones lying about in a disconnected disarray. A modern crime scene investigator would have postulated a titanic battle had taken place and the victors had denied their vanquished foes a proper burial (a sign of contempt). But the Lord tells His prophet these bones are what is left of His Chosen People.

The Lord then instructs the prophet to prophesy to the bones—i.e., to tell them God’s truth. As Ezekiel speaks God’s words over the bones, they reassemble in stages: From scattered fragments to cadavers (bodies without life), to a restored and living assembly! The prophet speaks, but it is our God who gives them life. Since our God creates life, like the old organist, He can certainly bring about complete restoration!

B. Our psalmist (Psalm 130) wants us to remember that our God hears us when we call to Him out of our deep distress. Are you grieving? Tell the Lord about it. Are you worried about your health, your adult children, your grands, your finances? Take your anxieties to the Lord. Does the news upset you? Do the wars going on cause you concern. Each negative news item can become for you a prompt to prayer. We need to remember, as Beth Moore says, that when a problem is over our heads, it is always under God’s feet. We can put our faith in Him because He cares for us. He is a God of unfailing love (v.6). Verse 7 assures us that His redemption overflows. Again, the message is clear: Our God has the power to restore us completely.

C. As Paul writes in Romans 8:6-11 (NLT, v.9)-→But you are not controlled by your sinful nature. You are controlled by the Spirit if you have the Spirit of God living in you. So we want to honor the Holy Spirit within us and listen to His guidance. Furthermore, we have this blessed assurance (v.10-11)-→And Christ lives within you, so even though your body will die because of sin, the Spirit gives you life because you have been made right with God. The Spirit of God, who raised Jesus from the dead, lives in you. And just as God raised Christ Jesus from the dead, He will give life to your mortal bodies by this same Spirit living within you.

Hallelujah! We will be resurrected! Hallelujah! We will receive completely restored, resurrection bodies!

D. In our Gospel lesson (John 11:1-45), Jesus calls the 4-days-dead Lazarus out from the grave, alive again! Laz is the third of three folks Jesus resurrected before going to the Cross: The first was the 12YO daughter of the synagogue leader, Jairus, who had just died minutes before Jesus came to her.

The second was the son of the widow of Nain, who was being carried to the grave yard for burial. Since they buried people quickly, due to the heat, he might have been dead a day. Then came Lazarus. As with the man blind from birth, God the Father wanted people to know that His Son, Jesus, had the power to do the impossible. The man said no one had ever heard of a person born blind restored to sight. Similarly, no one had ever experienced watching a person, dead long enough to have begun to decay, brought back to life.

Jesus was giving His followers yet another chance to believe He was/is the Son of God. This, though was the coup de gras! More than merely healing, this was a demonstration of complete restoration power, miraculous resurrection power! Jesus tells Martha (vv.25-26, NIV)-→I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in Me will live, even though he dies; and whoever lives and believes in Me will never die….If we have Jesus, we have life!

The great novelist Fyodor Dostoevsky learned this first hand and it permanently changed his life. As an educated young man from a wealthy family, he flirted with communist revolutionary thought in pre-revolution 1917 Russia.

The Czar learned of his activities and had him arrested, tried, and sentenced to death by a firing squad. Dostoevsky was blind-folded, dressed in burial clothes, bound, and led into a public square where he was tied to a post. The young writer heard the firing squad cock their guns. The order was given, “Ready, aim….” But just at that moment, a message arrived from the Czar to commute the death penalty to four years of hard labor. Dostoevsky later wrote that he never totally recovered from this experience.

On the train to prison in Siberia, he was given a copy of the New Testament, which he devoured. Realizing it was God who had saved him, he then turned his life over to Christ. Despite witnessing some truly evil things done by his cellmates, he developed the belief that humans are only capable of loving if they believe they are loved. His novels stress the Christian themes of sin, repentance, grace, and forgiveness. In other words, coming so close to death radically altered his sense of what is important in life. The soon -to-be-great Russian author had been profoundly affected by the Lord’s rescue (complete restoration) of him (Original source of this story unknown.)

Do you realize that we are not meant by our God to fear death? Or anything, really? Why would we when we worship a God who can completely restore us to life? Why would we when we realize that our Lord Jesus and Our Heavenly Father are supremely powerful and totally loving? They created us and They know what we need to live life at its fullest and best.

Thanks be to God who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ!

Alleluia! Alleluia! 

©️2026 Rev. Dr. Sherry Adams