Luke 7:11-17
A reading from God’s word today
is Luke chapter 7, verses 11 through 17. We see Jesus on the
move. He’s traveling with his disciples. He’s traveling with his apostles.
He’s traveling with those who follow him from town to town.
We have seen him on a mountaintop praying and asking God to give
him men who would serve with him to build his church. We saw
him come down the mountain and teach. in the plains outside
of Capernaum. And now he’s been in Capernaum. He has helped a centurion and
he’s moved to another town over in the area of Nazareth, a little
town called Nain, where a widow has lost her only son. And so
let us hear from God’s word, picking up at the 11th verse
of chapter seven. Soon afterward, Jesus went to
a town called Nain and his disciples and a great crowd went with him.
As he drew near to the gate of that town, behold, a man who
had died was being carried out, the only son of his mother. And
she was a widow and a considerable crowd from the town was with
her. And when the Lord saw her, he
had compassion on her and said to her, do not weep. And he came
up and he touched the beer and the bearers stood still and he
said, young man, I say to you, arise. And the dead man sat up. He began to speak and Jesus gave
him to his mother. Fear seized them all and they
glorified God saying, a great prophet has risen among us and
God has visited his people. And this report about him spread
through the whole of Judea and all the surrounding country.
This is God’s word. Let’s pause and pray for his
help and grace. Pray with me. Lord, your word
is a lamp to our feet. It is a light unto our path.
And we ask that as we sit under your authority, as we sit before
your holy word, that your ever searching eyes Your eyes that
see all things, your word, which is a powerful sword, a double
edged sword. It cuts to the deepest of our
joints, our marrow. It sees all things. It judges
all things. It fixes all things. We pray
now that you would soften our hearts, that we might submit
to your word. Ease our minds that we would recognize that
we’re listening to the King of Kings, the Lord of Lords. We
pray most of all that you would You would do the work in us so
that we might give you our hands, our feet, our lives to do your
holy will. We need your help, your grace, your spirit, and
your blessing. So we ask for it now in Christ’s
name. Amen. I bet every one of you can identify
with this statement, you’re insurance poor. You pay health insurance. You pay life insurance. You pay
dental insurance. You’ve probably got eye insurance.
You’ve got homeowner’s insurance, renter’s insurance, car insurance. You’ve got liability insurance. Some of you have pet insurance. You have insurance on a special
piece of jewelry or a special article in your home. You have seen fit in your life
to reallocate your risk And so you purchase insurance, you spend,
what is it, the first five months of the year paying Uncle Sam.
We could probably figure it out, but I would bet at least the
next two or three months of our lives we spend paying insurance. It’s a risky world. Healthcare
cost, long-term care cost. The absence of a breadwinner
in the case of a untimely death. These life events, these potentials,
these possibilities cause us to want to reallocate our risk. And so we buy insurance. We are
insurance poor. Well, in the ancient Near East,
in the time and setting of our passage of scripture today, there
was no insurance. Your safety net, your social
security was your husband. Your safety net, your social
security was boys, sons, children who could help keep the family
farm running, who could keep the family business running,
who could provide an income, a steady income that was more
than just for the immediate family, it was for the generations living. You understand in your reading
of the Bible, particularly the book of Ruth, where Ruth had
married a husband and her mother-in-law had lost her husband and her
boys, and they were in a famine starved land. They made their
way back to Bethlehem. And we have that wonderful story
of Ruth meeting Boaz, who became the kinsman redeemer and ultimately
the grandparents of King David. whose greater son Jesus we see
today in our passage of scripture. This woman, this widow in our
story has at some point in time lost her husband. You have to
read the whole story. You have to see what’s going
on here. This widow, she’s already lost one means of support, one
bit of social security. She had no life insurance or
annuities to rely on, no government social security. And now she’s
lost her only son. She’s destitute. She’s lost in
the world. She’s not only grieving the loss
of a loved one. She’s wondering, how will I pay
the bills tomorrow? How will I put food on the table? And here we meet Jesus. We meet
Jesus, the Messiah. We meet Jesus, the one who came
to save. We meet Jesus, the one who can
make all things new. And as he and his entourage are
making their way toward the village of Nain, they come near the city
gate. And as they’re preparing to go
in the city gate, out comes a funeral processional. In the ancient
Near East, a funeral processional was not a blue limousine and
a couple of police cars on Church Street like we see. It’s a crowd
of people. It’s a crowd of people and they’re
carrying the body. It’s an open casket. There’s a crowd of mourners. There’s every friend, every neighbor,
every synagogue companion. It’s literally the whole town.
They close their windows, they shut their doors, they close
their shops. And they, together with this
widow, are making their way out of the town of Nain. out to the
cemetery, out to bury the dead. And Jesus meets this widow who
was very likely the head of the processional. She was very likely
the one whom Jesus met initially. And she is in tears. She’s bearing
on her face, bearing on her sleeve, as we would say, her losses,
her crosses, the death of her son, the raw emotions. It’s on
her face that she’s lost in this world and without hope. And she
is making her final walk with her last or her only son. And he will soon be entombed
in the ground. And there’s some sense of finality
facing her in just a few steps. This passage displays for us
who Jesus is. And the first thing I want us
to notice as we see Jesus in action in this passage, first
thing I want us to see is the heart of Christ. In verse 13,
we read these words. And when the Lord saw her, he
had compassion on her and he said to her, do not weep. How often do we see people in
need? How often in our automobiles
are we making our way through Burlington or Greensboro or wherever
we live and do our business and we see we see somebody on the
side of the road asking for help. Or we see an automobile crash
and we see someone in need, or we hear of someone in the church
who’s lost a loved one, or we hear that someone is sick for
the third week, a fourth week, a fifth week, or that a bone
has been broken, the surgery has been scheduled. How often
do we think of the repercussions in others lives? Or how often
do we hear the newscast? Another this in this country,
another that in this city, another round of storms sweeping through
Alabama. How often do we let it really
sink in that people are homeless? People have died. Someone’s lost
a son. Someone’s lost a mother. Someone’s
lost a child. How often do we think someone
isn’t going to be able to prepare meals because their broken hip
is mending or someone because of this news has real need? We’re generally indifferent.
They’ll get a government check. Hope they have life insurance.
They can microwave some meals. Oh, they’ll get by. I get by.
They’ll get by. And we’ve grown indifferent,
haven’t we, to people’s needs. It’s a sad state of affairs we’ve
gotten ourselves into. But here is a woman in deep crisis. Death sends ultimate Punishment,
sin’s ultimate end has come to her home. She’s lost her son. She’s facing uncertainty. There’s
the tears. And what would it be if the town
of Nain had been calloused? What would it be if we read this
story and it says Jesus met a woman who was walking with her son’s
body out to the grave? And just the undertakers were
with her, and that was because they were getting paid. But no,
here we see the city. We see her fellow countrymen,
her fellow worshipers, her fellow townspeople. They are making
their way out to the grave with her and they meet Christ who
sees her and has compassion on her. Can’t you imagine Jesus
looks her in the face and he sees the pain, the sorrow, the
anguish. He sees the fear, the uncertainty, the doubts, the
struggles, all of those things mixed together in one big bowl
displayed on her face. What a hardship this dear woman
is facing. And as she is making her way
out the gate in the funeral processional, the heart of Jesus reaches out
to her. We’re made in God’s image. We’re
supposed to bear God’s image and that has been bent and broken
and messed up by the fall because of sin. We don’t bear God’s image
like we ought to. But if anyone is in Christ, he’s
a new creation. The old is gone. The new has
gone. And we are being conformed into the image of the firstborn,
the son of God, even Jesus, who is the second Adam. We were born
in the first Adam with sin, but we are raised up in the second
Adam who is glorious. And if Christ has a heart of
compassion, should not we who bear his image have hearts of
compassion? And so when we hear the news,
we need to get past the headline and think of the heartache. And
maybe we hear news like yesterday’s and we say, oh, but they’re of
a different religion. Maybe so, but they need Christ. And that’s
maybe the place where our hearts ought to go out deepest to others
who are in this world mourning without hope. Think, feel, and
do as you have the heart of Christ in you. Weep with those who weep,
hurt with those who are in pain, share with those who are in need,
sit with those who are in hardship and serve them with the heart
of the Lord Jesus Christ. This passage also, teaches us
a little bit more of Christ, not just his heart, but it also
shows us the power of Christ. Verses 14 and 15 give us that
picture. It says, Jesus came up, he touched
the beer and the bearer stood still. And he said, young man,
I say to you, arise all the power of Christ. You understand what
just took place in this passage. Jesus raised someone from the
dead. Jesus didn’t invent a pill that
could help with your cholesterol. Jesus didn’t invent a pill that
can get your heart back into rhythm. Jesus didn’t invent a
drug that can cure your cancer. Jesus didn’t do that. No, he
raised a man from the dead. You see what’s happening there.
We can miss it. We’re not amazed by grace anymore,
are we? I mean, we sing it. We speak of it. We believe it. It’s in our head. It’s in our
catechism. It’s in our confession of faith. But do you see what
took place? Jesus Christ just spoke and raised
a dead man to life. And gave him back to his mother. This is the power of Christ to
repair her sorrows, to fulfill her loss, to take her uncertainty
and make everything certain. He touched the funeral processional. He touched the coffin. He touched
the beer. He spoke. Young man, rise up. And he raised a man from the
dead and gave him back to his mother who had lost him. Have
we forgotten who Jesus is? Yes, he has a heart of compassion. And the world hasn’t forgotten
that, right? You look around the mainline
church in America and what do they preach? Oh, the compassion
of Christ. He helps the poor. He helps the needy. But somehow
they’ve forgotten the power of Christ, that he can raise the
dead. That he can take dead hearts and give them life. He can fix
what is broken because of sin. And here we see the power of
Christ because he is he is the Messiah. Remember everything
else that Luke has told us about Jesus up to this point. He is
the Messiah, the son of David. He is the Christ. He is the anointed
one. He came to seek and to save the
lost. He came to help the poor, to
help the needy. He came to serve the widow and
the orphan. He came to pick up those who
were downtrodden and to put down those who were in lofty places. You remember Mary’s song. When
little old Mary was told you’ll bear the Christ child, she said,
why would you look on me, little old me, and give me this great
privilege? But since you have, I’ll just praise you. You’re
the God who says you would save your people. and now you are
saving your people. And here I am, your humble servant.”
We remember all these passages of Luke that tell us this is
exactly what Jesus was coming to do, to show his power as Messiah
and to be the God who saves. And for sure, didn’t Jesus enter
this woman’s life on this day and he saved her? I’m sure he saved her socially,
he saved her financially, he saved her economically, But don’t
you think there’s a greater salvation story here. He came into her
mess of life, her pain of sin and death and sorrow, and he
spoke and good things came to pass. We got to trust, dear friends,
in the power of Christ. You know, it’s a dark world.
It’s a dying world. You know, you read things nowadays
like church. Attendance is declining by 7% a year. You do the math.
And in how many years will the church be extinct? And we could
say, what’s the use? What’s the use in having a building?
What’s the use in paying a preacher? What’s the use in teaching kids?
What’s the use? We could say that all day long.
Well, what’s the use? It’s the means of the power of
Christ, the foolishness of preaching, the wonder of worship, the joy
of fellowship, the uncanny way that God has given us suffering
to shape us. It’s all the power of Christ. And he’s come to save. And these
are his ways. Well, this passage also shows
us something else about Jesus. For sure, his heart, definitely
his power. But there’s also the glory of
Christ. Verse 16 says the people responded
this way. Fear seized them all. And they glorified God, saying,
A great prophet has risen among us, and God has visited his people. What in the world would you do?
What in the world would you do if you saw a person raised from
the dead? It would unglue you, wouldn’t it? And what in the
world would you do if you saw a person who was already gone
come back to life and Jesus was standing there as the great physician
who spoke and brought that person? You’d come unglued too. I think these words are Well, they’re enough because
they’re the Bible, right? But do we do we get what’s going on
here? Fear seized them all. What does it mean to be seized
by fear? You’re dead in your tracks. You can’t speak. You
can’t move. Your mouth drops open. Your body
trembles. And isn’t this the case in every
place in scripture? Someone encounters the living
God and sees his might, his power, his glory, his majesty, his dominion,
and they are frozen in their tracks. They are in awe of who
he is and what he has done. What would you do if you were
in the presence? You’d do the same thing. Fear
would seize you. And when you came to your senses,
you then would worship the living God for who he is and what he
has done. This is a scene which is very
obviously turned from great mourning and loss to pure amazement. As fear sees these people as
they glorify God and notice they said two things. First thing
they got wrong and the second thing they got right. The first
thing they said, which they got wrong, was a great prophet is
among us. Now, in their minds, they were
thinking, OK, here’s Elijah part two. Here’s Elisha part two. Here’s Isaiah part two. Here’s
Jeremiah part two. This is just another one of these
guys in the long line of godly men who could do amazing things
as they spoke for God. It’s not a bad guess. But they’re wrong. He’s not just
a prophet. He is the prophet. He is the
one that Moses promised would come. One greater than I will
come. And this one greater has come
and he is Jesus. And he is more than just another
prophet. He is the prophet and he is the
last prophet whose voice is to be heard. But also they say something
else and this they got right. God has visited his people. Now, remember when Mary and Elizabeth
and others are speaking about the nativity, the coming of Jesus
and his birth, they speak of it as a visitation from on high. What does it mean when God visits
his people? It’s a salvation word. It’s God
is coming to save his people. And God has visited this poor
widow woman of Nain who has lost her only source of love and companionship
and joy and economy. And God in Christ, who is in
the flesh, has come and visited her in her little town, in her
greatest hour of need. And he has saved her and has
raised her son from the dead, but also There’s a bit of worship
here. They glorify God. They speak
these two things, but they glorify God. We say this very often,
and it’s true, isn’t it? Saved people sing. Saved people worship. Saved people
come into the house of God, Lord’s day after Lord’s day. And I get
this. You may not feel like it. You may have to warm up to it.
But by the time church is over, Don’t you feel glad that you’ve
been in God’s house to remember that he has bought you at a great
price. You owe him your everything. And your voice gets a little
louder as you sing. The words mean a little something
more to you. Saved people saying, what did
Moses and Miriam do when they came through the Red Sea? They
immediately sang, I will sing unto the Lord for he has triumphed
gloriously, the horse and the rider. are thrown into the sea. Salvation, dear brothers and
sisters, when it comes into our own life. When it comes into
our world where we are watching, it demands a response. And so let me encourage you in
this way, as you worship the living and true God who has saved
you, get to know his character, his deeds, his work, and his
promises. And when you come in the house
of God on Sundays and you pick up your bulletin and you pick
up your hymnal and you have your Bible in your hand, the more
you know God and grow in your knowledge of the Savior, The
better you will be able to worship him. There’s one last thing here
that this passage shows us about the Lord Jesus. We’ve seen his
heart, his power and his glory. We want to speak last of his
fame, the fame of Christ. Verse 17 tells us that this report
about him spread through the whole country of Judea. all the
surrounding country. Is it the report about him, the
dead man raised or him, Jesus? Well, it’s both, isn’t it? This is the gospel. Jesus is
mighty to save. And it’s worth telling. It’s
worth spreading around. It’s worth giving this good news
to anyone who will hear it. In Sunday school this morning,
we were going through the first two questions of church membership.
The first one is this, something like this, at least. Do you know
you’re a sinner? Do you know you’re without hope in the world?
And do you know that you’re under God’s wrath and curse and that
you can do nothing to save yourself? And the second question is this.
Do you believe on the Lord Jesus Christ that he save is the only
savior of sinners? Those are the questions. And
at a point in this conversation, we’re not talking here just about
questions you must answer to get your passport stamped and
join the church. This has to have become real to you. And
the question was asked in the room. When did Christ come to
you? And every one of us, all of us
here today could hear that question and answer it. And doesn’t it
next sort of push us to say, and shouldn’t we tell others?
I mean, don’t we want to tell people about, have you heard
about the sale at Harris Teeter? You can get Cokes for like, you
know, 900 of them for a dollar. What do we do? Well, you’re unloading
the back of the car and your neighbor is seeing you unload.
Guess how much Cokes are at Harris Teeter? We tell that kind of
stuff, don’t we? And we get home from church today and the garage
door will shut and we won’t tell a neighbor all week. But it’s
the best news. And so fame of Christ spread
throughout the countryside. I want to give us a little warning
here. If you read in Judges chapter
two, verse 10, you’ll find this sad verse. There arose a generation
that did not know the Lord their God or what he had done for Israel. This third generation, this generation
that Judges is speaking of, their grandparents cried out to God
in Egypt. And God came through Moses and
Aaron and rescued them through the plagues and the actions of
deliverance and brought them out of Egypt through the Red
Sea on dry land into the wilderness where water came from a rock,
bread from heaven, and other provisions were made to them. Their children went into the
promised land after those parents died in the wilderness. So the
grandkids, Judges chapter two, were that generation that did
not know the Lord their God, or what he had done for Israel. Friends, the fame of Christ must
be spread, but it first must spread in your heart like fire
so that you can’t help but speak of Jesus, who he is and what
he has done. You have a duty to tell it, yes,
but why wouldn’t we want to have it spill out of us? I was dead
and I’m alive. I was lost and now I am found. Think about various instances
in the Bible where parents could tell their children. Can you
imagine Adam and Eve saying, you know, mom and I did something
really bad and we tried to cover it up with these little fig leaves.
And God said, that ain’t going to do it. And God himself came
into the garden and he killed an animal and cut its skin and
clothed us. Can’t you imagine Seth and his children and his children? his children hearing that? Or
how about Noah? Hey, grandkids, for 100 years plus, I built an
ark and people made fun of me. They cussed at me. They cursed
me. They threw their liquor bottles at me. And I built and I built
and I built and the rain came and we got in there and the door
shut and we stayed in there for over a year. And as the earth
was flooded and destroyed, our family was safe in the ark. Or Israel speaking about the
wilderness. Or how about Hezekiah and the
threat of Sennacherib and those 185,000 Assyrians who surrounded
Jerusalem and said, we’re going to eat you up. And the angel
of the Lord in the night took care of those Assyrians. On and
on we could go. Dear brothers and sisters, if
we know the heart of Christ, we see the power of Christ. We
know of the glory of Christ. It’s our duty to spread the fame
of Christ if we don’t tell who will. And it’ll be said after
us, there arose a generation that did not know the Lord their
God or about the cross of Calvary. What a tragic thing. As we think
on this passage, as we want to walk from this place. I want
to leave you with this simple admonition. There’s a dark and
dying world outside these doors. And it needs one thing. It needs
the compassion of Jesus. And he’s shown it to us today
in this passage, and he’s shown it to us in a way that’s real,
he comes into real life and he repairs the brokenness of sin. And dear friends, if we don’t
look out at this world and say it needs a gospel, we’ve got
the wrong solution. It doesn’t need another politician.
It doesn’t need another Republican. It doesn’t need a socialist.
It doesn’t need a Democrat. It needs a savior. And this is
what we see before us today. And let it be the only solution
we know for the problems that are outside these doors. or even
inside our own. Let us pray together. Our Lord
and God, we thank you for Christ. And he comes into this world
to repair its ruins, and he comes not to repair it in the ways
we think he should or would, but he does it in his own powerful
and glorious and compassionate way. And we thank you that we
bear his image. We thank you that we have the
opportunity to mimic him in this world as you are making all things
new, even through us. So give us strength, give us
help, give us grace, give us courage. And we ask all of this
in the name of our Lord and savior. Amen.