A Funeral at Nain Luke 7:11-17
The Son: Meeting Jesus through Luke • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
0 ratings
· 3 viewsNotes
Transcript
Introduction
Introduction
Funerals are never events that people look forward to or enjoy attending attending. They are always events of profound sadness. Even when the funeral is for a believer, that sadness and deep since of longing for their presence is profound and heavy.
As a pastor and preacher I have presided over a fare share of funeral and to be honest, they are not necessarily my favorite thing to do. (I’m not talking about ministering to the hurting, I love the opportunity the Lord gives to do that, I simply mean the preparation and the actual service.) The emotions of a funeral are hard for everyone involved.
Particularly so when a parent is laying a child to rest. That is something that you never get over. It’s not supposed to happen that way. There is perhaps no greater sadness than that. When a child passes, its not just the death of a loved one but the death of every hope and aspiration you ever had for them.
I was raised an only child, but I am not an only child. My brother Christoper Michael Foy was born December 16, 1980. I was born April 9th of 1983. At the age of 4, my older brother, while with a baby-sitter chased a ball into a busy road (not unlike Rt.11) and was struck by a car and went to be with the Lord on June 14, 1985. The only memories I have of my brother are from looking at photographs and visiting his graveside at the Confidence Cemetery in Georgetown, OH.
For as long as I can remember, I have seen my mother weep every year around the time of his birth. It has been 37 years and she still deeply mourns the loss of her oldest son. My boys, bare his name as their middle names, and even recently as Jamison asked his Mamaw questions about their uncle I’ve seen her eyes well with tears. But, he wasn’t her only son. She poured everything into me that she could.
In the last three years I have presided over the funerals of three men whose parents were laying their only son to rest and the grief I witnessed those days was deep and profound. I’ve stood next to those caskets holding their mothers to keep them from falling. At one funeral I had to help the funeral director to get the mother to let go of her son so that the service could start. Never have I witnessed such overwhelming grief.
These kinds of funerals are always so overwhelming and they even seemed to be for the Lord Jesus.
In our text we have just read together, Jesus and his band of disciples along with a large crowd of followers have journeyed from Capernaum about 25 miles south west to a little country village called Nain. For perspective, Nain was only six miles SE of Jesus hometown of Nazareth. Just on the other side of the hill from Nain, lied another little village named Shunam, where the prophet Elijah raised a boy from the dead in 2 Kings 4:8-37, Jesus miracle here almost duplicates this, even to the point of using some of the same language.
It was likely late in the afternoon by the time Jesus entered into the town of Nain. As they came to the gate, they were met with a funeral procession. Leading the procession was a funeral bier (open coffin) followed by a woman in deep grief. The coffin was surrounded by a large group of professional mourners who were leading a large crowd who were wailing and likely loudly blowing on flutes and banging cymbals.
The woman was a widow and as far as we can tell from the text she had no to her children but her son, whose pale lifeless body was held up by those carrying the bier. While she was surrounded by a large crowd at this moment, the death of her son meant that she would be all alone after the funeral ended. As a widow, her son would have been her only protector and provider in the world. She was a devastating picture of grief.
When this woman left her home with the lifeless body of her son to make her way to the cemetery on the outskirts of town, she had no idea she would come in contact with the Lord and that a miracle was about to take place.
Luke 7:13 (NKJV)
When the Lord saw her, He had compassion on her...”
The grief of this woman moved the heart of Jesus.
In fact the word translated here as compassion is the verb form of a word that has to do with the very seat of a persons affections. It is used to communicate the deepest movement of emotions possible. Being moved with the deepest part of your being.
This woman's grief had a physical effect on the Lord. He felt deeply for her sorrow.
Friends, isn’t it wonderful to know that our savior, the Lord Jesus has a heart big enough for our deepest sorrows?
22 Through the Lord’s mercies we are not consumed, Because His compassions fail not. 23 They are new every morning; Great is Your faithfulness.
If you are here this morning with a hurt so immense you can’t find the words, trauma so deep you cant articulate it. Jesus understands and sympathizes with you in a way no one else can.
Jesus didn't just extend his heart to this woman, but he extended words of comfort to her as well. Look at the end of v.13
Luke 7:13 (NKJV)
... and said to her, “Do not weep.”
We must understand, Jesus was not telling this woman to toughen up or to suppress her emotions. He was expressing genuine care for her by hinting that he was about to preform a miracle.
Luke 7:13 (NASB 2020)
... “Do not go on weeping.”
v.14 tells us that Jesus reached out his hand and touched the coffin. By doing this, Jesus was making himself ceremonially unclean for the next 7 days according to the Old Testament law (Num 19:11). But, he was willing to make the sacrifice in order to extend mercy to this woman. When Jesus went up and touched the coffin, those carrying it stood still. This no doubt hushed the crowd. What was this stranger doing?
In that very moment the resurrection and the life (John 11:25) came face to face with death.
As Jesus touched the coffin he gave a simple command:
Luke 7:14 (NKJV)
...And He said, “Young man, I say to you, arise.”
From the other side of death this boy heard the voice of Jesus and obeyed.
15 So he who was dead sat up and began to speak. And He presented him to his mother.
This boys pale, cold, lifeless body became warm and full of color in an instant then he sat up and talked as if he’d just been asleep.
Can you imagine the sight? No doubt people shrieked in both terror and amazement. Can you imagine this boys mother? Her tears turned from mourning to rejoicing.
Church, this event pictures for us our future resurrection one day.
16 For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first.
17 Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And thus we shall always be with the Lord.
18 Therefore comfort one another with these words.
The same voice that raised this young boys lifeless body from the dead will be trumpeted throughout every corner of the earth. From the highest mountain to the lowest depths of the sea. To the dust spread over to earth to the smallest molecule of those who are dead in Christ. All who knew Christ will hear his voice at once.
51 Behold, I tell you a mystery: We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed—
52 in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed.
53 For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality.
54 So when this corruptible has put on incorruption, and this mortal has put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written: “Death is swallowed up in victory.”
55 “O Death, where is your sting? O Hades, where is your victory?”
All who are dead in Christ will hear what this young man heard, “ARISE!”
16 Then fear came upon all, and they glorified God, saying, “A great prophet has risen up among us”; and, “God has visited His people.”
This wonderful event in Luke 7 displays for us two of the wonderful characteristics of Christ and it is those two characteristics I want us to briefly examine together in our time today:
The magnificent compassion of Christ.
The monumental power of Christ.
1.) The magnificent compassion of Christ.
1.) The magnificent compassion of Christ.
Jesus is God come down in flesh. He is a part of the triune nature of God. We have to be careful not to somehow paint a false dichotomy between God the Father and the Lord Jesus.
Many people think that God the Father (who they see in the Old Testament is is full of wrath and anger while Jesus in the New Testament is full of grace and mercy. That cannot be farther from the truth.
The Old and the New testament are unified in presenting God as merciful and compassionate. All of scripture is a journal demonstrating God’s mercy and compassion.
Compassion (Mercy, in the OT) is at the very heart of God’s character.
6 And the Lord passed before him and proclaimed, “The Lord, the Lord God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abounding in goodness and truth,
7 keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, by no means clearing the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children and the children’s children to the third and the fourth generation.”
This is the first thing that God determined to reveal to us about his character is that He is compassionate. The creator of everything is full of compassion.
9 The Lord is good to all, And His tender mercies are over all His works.
Jesus ministry was a physical manifestation of the compassion of Christ upon mankind.
It is God’s compassion that sent Christ into the world.
16 For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.
Every hurt and burden tat you carry cannot be borne by anyone but Jesus. He came to show you the compassion of God.
2.) The monumental power of Christ.
2.) The monumental power of Christ.
All the power of God rest in Christ.
9 For in Him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily;
The attribute of God that describes his power is “omnipotence”. There is noting in creation that can compete with the power of God.
John tells us:
3 All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made.
Jesus possessed so much power that even death was subject to him.
That same power that raised this young man from the dead is available to you today. He alone has the power to forgive your sin and give you a new life.
Only he can bring healing and life to the dead.
Conclusion:
Conclusion:
Call people to experience the compassion and power of Christ.