Sermon Tone Analysis

Announcements

TGC West Coast Conference: October 16-18 (Tuesday-Thursday) in Fullerton.

Some great speakers (Alistair Begg, Kevin DeYoung, Ligon Duncan, Michael Horton).

We will already receive 25% off the ticket price with additional group discounts available.

The total cost would probably be around $300 (conference + hotel).

If you are interested in going, please talk to me.

New Sunday School Series: Matt kicked off our new series this morning on the subject of prayer.

It is loosely based upon the book Praying With Paul by D.A. Carson.

Reformation Celebration: This month marks the 500th Anniversary of the Reformation.

On October 31st, 1517 Martin Luther nailed his 95 theses to the Castle Church door in Wittenberg, Germany.

For the past three years we have celebrated this with a church potluck at the Sanchez house.

This year we are going to have bounce houses and a taco truck.

We will also have a pie contest that was extremely competitive last year.

Prayer Meeting: Shifting to Sundays at 3:30pm.

We will meet in the back room for 30mins before the afternoon Worship Service.

Reformation Sunday: In both our AM and PM worship services next week we will be taking a look at the letter of Galatians.

It is the letter that Martin Luther was studying when the Lord convicted him and brought him to a right understanding of the doctrine of justification by faith alone.

New Members Class: We will begin our next class on Oct. 14th.

We will meet in the Upper Room during the Sunday School hour (8:00-8:45am).

Praise to the Lord, the Almighty (216)

The Church’s One Foundation (404)

Dillon: A friend of Stormie’s has a son with a drug addiction.Financial Stability: Our goal is to be self-sufficient by the end of the year.New Members: Let’s ask the Lord to provide five new families in 2017.Penny Arlen: Tim’s daughter has breast cancer.

They are doing some genetic testing to determine the best course of action.

She is facing a minimum of one year of chemotherapy.The Ponce Family: House hunting.

Larry’s co-worker Frank’s girlfriend is pregnant and may have cancer.

DeeDee’s daughter, Nicole, is dating Moses who may have cancer.

His mother, Sarah, is also in poor health.

Please pray for opportunities to share the gospel in each of these circumstances.The Salas Family: Joe and Anita’s niece, Gracie, is going to be in the hospital until she delivers her child.

She began having contractions at 21 weeks.

Please continue to pray for Anita’s brother, Nick, who is taking blood thinners and hoping it will dissolve the blockage in his braid so that he won’t require surgery.The Balocca Family: Ava will be having surgery on 10/27.The Jameson Family: Many of Chantelle’s family are in the path of the fires that are rapidly spreading in Northern California.

Pastoral Prayer

Scripture Reading

Affirmation of Faith

See Bulletin

Offering

​ ESVThen Jacob made a vow, saying, “If God will be with me and will keep me in this way that I go, and will give me bread to eat and clothing to wear, so that I come again to my father’s house in peace, then the Lord shall be my God, and this stone, which I have set up for a pillar, shall be God’s house.

And of all that you give me I will give a full tenth to you.”

More Love to Thee (497)

Jesus Raises A Widow’s Son (Luke 7:11-17)

Introduction

Allow me to briefly remind you what we covered this morning.

One indication of a believer’s maturity is their willingness to uphold their lawful vows.

Before we read our passage of Scripture this afternoon, let’s ask the Lord for his help in understanding it.

Establish the problem that the text provides the solution to.

One indication of a believer’s maturity is their willingness to uphold their lawful vows.

2. Jephthah’s Commitment (11:29-40)

Now that we have a positive understanding of Jephthah we can come to this passage without any preconceived notion of his guilt.

If you think he’s a bad dude already, in all likelihood you’re going to read this narrative in the worst possible way.

But, at least acknowledge how this section begins:

​ ESVThen the Spirit of the Lord was upon Jephthah, and he passed through Gilead and Manasseh and passed on to Mizpah of Gilead, and from Mizpah of Gilead he passed on to the Ammonites.

Review big picture > immediate context.

Once again, we see the influence of the Spirit of the Lord.

I don’t believe the Holy Spirit performed identical functions under the Old Covenant as he does under the New.

Ezekiel suggests he takes on a more active role in the hearts of the elect.

[Scripture Passage]

​ ESVAnd I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you.

And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh.

And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules.

In a psychological journal article titled “The Effects of the Death of a Child on Parent’s Adjustment in Midlife” opens with the following statements:

Each year, over 50,000 U.S. children die (U.S. National Center for Health Statistics, 2000).

The death of a child is one of the most painful events that an adult can experience and is linked to complicated/traumatic grief reactions (Prigerson et al., 1999).

For parents, the dissolution of the attachment relationship with the child elicits severe anxiety and other negative emotions associated with loss (Bowlby, 1980).

Parents might also experience guilt about having been unable to protect the child (Gilbert, 1997).

Furthermore, because the death of a child defies the expected order of life events, many parents experience the event as a challenge to basic existential assumptions (Wheeler, 2001).

Jesus has just healed the centurion’s servant who was on his death bed.

In our text this afternoon, the man has already died.

All sorrow is a reminder that we live in a fallen world.

Sadness is the result of sin.

God didn’t create it this way, but man’s fall into sin ensured that sorrow and pain would be an ever-present reality.

[Scripture Passage]

Only Jesus can replace the despair of death with the hope of life.

Before we read our passage of Scripture this afternoon, let’s ask the Lord for his help in understanding it.

However, whenever we see the Spirit of the Lord indwelling or descending upon an individual, it is never interpreted as a negative event.

In fact, it seems to imply that the Lord is accomplishing his will through this individual.

So what do we see Jephthah doing shortly after the Spirit is upon him?

1.

A Funeral Procession (11-12)

​ ESVAnd Jephthah made a vow to the Lord and said, “If you will give the Ammonites into my hand, then whatever comes out from the doors of my house to meet me when I return in peace from the Ammonites shall be the Lord’s, and I will offer it up for a burnt offering.”

Although the Lord does grant him victory over Ammon, it is his vow that becomes the focus of the narrative.

This leads Joel Beeke to ask an important question:

As Jesus enters Nain he sees a funeral procession taking place.

The young man would have been laid upon a pallet and wrapped up in a cloth.

The procession is heading toward the family burial plot, nothing more than a small cave where the father’s bones have been placed inside a bone-box to make room on the shelf for the son.

The sounds of wailing (with professional help most likely present) can be heard as the crowd winds their way through town.

Some have brought ointment and spices to offset the smell of decomposition.

R.C. Sproul points out that...

Even in the case of a very poor person, so rabbinic tradition tells us, at least two people playing flutes, and one professional wailing woman were expected to accompany the funeral procession.

It was custom for the mother to walk in front of the bier.

So she would have been the first person that Jesus noticed.

We learn that she was a widow and that this was her only son.

He wasn’t a child, but a man, and since she had no husband he was likely her sole caretaker.

He would have been all she had for support.

We learn that she was a widow and that this was her only son.

He wasn’t a child, but a man, and since she had no husband he was likely her sole caretaker.

He would have been all she had for support.

“Would the Spirit inspire him to make a vow so clearly contradictory to the Spirit’s own revealed Scripture?”

She was in a very distressing situation indeed.

Scripture attests her circumstances as being some of the most difficult anyone ever has to face.

Mourning at the death of a loved one is never easy, but mourning over the death of an only son after she has already had to mourn the death of her husband places her in need of a generous helping of compassion.

Typically, Jesus healed those who approached him with the request for healing.

We could have the impression that Jesus was waiting for people to initiate him before he was willing to apply his healing word/touch.