If you have your Bibles, I invite you to turn to Luke chapter seven tonight. Luke chapter seven. We'll begin reading tonight in verse 11. Luke chapter seven. Hear the word of the Lord. Soon afterward, he, that is 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 the 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. Then he came up and touched the beer and the bearers stood still. And he said, young man, I say to you, arise. And the dead man sat up and began to speak. And Jesus gave him to his mother. Fear seized them all. And they glorified God saying, a great prophet has arisen among us and God has visited his people. And this report about him spread through the whole of Judea and all the surrounding country. that sends a reading of God's word. The grass withers and the flowers of the field fade away, but this is the word of God. As your bulletin says, this is the word of God. Praise be to God. Join me as we pray and ask the Lord's blessing on his word tonight. Let us pray. Gracious Heavenly Father, we bow before you and call on the name of the Lord tonight as your people have done for thousands of years. Oh Lord, we cry out to you, the only God there is. The one in whom we live and move and have our being. You know us inside and out. You know everything about us. You know, Lord, why you brought us here tonight. We pray that you would come and visit us as the Word of God is proclaimed, that you would speak to us and strengthen us in the faith. We do come tonight asking for the forgiveness of our sins and the cleansing and washing by the Holy Spirit of our souls. Thank you for the promise that those who look to you and cry for mercy will be forgiven. That you have pardoned our sins and cast them as far as the east is from the west. You remember them no more. Such grace and mercy is overwhelming to us. Lord, we pray that tonight you would speak to us through the living and abiding word of God. Build up our faith and leave us tonight to leave this place stronger and more confident in the promises of God with a greater zeal for you. Lord, help me to rightly divide your word. Come and visit, Lord, your people through this humble ministry, we call preaching, the preaching of the word of God, but what you've ordained to be the means by which you save souls and build up your church. We pray for your blessing in Jesus name. Amen. Over the years, like many of you, I've had a lot of occasions to see death firsthand. It didn't start out that way for me. I suppose it's because of the kind of work I'm in. But as a young person, I had not been to a funeral until I was in college. And that was for the father of a friend of mine, a fellow student at the University of Kansas. In fact, all my parents, my grandparents were alive through college. It wasn't until seminary that any of my grandparents passed away. But over the years now, I've had a lot of occasions to see death firsthand, to be with people as they've died, to receive those phone calls out of the blue telling you that someone you love or know has suddenly died. My wife and I have done countless death notifications through the chaplain's office at the jail, that is to tell people in the jail that their loved one has passed away with first knowledge of that for them. I've even had to tell church members that they've had a loved one who's died before the age of cell phones. I remember having to do that where they were not reachable and finding them to tell them one particular family where their son in his early 20s had died in a car crash. Several years ago, I remember while we were still in West Michigan hearing the testimony of a news reporter, spoke at a women's conference. She came to Saving Faith. after reporting on a tragedy where someone had died and she met personally with the family. And the reaction was totally foreign to her because they had such hope. They had resurrection hope. And it totally upset her worldview. Who are these people that can go on after such a tragedy? She had to know more about it and she came to Saving Faith. Right about that same time during my time of ministry in Michigan, there was a 16-year-old girl from a church across town that was killed in an auto accident on a country road. I received a call the next day from one of the elders of her church. I knew this young lady through the Christian community. I received a call from one of the elders of her church asking if I might be available for the funeral service because their pastor was out of town. Although it turned out in the end that I wasn't needed, I'll never forget what the elder said to me in a simple and profound way. He said, this family just really needs to hear the gospel again. They're okay. It's just that they need to hear again what Jesus has done. You know, the preaching of the gospel, the announcement, the proclaiming that Jesus Christ died on a cross for the forgiveness of our sins according to the scriptures, and that he was raised again on the third day according to the scriptures. The preaching or the announcing of that message, that good news, is not just something that unbelievers need to hear, that those who aren't Christians need to hear, but we need to hear it. again and again and again. We need to hear it week after week. We need to go back to it day after day because we encounter death every day all around us and we encounter our own sin every day, right? That is worthy of death. We need to go back to it and we need to see it from every text in the Bible. We need to see its significance applied to every situation and every relationship that Jesus Christ died for sinners like us, like me, to forgive and cleanse us and change us and that he was risen from the dead proving that he has the victory over death. Gerhardus Voss, who was a professor of biblical theology at Princeton Seminary way back in the late 1800s, early 1900s. He said that the resurrection of Jesus is the death of death. The end of death, the resurrection of Jesus is the death of death. And so every Sunday we worship the living God, every Lord's Day. Every Lord's Day is resurrection day because this is the day that Jesus was raised from the dead, the first day of the week. That's why we don't worship on Saturday anymore. Saturday, look back to the seventh day of creation. Jesus met with his disciples on the first day of the week, establishing a new order. This is the day, looking forward to our final rest. This is Resurrection Day. We praise God every Lord's Day for the resurrection, victory over the grave, that death does not have the last word. Rather, Jesus is Lord over all, that the grave is not the winner. That's why Paul says, death, where is your victory now? as he's writing, proclaiming the resurrection of Christ. Jesus is Lord and there will be a day when the dead in Christ will rise. And that is what this passage from the Bible in Luke 7 is all about. This account in Luke's gospel is a preview for us of what Jesus would accomplish through his resurrection from the dead. What Jesus will do for you on that great resurrection day. When he comes with all his glorious angels with the sound of a trumpet, the dead in Christ will rise. It's my privilege and my responsibility as a pastor to prepare you for life in this fallen world. As Juwan said this morning, life in a world that's under a curse, the curse of sin. This is a fallen world. by preaching Christ and his saving work week after week. This is our responsibility as pastors. I've said to many people over the years that this passage here in Luke chapter seven is one of my favorite accounts from the gospels. This text from Luke seven, the raising of the widow's son at name. I first heard this passage. about 40 some years ago while I was in seminary. My mother had just been diagnosed with stage four ovarian cancer and the prognosis was very bleak. But this is the passage that the Lord used to bring great comfort to my soul. You see, when tragedy comes, we're often prone to ask, why? Why Lord? Why her? Why this? Why me? Why our family? We don't have the answers to those things. Those things are often left to the secret counsel of God. As Deuteronomy 29, 29 says, the secret things belong to the Lord our God. But the things revealed belong to us and to our children forever. The secret things, that is, why is God doing this here and this now with this person? Those are God's things. Those are secret. We don't know the answer to those things. But what we do have are the things revealed. The things revealed belong to us. So we put our trust in God's word, the revealed things. I wait for the Lord. My soul waits. And in his word, I put my hope. Peter says, in his great mercy, he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil, or fade, kept in heaven for you, who through faith are shielded by God's power until the coming of the salvation that's ready to be revealed in the last time. In this, you greatly rejoice, even though now, for a little while, you've had to suffer grief and all kinds of trials. We put our hope in Christ and in his resurrection, a living hope. It's interesting, this account in Luke 7 before us tonight is only found in the Gospel of Luke. Many stories are repeated in the Gospels. This one is not. And it occurred in a village in Galilee not far from Nazareth. And Luke, who was a friend of the Apostle Paul, a physician and an excellent historian, he writes at the beginning of this book in Luke chapter one, many have undertaken to drop an account of the things that have been fulfilled among us, just as they were handed down by those who from the first were eyewitnesses and servants of the word. Therefore, since I myself have carefully investigated everything from the beginning, it seemed good also to me to write an orderly account for you, most excellent Theophilus, so that you may know the certainty of the things you've been taught." Luke interviewed people who knew this story firsthand and people who talked to others who knew this story firsthand and compiled his account in the Gospel of Luke and preserved it for us by the Holy Spirit to hear even tonight. So let's take a look at this text, just verse by verse, and then we'll make some applications for our souls. If you'd like to take notes, there is an outline provided for you on page 14. So, verse 11, soon afterward, he went to a town called Nain, and his disciples and a great crowd went with him. Now imagine what the mood and atmosphere of that crowd must have been like. Why was there a large crowd following Jesus in the first place? Well, picture in your mind's eye, soon after the healing of the centurion's servant, and soon after what's called the Sermon on the Plain in chapter six, Jesus is with his 12 disciples and there's a large crowd already following him. They're approaching a town called Nain. The large crowd is with him because of all the things that he has been doing and saying. I wonder if you could think about this for a minute. What do you think the atmosphere of that crowd was like? I mean, every crowd you gather with has a particular atmosphere to it. If you go to a public hearing at the Collier County Commissioner's Hall, Once a month they're meeting, you'll find some upset people. You'll find some very angry people, some people that are hoping for a change in something or for an approval of something. You think of the crowds that gather for political rallies. We'll see a lot of that in the next couple months, whether you're a Republican or Democrat. There's an atmosphere in every crowd. Or the crowds that gathered for the Olympic events in Paris. a particular atmosphere in each one of those crowds. What would this crowd following Jesus 2,000 years ago approaching a little Galilean village, what would that crowd have been like? Well, they're approaching a small village near Comperdom called Nain. Its location is identified by Luke, the doctor, the historian, so that those who might want to go and verify the story in the first century could go back, as Luke says, he's interviewed the eyewitnesses. Well, what do you think the mood and atmosphere would have been like? Well, you think about what they've been seeing and hearing. People had come from all over to see him and bringing friends and relatives and they were healed instantly. Demons were cast out of people. And Jesus will say soon to the disciples of John, the blind receive sight, the lame walk, those who have leprosy are cured, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the good news is preached to the poor. What he's saying there is a fulfillment of the Old Testament promises of the Messiah. Their mood would have been full of joy. He's here. Could it be him? And expectation and wonder and amazement and thanksgiving and rejoicing and hope and singing. This crowd was full of life and full of joy. And then look what they meet in verse 12. This is one of the most dramatic scenes in the Bible. You have this crowd of joy and hope and happiness and rejoicing and thanksgiving and expectation. Is the Messiah, is this him? Verse 12 says, a funeral procession was coming out. As he drew near to the gate of the 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. You see, we're introduced to another crowd. Very different atmosphere from the first crowd. In fact, it's hard to imagine a greater contrast. Even greater than two opposing political parties. Now Nain was 25 miles away, a good day's journey if they'd come all the way from Capernaum. And if that's the case, it would have been nearly dusk, which is a common time for Jewish funerals. Jesus was nearly to the town gate when a noisy funeral procession began to file outside the town. So a young man has died, probably earlier that same day. Jewish tradition was to bury rather quickly. They didn't have the morgue. to keep the body cold in a cooler. So according to custom, the grieving family members would tear their clothes and mourn the death. Neighbors and friends would gather. The body of the deceased would be prepared for burial. But the process would not begin until it was certain that death had occurred, especially in a case like this of one so young. The body was then anointed and the corpse wrapped in a burial cloth and put on a burial plank. That's the word that's mentioned here, the beard, be like a stretcher. And often paid mourners would be hired, those who were brought in to make noise. So as Jesus approaches Nain, that's what's going on, a funeral procession in full swing with another large crowd. Jesus is at the head of the crowd of joy and happiness and rejoicing and thanksgiving. And this woman is at the head of the crowd coming out with her son and all her friends and family members, neighbors following. His body is on a beer. It's a stretcher taken outside the gate to the tombs would have been carved in the rocks. As Luke writes here, the grief is accentuated. It's already serious that a young man has died, but it's even more grievous because his father has already died and leaving his mother a widow. She has relatives or maybe cousins or aunts or uncles, nephews or nieces. She was his only son. Her only hope for someone to care for her. And she's now alone. So there's a large crowd with her as well to comfort and console her as she's encountered this grievous turn of events. Imagine the mood of that crowd. Sorrow and despair and shock and sadness and pity and tears and grief. Two crowds meeting head to head. Verse 13 says, and when the Lord saw her, he had compassion. And he said to her, do not weep. So you have this crowd of life and joy and celebration and hope and singing, runs right into a crowd of sorrow and tears and sadness and grief. Jesus leading the crowd of joy, the widow leading the crowd of grief. When he saw her, his heart is filled with compassion. Now there's the motive for the miracle, Christ's love. Great, how great is the love and tenderness of Christ. And look what he says to her. He says, do not weep. Literally in the Greek, it's stop crying completely. In the tense it's completely stop crying. Don't cry anymore. I don't know about you, but if I were part of a funeral service for someone that I loved and a complete stranger walked up to me or one of my family members and told me or told us to stop crying. I don't know how I would respond. I remember when I attended a funeral service where there was a procession on foot from a church to a cemetery nearby, a quiet and solemn crowd. with family and pastor and pallbearers leading the way to the grave. If another crowd, a party crowd of singing and laughter and happiness had come around the corner and met the funeral procession and someone said something, there would've been great shock. I'm sure there was shock that day among many who were accompanying the widow as she stood there with her closest friends going outside the gate to the tombs. Verse 14 says, he came up and then touched the beer. the stretcher, the plank that the body was on, and the bearers stood still. Imagine the tension in the air at that moment. He walked over and he touched it as if he were going to do something, and the pallbearers stopped in their tracks. I'm sure there was a collective gasp among many there. What are you doing? What are you thinking? What's going on? Who are, what are you doing? This is incredible. Who are these people anyway? Who is that man? What is he doing? Leave her alone. What is he saying to her? He shouldn't touch the body. He'll be ceremonially unclean. The sense of drama is heightened as he walks up to the dead body and he starts speaking to the dead man. Young man, I say to you arise. And the dead man sat up and began to speak. And Jesus gave him to his mother. I want you to notice the means by which the young man was brought to life. Jesus just speaks the word. Young man, get up. It's so easy for him. It's like he's just asleep. And the dead man, the dead boy, the young man sat up and began to talk. That was the proof that he was alive. He began to talk. What do you think the young man said? Now, there's no indication from any of the resurrection stories of those who were brought back to life that they talked about heaven. I imagine he said, where am I? What is going on? I'm alive? Mom, I'm alive? What's going on? Can somebody unwrap me? Why are all these people looking at me? I'm sure those things were going through his mind. Jesus gave him back to his mother, for he had ceased, in a sense, to belong to her. Now he's hers again. He was dead, and then he was raised to life, plain and simple. And fear seized them all, it says in verse 16, and they glorified God. A great prophet has arisen among us, they said. God has visited his people. And the report about him spread throughout the whole of Judea and the surrounding country. Well, yeah, of course. It's interesting, we have this range of responses. First, there's great fear. The Greek word there is phobos, from which we get phobia. Why? Because they stood in the presence of incredible power. And second, They praised God. So fear seized them and they glorified God. They realized this had to be from God. Only God could do this. And thirdly, they said a great prophet has arisen among us. Now, why would they say that? Well, because probably they were thinking of Elijah or Elisha who had ministries in that area, both of them raising a widow's son to life. But they had to call on the name of the Lord to do so. They had to call on God. They prayed to God to raise the child. What's the difference here? Jesus just speaks it. He just did it himself by his own power. They also said God is Visited his people. He's not forgotten. It's Immanuel. God is with us. Truly in the flesh he's come. And so they started telling others this amazing news. News that spread around. What were they saying? You wouldn't believe what happened in Nain the other day or just outside the city. A young man was dead. And Jesus, this Jesus of Nazareth, maybe you've heard of him. He just spoke to him and he came back to life. It was as if he had never died. He was completely whole. His sickness was gone. I felt him. His body was cold. He was dead. I helped prepare the body. And then he was instantly raised to life. Well, so that's the end of the story. So why is this here? Why did God record this for us? What is it that God reveals to us in this portion of his word? You know, in general revelation, that is in creation, we can find all kinds of things out about God by looking at creation. We see God is beautiful, that he's powerful, that he's creative, that he's awesome, full of power, and sometimes humor. By looking at the creation around us, there's all kinds of things we see about God, right? In special revelation, in the scriptures, it's all about who God is and his saving work in Christ. So what does God reveal about life in this portion of his word? I'd like to give you four things to go home with, and then you can go home and improve on the sermon and think about more. Four things I'd like you to take home. What does this portion of God's word teach us? Well, first of all, we do live in a world of sorrow and grief. Right? This present world is under a curse. Sin has come into the world and death through sin. This is not heaven. This is not heaven. This is a fallen sinful world filled with tears and sadness and the effects of sin. I think some people are often surprised when tragedy comes because it's like it shouldn't be this way. Well, this is the way it is. In heaven it won't be this way, but this is in heaven. This is a world full of tears and sadness. But God sent the Lord Jesus into the world. God the Father sent his son to take the curse of death upon himself. Jesus came to conquer death and free us from the bonds of sin. And we have, as the word of God says, a sympathetic high priest who one day will wipe away every tear from our eyes. There'll be no more crying. And he will tell you that your crying days are over. He showed his compassion while on earth and he does so even now as our high priest. When you feel like nobody understands or nobody cares or nobody knows or nobody can relate, we do have a sympathetic and compassionate savior. who brought life and immortality to light and revealed that. We have a savior who lives to intercede for us and is working out all things now for our good. And he has sent his comforter to comfort us in our affliction until that great day when we see him face to face when all our tears are wiped away. That's the first thing we see. This is a sorrowful, sad world. There is death every day. Secondly, I want you to take this home with you. This young man came back to life by the power of the word. The power of the word. There's great power in the word of God. We have in the scriptures that same powerful life-giving word. The writer of the Hebrew says that the word of God is living and active and sharper than any double-edged sword and piercing as far as the division of soul and spirit of both joints and marrow and able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart. The word of God is powerful. And Isaiah 55 says of his word, as the rain and snow come down from heaven and do not return there without watering the earth, making it bare and sprout and furnishing seed to the sower and bread to the eater, so shall my word be which goes forth from my mouth. It shall not return to me empty without accomplishing what I desire and without succeeding in the matter for which I sent it. The word of God is power. That's why we need to be reading the word of God and meditating on the word of God and sitting under the preaching of the word of God. that young man came back to life by the power of the word. And in the same way, even today, spiritually dead people cannot come to life on their own. People who don't believe in Christ, who are dead in their sins, they cannot make themselves alive. They need to hear the life-giving word of the gospel. the word that brings life from the dead. That's why we're to give careful attention to the preaching of the word of God. That's why we read the scriptures. People aren't made alive spiritually by our reasoning and our arguments, but by the power of the word. Now you can in your reasoning and arguments include the truth of the word so that people will hear and believe. That's the second thing. This man was raised by the power of the word. The same power that created the world, Jesus just spoke it and this dead man came to life. Just like as he stood outside the grave of Lazarus and said, Lazarus, come out. By the power of his word, he was raised from the dead. Thirdly, I want you to take this home with you. See what a picture of God's grace is here. This is all of grace. That woman did nothing to merit God's favor. And yet Jesus came and raised her son. What a picture of grace. God has mercy on whom he'll have mercy. She wasn't seeking the Lord. Nobody came to Jesus and said, this woman is worthy of you doing something for her. And there was nothing in the dead corpse to merit this. It was all God's free grace. Jesus set his love upon this family. He had compassion on her. And it's the same as God's saving work in your life. He came to you. You were on your way to the grave, spiritually dead, on your way to the grave forever, but he saved you. Even when you were dead in transgressions, he saved you. He made you alive. By grace, you've been saved. This is a gift from God, it's not of you, it's all of grace. You know, that young man did not reach out his hand and say, heal me, heal me before I go to the grave. He was already dead. It was all the Lord's initiative. This passage loudly proclaims the grace of God, amazing grace, amazing grace. And then a fourth point that you can take home with you, though you can go home and improve on the sermon, as I said, and think of some more things that you learn about the Lord from this. What does this reveal about the Lord? Well, God, the living God, raises dead people. There will be a great day of resurrection coming. Whether people have just died or been in the grave for centuries, there is a day of resurrection coming. Why is it some people think it's so strange to a picture that God can raise the dead? I mean, if he is who he says he is, if he created all things by the power of his word, if he's all powerful and he's the supreme ruler of the universe, of course, death must yield to the king of life. Young man, I say to you, arise. Jesus says elsewhere in the gospel accounts, little girl, rise up. Lazarus, come out. And so one day the Lord Jesus will shout at the great day of resurrection, and all those who've died will be raised up. Death does not have the last word. Oh, it appears like it for now, just like it did that day in Nain. It appeared like death had the last word. Oh, but death, where is your victory? Where is your sting? Jesus said in John five, just as the father raises the dead and gives them life, even so the son gives life to whom he is pleased to give it. I tell you the truth, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life and will not be condemned. He has crossed over from death to life. I tell you the truth, a time is coming and has now come when the dead will hear the voice of the son of God and those who hear will live. You will be raised up on that last day. That's the good news. That's why we have joy when we sing. That's why we have hope. Because Jesus conquered death. He has brought about the death of death. Swallowed up death in the victory of the resurrection. I ask you tonight, do you believe that? Do you believe the gospel? That Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners. He died on a cross and rose again from the dead. And if you believe that, you are united by faith, by grace to him in his death and in his resurrection. You are already seated in the heavenly realms. Praise be to God. That's the dividing line of all humanity. It's not Republican and Democrat. It's not what country you come from or what language you speak or what your skin color is. It's whether you believe that Christ died for sins, for your sins, and rose again. And so you too will one day be raised from the dead. I wanna say to you, if your family doesn't know you believe that, you need to tell them. You need to tell them so that if something should happen to you that they would know, ah, he believed, she believed. I'm confident where they are because they believed in Christ. They knew that God would forgive their sins and cleanse them from unrighteousness and raise them up on the last day. What a great day that will be. Praise the Lord, let us pray. Heavenly Father, we do thank you for your mercy to us in Christ that you've not dealt with us like our sins deserve. Thank you that you have already proven that there is a day of resurrection coming because Christ is raised from the dead. Lord, how we long for that day when you will wipe away all our tears and raise us from the dead. Lord, come and visit now your people as we give back to you a portion of what you've given to us in this evening offering, bless our tithes, Our giving our offerings to you and use them to bring others to know the saving grace of God in Christ May your blessing be upon your people tonight in Jesus name. Amen