Please turn then in your Bibles to Luke chapter 7. It wasn't all that long ago, right around 150 sermons ago, for whatever that matters, that this passage of Scripture was one that I took as a text. And the Lord does, I believe, have us back here today for a purpose. And I don't know what all that purpose might be in your heart and in your mind, but I'm convinced of the Lord's presence with us in these passages today. So we want to look at this well-known account, and it's only here in Luke. It's not found in Matthew, Mark, or John. It's only here in Luke. But it is such a beautiful picture of some things that I hope to share with you today that will encourage you that know the Lord I encourage you with the reality of what Jesus shows us here. He provides for us an example of what we have to look forward to, those who know and love Christ. Verse 11, chapter 7 in Luke, 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 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. This small town of Nain, this city, unknown by most. I believe it's the only time it's really referenced in the New Testament. an unimportant place in the eyes of most and unknown by the majority. The people of this town, though, they witnessed something on this day that is worthy of our notice. The people of Nain witnessed on this day death conquered by life. Death conquered by the giver of life. Two crowds meet here at the gate of this relatively unknown city, this town of Nain. Two groups of people traveling on two very different journeys come together in this one place. There is a great picture I hope to be able to share with you today from these verses about what it is that we can look forward to who know the Lord. One group in the midst of grief and sorrow and death as they make their way out of the city. Another crowd with literally the one who said, I am life. Traveling in the opposite direction, meet at the gate, but as that other, the crowd with Jesus is entering the city. And the crowd with this young man who had died is leaving the city. There is here such a beautiful picture for us who know the Lord. that we'll see death conquered by the giver of life. And we'll see it here played out in front of us. The people of Nain did. They saw death overcome by the word of the one who gives life. And there is only one who gives life. It's God. And there is three persons in God. There is the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit. And Christ, as God, speaks life to a man who was dead. And these two crowds meet at the gate, but going in opposite directions. And filled with death is one, and the other with life. And that, by the way, demonstrates, I think, where absolutely everyone is today. Everyone is in one of these two crowds. There's a great gathering. There's a great crowd heading out of the city, heading away from life, heading toward death. carrying death itself and themselves in the clutches of death. That's one crowd of people today and I pray that you aren't in that crowd. But if you are, I tell you there's opportunity for you today because there's another group of people who are with the giver of life and If we do what we're called to do, we will tell you about Him. And perhaps you will hear Him say, Arise. But we're all traveling in one of these two crowds today. Your life is made up, and it is lived, and it is right now in one of these two crowds. And we want to look together at this passage of Scripture and see this picture together. this man who had died, this one that they were carrying to his grave, was, we're told, the son of a woman who was her only son. And we and others have talked about that before. The incredible grief that this woman must have been in at this time is likely beyond our ability to fully describe or to And certainly we can identify those who have experienced loss. We can feel with her something of what she must have felt. But at this time, this woman was now in a place of complete destitution. Her only son, we're told. There weren't any others that she could find consolation in. There wasn't another son who she might say, I've lost one, but I have another, or I have these others. No, she was bereft now of her only son. And I thought, I tried to imagine what might have been going through her mind. As she's carrying, or she is with this crowd as the bearers of her son's dead body, leaving the city, what kinds of things might have been going through her mind, and certainly none of them pleasant? She might have thought, I've already buried my husband. I buried him, and now I was not anticipating having to bury my son. I did not expect that. I never certainly wouldn't have imagined it or desired it. And we're not told what the circumstances were, whether he grew ill or whether there was some misfortune that happened. We're not told the circumstances, but we're told enough to know that this woman, as she is walking And traveling with this group of people who are carrying her son's dead body, she must have been thinking so many different things. Why, Lord, did you allow this? So many things, and just the depth of her grief must have been overwhelming at the time. besides that and I would think on this day where she's burying her son that she's not really thinking too deeply about these things but in the back of her mind surely there was also the questions that would have come to her in this day and age. Who's going to take care of me now? Where am I even going to live? Who's going to provide for me? We can imagine just how deep her grief was, her loss that she felt, how deeply it must have been going through her mind. And we can imagine again those in the crowd as they carried this man and as they carried death toward the grave. And we realize that in this life, death is inescapable and unavoidable, brought so by sin. The Bible's clear. The wages of sin is death, Romans tells us. The reason for death in the world today is not because there is an indifferent God. The reason for death in the world today is because there is rebellious man. It's why sin entered into the world and death by sin. And there is a large crowd of people in the world today that are with this group, carrying death on their shoulders or carrying it out of the city and walking with others toward the place of death. And yet, they're going to come into confrontation. with the one who has the ability to call from death and to give life. And that's what happens in these next few verses. In verses 13 through 15 we find the encounter. In verses 11 and 12 we saw the depth of the grief. We see the reasons that this widow must have been grieving. And behold, a man had died in verse 12, the only son of his mother. She was a widow. A considerable crowd from the town was with her. And so she's in the midst of a large group of people. But again, no doubt she felt all alone. But now, now things begin to take a turn for the better. when they come into contact with the crowd, who is, who has among them the One who gives life? This One, Jesus. We're told in verse 13 that He had compassion on her. The Lord felt compassion for this woman. I believe that He felt compassion for her in His humanity, as he took upon himself humanity, as he understood in his human form what it was like to lose one to death. Apparently, he'd already lost Joseph to death, the one who stood in the place of his earthly father. No doubt, Jesus as a man had experienced death other places and other relatives of Mary and Joseph, and he understood the depths of her grief to the point that he could and he looks upon her and he had compassion upon her in his humanity. But I will say to you today that the greater news is not that Jesus just felt some human compassion for this woman, but he felt compassion for her in his divinity, and in his Godhead, and in his supreme authority and power over death and the grave itself. Jesus Christ, the Son of God, who was with God in the beginning, looked upon this woman, and in his divinity, I believe, felt compassion for her and that by the way is why Jesus came into the world in the first place looking out across the whole world lost in sin and without his sacrifice hopelessly doomed to a devil's hell for all of eternity the heart of God himself was moved to send his son in compassion for a lost world. And that's why Jesus came here today. And on this day, when this woman's grief is so deep, and loss is so heartfelt, and the impossibility of changing the situation was understood, this is a gap that she could not, she couldn't cross. Her son had left in death, and there was no way at that moment for her to go to him or him to her. She felt that separation, which is death, as we've said so many times over the years. That's what death is. Death isn't an end. Death is a separation. And for those of us who know the Lord, it's a temporary one. It's not permanent. In fact, in some senses, death is our deliverance to the greatest presence of God that we could ever hope to imagine and feel. Here, it's a deliverance into His presence. But this woman, in this moment of loss, comes into contact with the One who had compassion on her. Did you notice that Jesus doesn't even wait for anybody to say anything? He doesn't wait. He doesn't ask any questions. He just acts in His compassion. You know, when I was 11 years old, I was sitting in a service that I had sat through services like that many times before. I knew who Jesus was. I'd been taught who He was. I felt as though I was a decent enough boy, I suppose. Boys don't even really think too much about that, I don't think, but I didn't feel like I was all that bad. But on that day, I was the one being carried ultimately to a grave, lost and in sin, dead in trespasses and sins, the Bible says. And there were those, metaphorically, carrying me to the grave. This, by the way, is why the Gospel must be proclaimed in clarity. and without apology, because there are far too many people today under the heading and the banner of Christianity who are doing little more than comforting people while they carry them to their grave, rather than telling them about the life that is found alone in Christ through repentance and faith. We must not be satisfied with carrying people quietly and easily and comfortably to their grave. We must not be satisfied with making the bearing of that more tolerable in our day to day. We must recognize that the whole world today, all of us are in one of two crowds. One with the giver of life entering the city, the city ultimately of God, and others in the crowd of death departing and leaving and heading to an eternal grave and separation. That's what we stand before today. That's the battle that is in front of us. That is why we fight the spiritual battles that grab a hold of our hearts, where the enemy would long for us to just step into line with those carrying dead bodies to their graves, rather than singing and rejoicing and bearing this cross that we are to bear as we walk with the giver of life, because there might be somebody in your life who is in the crowd, heading the other way to the grave, and you need to bring Jesus to them. Because perhaps He might say, arise, and change their life as He changes this woman's life and this son's life, and in some ways, I believe, everyone's life who is here involved. He has compassion on her and He says, don't cry. He's going to give her a reason not to cry, but He tells her first. Do you see that? Don't cry. Do you see what is playing out in front of us is nothing more than what is going to be fully played out in front of us at the end of time when God Himself says, don't cry. And He wipes the tear from our eyes. Don't weep. I am the one who can give life and take away death and separation. I believe in Revelation where we read specifically that we're told that there's no more sea. I've often wondered why is that? And I think it's because the sea separates and there'll be no separation there. He has compassion and he says, do not weep. He's going to give her the reason that she doesn't need to weep in a moment, but He tells her first. So there's a moment as fleeting as it was for this widow to do what Jesus said and stop weeping. And I know it's not that simple, but listen. Paul said it this way, if we have hope in Christ in this life only, we are of all men most miserable. I don't have hope in Christ in the degree that I mean, or that means for me that my life here is going to be a bed of roses and sunshine every day, and the job's always going to go well, and my family's always going to be blessed, and my children are always going to be well provided for. That's not my hope in Christ, because everything here in this world including this body that now houses my eternal soul, is going toward the grave. But thanks be to God, when I was 11 years old, I was in the crowd of death. But on that day, I met the Giver of life. And like this day, this jumped out at me. It really hadn't before, and it perhaps should have, and maybe it did to you. When the scripture says that Jesus said this, young man, I say to you, I say to you, that leapt out at me as I studied in preparation for this morning. I thought, boy, the conqueror of death and the grave says, this is who makes this command. Me. I. The one who will overcome all things. including the enemy that none of us can avoid and none of us can overcome, death itself, I say to you, arise. That day that I got saved, I didn't hear an audible voice. I didn't hear Jesus say to me, arise. But in a sense, That is what He did. As that burden of sin left, and I felt lifted up and at peace with God, truly for the first time. And life flooded where death had been. And I felt free and alive. And I'll tell you, if that is described as just a little bit of what it's going to be like when I leave this world and enter heaven for all of eternity. If that moment of salvation is just a drop in that ocean, I cannot wait to experience the deliverance from this body of death. which Paul talked about as well. He said, I have a desire, a two-fold desire. I'm in a straight betwixt two. I'm in a divided desire. I want to go home and be with Christ because that's far better. But also it seems it's Christ's will that I'm here because Because I need to continue to walk with the Son of God and bring life to those who I come into contact with in this life. So many of them that are walking the opposite direction, walking away from the city, and they need to be walking toward it with the giver of life. He has compassion, Jesus does. Says to the woman, do not weep. And tells the young man, I say to you, arise. And we're told that the young man began to speak. Listen, there's a lot of theological debate back and forth. Commentators will debate it forever and always have, I think. Was everyone that Jesus brought from the dead saved or healed? Were they all saved? I don't know whether this man was saved or not. I think he's showing us a picture of his power over death because you want to know something else. This young man, he died again. He died again. Jesus is telling us and showing us what he's going to do at the end of time, I believe. Among other things, yes, he has compassion on this widow. He is concerned and he's broken for her in his humanness, but he's also showing us this is what's going to happen on the Day of Days. When the world is called to an account before God, it's going to be as though there is one crowd walking to death and another walking with and to life. And Jesus is the one who makes the difference. I say to you, arise. And the young man began to speak, demonstrating and proving beyond any doubt that he was indeed alive. And I'll tell you, words spoken are perhaps the most effective tool to communicate the existence of life that exists. The psalmist says let the redeemed of the Lord say so. We're encouraged, Peter says, to be ready to give an answer for the hope that lies within you. Why are you hopeful? Why do you have faith? Why, even in this life filled with so much pain and burden and sorrow, why do you somehow endure those things and hold steadfast to your faith in God? And the answer is, because He said, arise. And I'm alive because He gave me life. I live today, not in myself, not by my own power, but I live and I move and I have my very being in God himself. That's why I have hope. I know that we're now in this time where death reigns for a season, but I know the one who conquered death. And one day When this body pays the penalty of sin and goes to the grave, I am going to go and be with my Lord, either to immediately receive or await the new body. Whichever way you want to read scripture, one way or another, I'm going to be with God. I say to you arise. He began to speak. And boy, I love this phrase. He gave him to his mother. What a beautiful picture. That that death had separated, Christ reunites. That that death had taken away, Jesus gives back. That's what He's going to do. Listen, you're an eternal creature. Eighty years is nothing. Eighty years is nothing to what your existence is going to be. You're an eternal being created in the image of God. That that death takes away for a season, he's going to restore in its fullness. Cave, can you see that? Can you just, for a moment, imagine in your mind's eye that moment for this widow? as Jesus not only raises her son and he begins to speak and and and almost in you know in that moment when Jesus said arise you can almost sense maybe with her just almost a it's it's surely that can't happen surely that's too much to expect surely surely that's not going to be the case but then he begins to speak and then and then Jesus we're told Jesus literally hands her, gives her, reunites the son with his mother one day. One day Jesus is going to reunite all of those who are in Him to never again be separated. That's what this shows. Because of the compassion of the Lord, because of His power alone, when He says, I say, arise. Everyone else on the planet could have said and stood around that dead man and said, arise, and nothing would have happened. And I'll tell you today that every preacher on the planet today can stand before a crowd or an individual and say to them, I say to you, you have risen, and I will tell you this, nothing will have changed if the one and only giver of life, Jesus Christ, through the working of the Holy Spirit, isn't the one who said, arise. It doesn't matter how many voices are given to it if the one voice of God is absent. Because listen, Judgment Day is not going to be a democratic vote. We're not going to all stand up there and all take a vote and say, well, should we let this one in? No. Jesus Christ, the Judge, He's going to separate right from left. He's going to be the one that knows which crowd were you in. Were you among those with life? Were you among those in death and in rebellion against the call of God? Jesus, when He says, Arise, this man begins to speak and is reunited with his mother. And now, verses 16-17, we see the appropriate response of all of these things. Fear sees them all. And they glorify God. I recognize I recognize that religious men and women, we can sometimes be too austere, too sober, too serious to the point of removing from us our joy. I do recognize that. I think it's the enemy trying to rob us. of the joyful life that God desires for us to live, even in the midst of this place called this world where sin does reign for a season. And so I do know that the world sometimes looks at Christians and thinks, oh, what a stuffy bunch of people. They don't have any fun. They don't know how to have any fun. They don't seem to laugh and kid, although most Christians I know, they haven't been around them, because most of them do enjoy fellowship and getting along. But I know that we can be too serious, maybe. I certainly know I can. But I also know that when God works and God moves, when He really does a work like this, it's a serious thing. It causes men to fear. Never mistake the truth that when God does a work, fear comes. And I don't mean that necessarily merely the shaking, trembling, afraid kind of fear, though I think at times that is appropriate. I'm thinking the reverential fear of God overwhelms Imagine you're standing there in the crowd, and Jesus says, young man, I say to you, arise, and a dead man lives. I'm looking once again at the Savior, and I'm bowing the knee, and I'm exalting and praising him. That is the appropriate response to the work of God in our life. It is a bended knee. in reverential fear of who He is. It's not a silly act that is played out in so many different places to entertain the silly whims of men. When God moves and works, the mountain smokes and the people tremble. Fear sees them all And they glorified God. Jesus comes to Nain. He halts this funeral procession. He speaks a word. I say to you, arise. He touches the beard. It's like everyone knows as they stop the procession. Jesus is about to do something. And boy, in that moment, if you were to press pause, I believe every eye in both crowds was on Christ. And on the day of days that is coming, when God says to His Son, it is enough, time is no more, go and gather your children to yourself and bring them home to heaven, on that day, every eye will be on the Giver of life. But every man will not be with Him. Some will be crying for the mountains and the rocks to hide them because of the wrath that's going to be poured out upon sin. Rightly so. Justly so. But on this day, halts this funeral procession. One day he's gonna, he's gonna halt all the others too. Never again. He'll declare it no more. Never again will this scene play out. My encouragement to us all is to trust the one Capital O, the One whose voice raises the dead. Trust Him. And in that moment when He says to weep not, He knows the burdens of our hearts, but trust Him. And though the gap between God's words of encouragement to His trust and our ultimate deliverance certainly extend longer than the few moments of time that are displayed here. It is a compression of years into a moment, but I will tell you that compression of all of those years will seem but just a moment when eternity comes. Trust me. Trust me. Funerals one day will never again occur. Trust the one who's going to end them all. I would say to you, all of us here today, we're either walking with Christ in life on the way to the city of God, or you are walking in death away from it. And there are moments in your life when these two crowds meet. Is that happening today in your heart and in your life? The crowd with Christ meets the crowd with death. And Jesus is there to speak life to those who are dead. That's why He came, because of His compassion and His love. That's why He died on the cross. And as He hung His head, He said, It is finished. He accomplished it all. Three days later He rose from the grave because He has power over it. The Lord stops a funeral. Maybe that's the title as we conclude. The Lord stops a funeral. One day He's going to stop them all. If you know Him and if you love Him and if He has saved you, I pray that you would do what this young man did in picture anyway. speak, tell others, I'm alive because of Christ. I'm walking with those who are with and in the midst of the life giver, Jesus Christ. I am His. He is mine. I am with this crowd. So that you would be distinguished from the crowd who is living their life blindly and in death walking away, maybe even unbeknownst to them, until the giver of life comes. And for those of us who do know the Lord, may we bring to those in our life the presence of Christ, at least in some sense through prayer and through the way that we act, behave, speak, think, feel, May it all be Christ, the one who can give life and the one who stops the funeral.