You're listening to Key Life Fellowships Pulpit ministry
podcast. We thank you for tuning in as we
learn from God's Word together. If you would like more
information regarding Key Life or to speak with one of our
pastors, please visit us at keylifefellow-ship.com.
If you would open your Bibles to Luke Chapter 7, looking there
today, and I said, said earlier that if you've been here a
while, your Bible might automatically open to Psalm 119.
So you're going to have to retrain it this morning and go
to Luke 7. And, and as we sang that song
together and reminding one another, no matter what we're
facing in this life, if we're believing the Lord Jesus, we
have won the victory because Christ has won the victory.
So we have this eternal, overwhelming hope that no matter
what the world throws at us, no matter what we go through, if
you know Christ, you have everything and you have victory
because he's conquered sin, He's conquered death, He's conquered
the grave, and He promises US everlasting abundant life with
Him. With that in mind, I want to
look at this first several verses in Luke 7 till we see the
power of our Lord Jesus on display here.
So look with me in verse verse one as we begin reading.
When Jesus had finished saying all this to the people who were
listening, he entered Capernaum. There a centurion servant, whom
his master valued highly was sick and about to die.
The centurion heard of Jesus and sent some elders of the Jews to
him, asking him to come and heal his servant.
When they came to Jesus, they pleaded earnestly with him.
This man deserves to have you do this because he loves our nation
and has built our synagogue. So Jesus went with him.
He was not far from the house when the centurion sent friends
to him. Lord, don't trouble yourself,
for I do not deserve to have you come under my roof.
That is why I did not even consider myself worthy to come
to you. But say the word.
I'm a servant will be healed, for I myself am a man under
authority, with soldiers under me.
I tell this one go, and he goes, and that one come, and he comes.
I say to my servant, do this and he does it.
When Jesus heard this, he was amazed at him, and turning to
the crowd following, he said, I tell you, I have not found such
great faith even in Israel. And the men who had been sent
returned to the house and found the servant.
Well, soon afterward Jesus went to a town called Nain, and his
disciples in a large crowd went along with him.
As he approached the town, gated dead person was being carried
out, the only son of his mother, and she was a widow.
And a large crowd from the town was with her.
When the Lord saw her, his heart went out to her, and he said,
Don't cry. Then he went up and touched the
beer they were carrying him on, and the bearers stood still.
He said, young man, I say to you, get up.
The dead man sat up and began to talk.
And Jesus gave him back to his mother.
So they're all filled with awe and praise.
God, a great prophet has appeared among us.
They said God has come to help his people.
This news about Jesus spread throughout Judea and the
surrounding country. Pray with me, Father.
Thank you for this timeless truth that you have preserved in
your Word for us to read today and glean from.
Not just to glean facts, just to glean good information, but
you've preserved this so that we can glean from the infinite well
of Christ our Lord, who He is, how He acts.
Would you teach us we need you to help us through this.
May we see more clearly your son Jesus on display so that we may
worship and live for him in Jesus name Amen.
As we jump into the to the right in the middle of of a gospel and
I'm always I love when I get an opportunity to preach and it's
sometimes tough that you're not assigned a text or as we have
the luxury every week of we end at verse 67 and next week we
start at verse 68. And it's wonderful.
It's great. It's a great thing to know.
And when you jump into a middle of the book, as I get the
opportunity to to do today, we need to set some background.
We are in a gospel. If you're unfamiliar, the first
four books of the New Testament are gospel accounts Matthew,
Mark, Luke and John. Luke writes his gospel of Jesus
life and really for the chief purpose of laying out for us the
person and work of Jesus Christ, who he is and what he did on
this earth through many occasions.
His his deity is absolutely unequivocally proven that Jesus
is fully and truly divine. And I've talked to people from
time to time who don't believe that Jesus is God.
Read the gospels and you cannot get away from the fact that he
is God. He claims that he shows that he
proves that it is true but also in the gospel says full humanity
is also there that Jesus is the God man in the truest form that
he is true God and he is true man.
You see his authority over everything being exercised, the
wind, the waves, the storm, the lives of individuals, the the
even the demonic realm. They obey him.
You see his authority to teach unlike anyone has ever seen
there even his approval from God the Father is heard from on high
Jesus baptism. This is my Son, whom I'm well
pleased. Jesus lays out for us His
sovereignty to behold that He is an absolute control of every
single thing, period. He doesn't lay that down when he
comes to the earth, He gives it to US.
Power is displayed over everything.
I even I love this. And we see in the Gospels, Jesus
gives us reasons and ways to read the Bible.
He teaches us how to understand and believe the Scriptures.
He lays out for us the reliability and the
trustworthiness of the Holy Scriptures.
Most of this that we learned in the Gospels about Jesus, it's
seen for us and learned through His direct actions or His
interactions with individuals. Here we have today in Luke 7,
the 1st 17 verses, we see for us how Jesus deals with the lowly.
And this is so important for you and I to understand because we
are lowly, we are creatures. Our scripture writing, reading
this morning, we are but dust. We are laid low, we are nothing.
So we need to see how Jesus dealt with these people and even
we're going to learn by God's grace how Jesus deals with us
the lowly. This account in Luke 7, it opens
up as we read in verse one. Jesus finished saying all this.
Well, the obvious question you need to ask is what was He
saying? It's right after a portion of
Scripture that you're probably familiar with, but just in
another gospel account in Matthew 5 through 7, you have
the Sermon on the Mount when in Luke 6:00 and 7:00 there is or
five and six, there is a sermon that people debate whether it's
the same one or he's saying the same things at a different time,
and it's been dubbed the Sermon on the Plateau, says a lot of
the same things about loving your enemy.
He gives the Beatitudes talks about judging others.
He compares a good, good tree bearing good fruit and a bad
tree bearing bad fruit. Even gives us the the story of
the wise and the foolish builder who build their house on the
rock. The wise and then the the storm
came and went and beat against that house.
And then the the foolish builder who builds his house on the sand
and the wind comes and blows against that and it falls with a
great crash. So regardless of this is a
different time than Matthews, or it's the same time I happen to
think it is, Jesus says the same essential things.
And aren't you thankful that Jesus says the same things over
and over again? Because we are slow.
We need to hear it again. And so after Jesus said all of
that, he enters Capernaum. Capernaum was a town on the
North Shore of the Sea of Galilee.
This was really a hub of Jesus's earthly ministry after he is ran
out of his hometown of Nazareth and they try to kill him.
He kind of escaped a, a plot to kill him there.
But he goes into Capernaum for the first time and there he
calls some of his disciples, he ministers there and he leaves
and he kind of stays in the air for a little bit.
And for sure he teaches this sermon and now he's back in
Capernaum. He's back there.
We see him dealing with the Lillian.
We see how he does this first way that he deals with the low
is lowly is that he he does it by honoring real faith.
Jesus deals with the lowly by honoring real faith.
We see that look at verse 9. We're going to skip ahead
because this is the focus for this, this part of the sermon.
When Jesus heard this, he was amazed at him and turning to the
crown following, he said, I tell you, I have not found such great
faith even in Israel. And so if you say the word faith
in a group of professing Christians or in a church
service or in a small group Bible study and you were to
interview 5 Christians or or professing Christians to give
you their definition of faith, you would get 5 or 6 different
answers sometimes. But we're going to look right
here. Jesus commends this man's faith.
He said, I've seen nothing like it and it amazed him.
What is so amazing? Why did he honor this man's
faith? In other words, what was this
man's faith consisting of? Well, we see it very clearly
that those who have real faith are those who devalue self.
That's the faith. Jesus honors those who devalue
self. Not on everybody in this passage
devalues self. We have in verse 2, there's some
people that come the centurion's servant really slave and his
master valued highly literally He beloved, he loved this slave,
this centurion, this master did this slave was sick and about to
die. And the centurion heard about
Jesus sent some elders of the Jews to him asking him to come
and heal his servant. This is a this is a bad
scenario. This is we, we are, we are
pulling off punches. We're going to Jesus.
Jesus can heal this man. I've heard about him and he
sends the elders of the Jews. The centurion does go find
Jesus. Go see if he'll come to my house
and see if he will heal my slave whom I love so much.
And this is what they come telling in verse 4.
They came to Jesus and they pleaded earnestly with him.
That carries the idea of just frantic begging.
No, Jesus, I need you listen, listen up, listen up.
This is what you need to come do.
They plead with him earnestly to come.
They say this man deserves to have you do this because he
loves our nation. He's built our synagogue.
Everything that they base this man's worth on is personal
merit, personal actions. This man is worth you doing
something for Jesus because of what he has done.
I hope you've been around the scriptures long enough and
you've been in this church long enough that you realize nobody
deserves Jesus to do anything for them.
You don't do things so that Jesus will then owe you.
That is false. Jesus owes you nothing but
eternal damnation. That's what you deserve.
That's what this centurion deserves.
That's what these elders deserve.
But they come to Jesus with this plea.
You need to help him, help his servant, because man, he is so
worth it. He's great.
This is a worldly idea of value. We hear it thrown around, right?
That you, you would love such and such.
You would love so and so because they are just a great guy there.
That's a great gal. They've done so much for me.
They are awesome. They come to Jesus and say this
guy is awesome and they give him two reasons why. 2 reasons why
he's so great. First, he loves our nation.
Now let's look a little bit deeply into that.
He loves our nation. These are the elders of the
Jews. Jesus being a Jewish man, the
Jews in just a few short chapters and probably was
already boiling, they wanted to kill him and they would later
call to crucify him, crucify him and bring him all through sham
trials. The elders of the Jews are
saying, Jesus, this man deserves you to do something for him
because he loves our nation. They're trying to find some
common ground with Jesus loves our nation and he built our
synagogue. And the way that that's phrased
in the Greek is literally like this.
He himself did it. Either he paid for it or he had
a direct hand in the matter. This man built our synagogue.
We could call it Centurion Synagogue.
He matters that much. He's deserving of it that much.
He's done so much for our country.
Jesus, he is patriotic and he seems to be pretty religious
then in America. Aren't those two things to so
many people? That is what goodness and
godliness is. That's worth.
He's patriotic and he's religious too, and he goes to
church and he has judeo-christian values.
Goodness in God's economy has nothing to do with your
patriotism. You can love the country.
You can love America. You can sing God Bless America
at the top of your lungs and go to hell.
You can give your life on the battlefield for this country and
thank God for those who have and think that that's going to earn
you some merit in God's economy and he's going to like you more
and love you more and honor you more because of what you've done
for your country in the name of God.
And God says that is a filthy rag.
To me, there's nothing. Religion, patriotism.
Jesus is not impressed with this, but these people are, and
so many today are. But the centurion, as true as
this stuff is about him, watch what he says about himself in
verse 6. Jesus went with him, and it was
not far from the house when the centurion sent more friends to
say to him, that's Jesus. Lord, don't trouble yourself,
for I do not deserve to have you come under my roof.
Now that sounds different, does it?
That sounds way different than what other people were saying.
That is why I did not even consider myself worthy to come
to you. Everybody's talking about how
worthy and deserving he is and he confesses his own
unworthiness. He is devaluing himself.
And in a world that's all about self, love and do this for
yourself. Love yourself, value yourself
more. Jesus does not honor that.
This man says I deserve nothing. Jesus, don't even come to my
house. I'm not even worthy of that.
That's why I'm sending more people.
And I knew you were getting close.
And so I'm scared that if you come to my house, I'm going to
be found so unworthy. It's an element of real faith,
total devalue of self. But he doesn't just devalue
himself. That in and of itself is not
real faith. It's an element of real faith.
And so many people get this confused.
I do think you talk to to individuals and parents and
other people who think that just because someone is aware of sin
and there's some guilt involved in their sin and they understand
a little bit about sin, that boom, they're saved.
That's faith. That's not faith.
That has to be there for you to have truth, saving faith in
Christ. But you must not just devalue
yourself. You must depend on the Savior.
And that's who Jesus offers honors.
That kind of faith, the one that devalues herself and the one
that depends on the Savior must be both or it's not faith.
And ironically, you're never going to depend on the Savior
truly until you genuinely devalue yourself.
This is this is amazing what he just says.
So, so look with me again in verse 7, he uses the
understanding that he has of being an authority and being
over people and having people answer to him being the boss,
giving directions. He understood effectual
authority, he says, but say the word and my servant will be
healed. That's enough to just stop and
really ponder for a minute, isn't it?
And here's why he understands it.
He says, look, I have I'm a man under authority.
I've got soldiers under me. I tell this one go and he goes,
tell this one come. And he comes.
I say to my servant, do this and what does he do?
He does it. I understand what it means to
give the word. I know what it means to say
something and have it done. Jesus looks at him in verse 9.
Jesus heard this. What's his reaction?
He was amazed at him. He is just amazed, Jesus.
This is one of two times in all the Gospels you see that Jesus
was amazed. He's obviously amazed at this
man's faith. The other time that he's amazed
is in Mark chapter 6 at the Jews.
He was amazed at their lack of faith.
The two times Jesus amazed one has extraordinary faith and then
another group of people have a lack of faith.
That's what amazes Jesus. The Jews were so amazing to
Jesus. They didn't have faith because
they had the promises, They had the Scriptures, they had the men
of God, they had the patriarchs. They had the hope of salvation.
But yet when the Savior came, they didn't have faith in him.
They had all the knowledge accrued in order to have faith.
And Jesus is amazed at their lack of faith.
Yet this Gentile centurion man has greater faith, he says, than
anyone I've seen in Israel. When he does this, he's not just
honoring this dude's faith, he's rebuking the lack of faith of
the Jewish people. I haven't seen anyone in Israel
with this kind of faith. He's blown away and it's a slap
in the face to those people who think they have faith, the
crowds who are there who have no faith, the people that have seen
the miracles of Jesus yet still have no faith.
Jesus says I've seen nothing like this man, this man who has
real faith that devalues himself, that depends on the
Savior, that just a word and my slave will be healed, just a
simple word. When this happens, Jesus rewards
this kind of faith. In verse 10, the men who had
been sent returned to the house and found the servant.
Well, that's what he wanted. That's what he depended on,
That's what he needed. And Jesus delivers.
I've never seen faith like this in all of Israel.
The Lord honors this faith, this faith in a in a very real and
personal sense for you and I to maybe test, test yourselves to
see if you have genuine faith. Number one, are you genuinely
really aware of your own unworthiness, your own not
collective, not we're all bad, we're all sinners, but I am a
Sinner. I am undone.
I am undeserving. This is highlighted in the book
of Luke in several different places.
Luke 5 verse 8 that Jesus appears to Peter and the other
group of the fishermen and they hadn't caught any fish and he
told them where to cast and they catch fish so many fish they
couldn't handle it. And when Peter saw this, he fell
at Jesus knees and said go away from me, Lord, I am a sinful man
that that that's that's saving faith.
I have nothing. I am sinful, go away from me.
Luke 18 We see a more clearer picture of the the parable
between the tax collector and the Pharisee, Luke 1813.
The tax collector stood at a distance and he would not even
look up to heaven, but he beat his breast and said, God have
mercy on me. The Sinner.
Jesus said this man went home justified rather than the other.
This man had true faith in his own unworthiness and he depended
and trusted on the mercy and grace of his Savior.
It wasn't like the Pharisee who had it all together.
Thank God that I'm not like him. Oh, I could be so bad, I'm not
like them. Oh Lord, thank you that I'm
great. I do this, I tithe, I do all of
this. I am just a great fella and I'm
not like this guy. Thank you that I'm not so bad.
That's not faith. That is abhorrent to God.
Real faith is genuinely aware of their own unworthiness.
In the same time they know and trust the power and authority of
Jesus. I'm undeserved, he says.
I, I, I don't deserve to have anything.
I'm so unworthy you can't even come to my house.
But just say the word, and my slave will be healed.
Your power transcends proximity. You don't even need to come up.
There were times that Jesus, didn't he?
He healed people with just a word.
Be healed, Lazarus. He didn't touch Lazarus, come
out of the grave. Then there were times where he
takes a blind man and he spits in the ground and he makes a
little mud with the dirt and he wipes it in his eyes and heals
them that way. Or he lays his hands on them and
heals them. This man has such great faith
that he knows Jesus. You don't even need to be there,
but if you just speak it, your word is so powerful that my
servant will be healed. Where do you get this faith?
Well, he'd apparently heard enough because faith, Romans 10,
verse 14 says, comes from hearing and hearing the word
about Christ. He'd heard.
He had heard enough about Jesus. Maybe he'd heard the stories.
Now Jesus exercises his power over disease.
This is the Messiah. He's claiming to be the Messiah.
People believe him to be the Messiah.
He's healing people. Have you heard about Jesus
calming the wind in the waves? Think peace be still.
It was still in the disciples. When they saw that, they were
amazed and said, who is this? Even the wind in the waves?
Obey him, baby, They had heard over Jesus has power over sin,
to forgive sin. That was the issue, wasn't it?
For the Pharisees, they couldn't get it.
Who can forgive sins but God alone?
He just looked at the man who's crippled and he said, what's
easier, get up and walk or your sins are forgiven?
I tell you, your sins are forgiven and get up and walk.
Take that. Maybe they heard about that.
Maybe he's putting more pieces together.
There's the same word that was going to say heal this slave is
the same word that said let there be light and there was
light. Maybe.
Maybe later on in life he heard about this story.
Jesus comes to the grave of his friend Lazarus, and he says
Lazarus come out of the grave. And guess who came out of the
grave? Lazarus.
Maybe he knew about this Jesus. He knew enough to believe that
all this Jesus needs to do is say the word.
But if you're going to be saved from your sin, you need to know
that it is just the power of Jesus word that can make you
clean, that can save you. It's not your word, it's his
Lord. I'm trusting you.
That's faith. I'm so unclean, I'm so undone.
I need you to wash me and to cleanse me and to save me.
Just the word. He will do it.
All we're seeing here is so unnatural.
That's why Jesus is amazed. Jesus is not amazed because it
shocked him or he didn't know it was coming.
Come on, He's God. This faith can only be found in
someone who has been graced with saving faith.
Saving faith comes as a gift from God.
Paul makes this argument talking about suffering, that this
should be so elementary. In Philippians 129 he said it's
been granted to you on behalf of Christ not only to believe in
him but also to suffer. Making the point that you guys
already know that believe for faith is granted to you by God,
otherwise you'd never have faith.
God uses all the elements, the hearing, the working, the
making. It makes sense to birth saving
faith in this man so that he then exercises it in the
Messiah. Unnatural.
This is a work of God. That's why it's so amazing.
And anyone who has faith in Christ, it's a work of God, and
it should amaze you because why in the world would you trust in
a God that you cannot see in a Jesus who died for your sins and
resurrected that you did not personally witness?
Why would you forsake the things of this world that you see?
Why would you devalue yourself when, let's be honest, you're
probably a nice guy? Why would you think you have
nothing to offer? Because God has convinced you
that you have nothing to offer in comparison with the goodness
and mercy and greatness of Christ.
And he's your only hope. When you exercise this kind of
faith in Christ, it's never turned away.
Psalm 5117, a broken and contrite heart.
You God will not despise. He won't turn it away.
Jesus more clearly in John 637 he says whoever comes to me, I
will never drive away. What hope so don't beat yourself
up and think, ah man, I hope maybe I hope my faith is really
saving faith. I hope saving grace of God and
you think is it God is it God? If you understand your sin
before God, I beg you to see the goodness and mercy poured out on
Christ in your place on the cross, and his death and
resurrection being the only suitable sacrifice for your sin.
And you trust him to save you, and he will.
And if you do that, here's what I can conclude.
It was a work of God and praise God for a work of God that he's
doing in your life and he's doing in your heart and he's
doing in your soul, and the saving faith that he has
birthed. If that happens, it's because
God saw fit for it to happen. So do you have that faith?
Is that the definition of your faith in Christ?
Maybe You say, yeah, I think I'm a Christian.
Did you come to Christ like this?
Oh, Jesus, you're so good for me.
Oh, yeah. This is the best step for me to
do. I think this is the wisest
choice. Or did you come to Jesus like
the hymn writer? Nothing in my hands.
I bring simply to the cross. I cling.
I got nothing. I I I have more than nothing.
I don't even, I I'm not even worth saving.
I don't know why you would save me.
Oh, but Jesus, I'm trusting you to do it because you said you
would, and I know you can. That's salvation.
That's what it means to have faith in Christ.
Maybe in daily life, you're just not trusting the promises of
God. You're not having real faith.
The apostles face this. Yeah, great.
This should help us because US 21st century believers struggle
with the same things that the apostles did who were with Jesus
24/7. And when they were suffering
from lack of faith, You know what they said, Lord, Luke 17,
five, increase our faith. You can pray that Lord increase
our faith. What does that look like?
Lord? Make me be less valuing of
myself. Help me see my own unworthiness
and help me see the worth of you and my need desperately for You
every hour. Lord, increase our faith.
I promise you He won't disappoint.
He's going to deliver on that prayer because Jesus deals with
the lowly by honoring real faith.
Second way he deals with the lowly is by having genuine
compassion. Compassion's a great a great
term and in the Greek it, it actually means this is to be
deeply moved in the bowels or in like the gut.
But we understand why I felt that deeply.
It was gut wrenching. It's not just that feeling, but
it's a feeling of love and pity from the depths.
Do you see someone hurting? You see someone harmed,
suffering, and there's something inside of you.
And we understand that the illustration that just moves us,
some of us show it by crying, some of us show it by just slap
them on the back. Jesus has compassion.
And the Princeton theologian BB Warfield said the compassion is
the emotion that is most attributed to Jesus in the
Gospels. Compassion.
Matthew 936. When Jesus saw the crowds, He
had compassion on them because they were harassed and helpless
like sheep without a shepherd. Matthew 1414.
When Jesus landed and saw a large crowd, he had compassion
on them and healed their sick. Matthew 2031.
Lord son of David, have mercy on us. 2 blind men coming to Jesus
and Jesus stopped and called them.
What do you want me to do for you?
He asked. Lord, they answered, we want our
sight. Of course because they were
blind, one of their sight Jesus had compassion on them and
touched their eyes. Immediately they received their
sight or they all too. Famous parable, The prodigal
son, the two sons. Luke 1520.
While he was still a long way off there he'd been squandering
his father's inheritance. His father saw him and was
filled with compassion for him. He ran to his son, threw his
arms around him, and kissed him. Maybe in Mark 140, Jesus man
says, Jesus, if you're willing, you can make me clean.
And Jesus was filled with yet again compassion.
He reached out his hand and touched the man.
I'm willing, he said. Be clean.
His compassion drives His willingness towards those who
are suffering, towards those who are hurting, towards those who
are lowly. Verse 11.
Jesus goes to the town soon afterward called Nain.
His disciples were with him and a large crowd were following
with him. Nain was about 25 miles, give or
take from Capernaum, the town we lot last saw him in, in this
prior miracle. It's on the other side of the
Sea of Galilee. So it had taken kind of a common
trade route and come around the West side of the sea more than
likely. And then he'd arrived in this
town name and he comes up to the gate and there's a crowd with
him. No doubt there's the crowd is
doing this. They are amazed at Jesus.
I hope he does something else cool.
I mean, think about everywhere he goes.
He heals somebody, He raises the dead, He casts out demons, He
sits down and teaches them as one of the authority like they'd
never heard of. When they get hungry, he breaks
bread and feeds everybody and has leftovers.
Of course they're following Jesus.
What's he going to do next? They're enjoying the blessing of
Jesus there in their presence. But Jesus's heart is moved to
fulfill what he came to do. Or he says in Luke 532 that I
came not to call righteous, but sinners to repentance.
His mission moves forward. The crowds don't really quite
understand this yet. The mission is to save.
The mission is to be compassionate towards those who
are suffering, those in those hopeless scenarios.
And let me tell you, this is a hopeless one.
In the town of Name, Jesus walked up to the gate and
there's a funeral procession. Funerals are sad times, aren't
they? They're solemn, contemplative
times, very serious, many cases, very hopeless.
This one was one of those. It was a dead man being carried
out. He was carried out of the Bible
says a beer, but it really was kind of a open coffin where you
can see what's going on, big procession, a lot of people.
But there was a dead man. This dead man was the only son
of his mother who was a widow. Now it just gets more hopeless
here. Only son?
Doesn't the Bible hold an only son in a different drama?
And it usually emphasizes that his only son, Abraham, he's told
to sacrifice his son, his only son, when he raises the knife
over the boy and the Lord says no, don't harm the boy.
Or older translations. I love don't lay a hand on the
lad but he starts saying lad more.
Don't touch the boy. Don't harm your son, your only
son. In Luke 938 man comes to Jesus.
Teacher, I beg you to look at my son, for he is my only son.
This is extremely hopeless. The Bible paints that picture
for us. It's not just their only son,
but her husband has also passed. This was a widow, and if a widow
were to lose her husband, she was really dependent on her
immediate family. The government didn't do a whole
lot for him, so her way of providing for herself had just
gone out the window. Now she has a son who might can
step up and be the man of the house.
Now he's dead. Hopeless widow here, grieving
the loss of her only son. She's hopeless and everyone
around is helpless. What do you think about it?
If you've ever been to a funeral, you go there with great
attention, don't you? Hopefully you want to love the
family. You want to be there for the
family. You want to pray with and pray
for the family. Especially the tragedy is
greater if it's unexpected. A son who is not yet old passes
away. Parents who have the son or
daughter live in their house or grieving the loss of their
child. Or maybe it's a it's a spouse.
This is WAVY. When you go to these funerals,
you go with great intentions, but they're so often man, your
hands are just kind of tied behind your back.
What can you do to help? Maybe you've been in that
grieving process. I mean, there's, there's been
the person who wants to help so badly that they end up harming
just because they, they, they talk too much.
You don't want to do that. So what?
Where's the balance? Do we speak?
Do we, do we, do we do we not? Would you do we cried or we're
just there. Nobody can really do anything
for this widow because you know what she wants more than
anything. She wants her son back.
She wants her husband back. That's what's causing her
suffering and grief. Jesus looks at her hopeless,
suffering, helpless, and he has enough compassion to actually
step in. Look what he says to her verse
13, the Lord saw her, his heart went out to her.
That's literally he had compassion, same word in the
Greek had compassion on her and he said do not cry.
That seems oddly placed until you realize what we've been
talking about a little bit earlier.
The power of Jesus's words. Do not cry.
He says something. He steps in and says something
out of his compassion being moved and he steps in and
actually does something. He goes up and he touched the
coffin they were carrying him on and the bearers stood still.
The funeral procession stopped and there's Jesus doing a huge
no, no, touching the coffin of a dead guy.
In their mind, he's defiling himself.
What is going on? Jesus has not moved, touches the
beer. Everyone stops, all eyes on him,
all ears open. He said, young man, I say to
you, get up. What did he do?
You shake him. Is he resuscitated?
Does he do mouth to mouth or chest compressions?
Whatever's in now? No, he just touches the side of
the beer. Oh, man, get up.
Then the dead man sat up and began to talk, and Jesus gave
him back to his mother. No rehabilitation time, no
teaching him how to talk because he's been in a coma.
He's probably drained, damaged, though He was completely dead.
And now he's completely alive again.
Instantaneously, at the word of Jesus.
Touch the coffin. Young man, get up.
Why'd he do this? Because he looked at the
suffering woman and he had compassion towards her.
He didn't just say, I wish you well, man.
This, this is terrible. This is, this is so tragic.
It's so unfortunate. I hate that you lost your your
husband and your daughter and your son.
I mean, I'll pray for you. That's really the best we can
do, isn't it? Jesus can do so much better than
us. He says, get up.
Here's your mom, here's your son, but I want you to see a
greater fulfillment. Hopefully you're putting the
pieces together here. You see that Christ has real
compassion on real sinners, which He looks upon.
He has compassion towards sinners.
That's the point. The greatest suffering that you
and I can ever face is our sin before God that violates on our
Creator and separates us from fellowship with our Creator.
That's the greatest amount of suffering.
Christ has compassion. He has compassion enough to step
in and to come to this earth, to take on flesh, to be born under
the law, to become a curse for us and laid down his life for
helpless, hopeless sheep. That's easy to say, right?
Yeah, Jesus loves sinners. Oh, he came to die for Sinner.
You need to get like this. Jesus didn't just die for
sinners, but I'm a Sinner. Jesus died for me.
I'm the one that he had compassion on.
Don't just externalize and say, wow, I'm so glad Jesus has
compassion on people who are really bad and sinful.
Jesus has compassion on me who's so bad and so sinful.
Jesus has compassion on you, poor Sinner, that he would come
and live a perfect righteous life and die for you.
And Isaiah writes and Isaiah 53 four, that he took up our pain
and bore our suffering, Then he bore our defilement, then he
became a curse for us. He was stricken for us.
He became sin, the one who knew no sin, so that in him we might
become the righteousness of God. And in that cross he absorbed
God's anger for us. The angry hand of God that
should have destroyed us was laid heavily upon the person of
Jesus Christ. He absorbed all the anger that
was due us. He did this for us because he
had compassion towards the state we were in.
Thomas Goodwin said there's comfort concerning such
infirmities and that your very sins move him to pity more than
to anger. Child of God, that's how God
deals with you. Pity instead of anger.
You deserve so much anger when we know the rest of the story
through Christ. He didn't just go to the cross,
He didn't just absorb the wrath of the Father, but he defeated
death three days later when He rose from the dead.
And he promises everyone who will come to Him by faith will
also be free from death, will also resurrect.
Look what He says in John 5 verse 28.
Don't be amazed at this for a time is coming when all who are
in their graves will hear his voice and come out hear His
voice. Those who have done what is
goodwill rise to live. Christian, we have a hope they
had our funeral. When they lay that body in the
grave or however they dispose of your carcass, that will one day
be raised and reunited with your soul to be with the Lord
forever. When we can see a wonderful
picture of this in our own salvation, our own regeneration,
we look at this miracle. We look at several other
miracles of Jesus. There's no faith exercised by
the people. Obviously the first one there
was faith. He was amazing, his faith, but
this one with the dead, the the widow's dead son, he has zero
faith for you. Recovering Southern Baptist
Jesus did not honor his thought free will.
He violated it when he said get up.
He didn't come up to the grave and say hey buddy, I'm knocking
on the door of your heart. You think you can get up out of
that grave? I really want to do something
for you, but I've done 99%. I need you to do the one.
That's not how regeneration works.
That's not how the new birth works.
There is 0 faith involved. God breathes life into your dead
soul. Why?
Because he's compassionate towards you.
And if he doesn't breathe life into your dead soul, guess what?
You're going to keep doing what dead people do.
Sinning, chasing after the world, chasing after your flesh,
and submitting to your Father the devil.
That's Ephesians 2 one through 3.
So because of God's compassionate hand, He
regenerates you to life and even gives you saving faith to
believe in Him. And as you're a believer, then
the compassionate Word of Christ just know what to say and when
to say it. I'm amazed at the living and
active Word of God that you read the thing that you need at just
the right time. You read something like this
when you're weary and worn out from just the rat race of life.
Or maybe you're wore out from just trying to do the church
thing and it's not clicking and you're trying all the religion.
You're trying all the stuff, but man, you just have no
fulfillment. You read the words of Jesus in
Matthew 1128. Come to me, all who were weary
and burdened. You say I'm weary and burdened.
I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn
from me, for I'm gentle and humbling heart, and you will
find rest for your souls. Oh, don't we need so much rest
for our souls? And the compassionate Jesus
Christ offers it, even offers timely rebukes through his word.
You just need a slap on the mouth.
I don't know if that's politically correct, but we need
it, don't we? We think we're on the mountain.
We think we're doing really, really good, and we read
something in the Word and we hear a sermon or we're talking
to other Christians and we're just fellowshipping and they say
something or do something. You say wow, I'm a scoundrel,
thank God who had compassion on you to show that to you.
He does that because he has genuine compassion. 3rd and
finally, he learned how Jesus deals with the lowly.
He does so by highlighting his identity.
I don't want you to miss what happens here, their reaction,
because it tells us a whole lot. Verse 16, they're all filled
with awe and they praised God. What that literally means is
they were gripped with fear and they praised God.
They were in awe. They were in wonder.
I would imagine they were in awe and wonder because the point
that they went to mourn the death of this kid is taken away
because this dude walked through the gate, touched the coffin and
said get up and he got up. They're in awe.
They're they're gripped with fear.
Who is this? And they praise God.
They say a great prophet has appeared among us close.
They said God has come to help his people.
This news about Jesus spread throughout Judea and the
surrounding country. This was no small matter and
Jesus's identity is highlighted here, that he is majestic and to
be feared. All too often God is treated as
our buddy. God is treated as just someone
else. I've even heard this awful
illustration. This is how you pray.
You just talk to God like you're talking to just one of your
friends. That's not how Jesus said to
pray. Our Father in heaven, hallowed,
be your name, revered be your name.
Yes, we have Open Access to the throne of God through Jesus
Christ, for that came at a great cost and a cost worth fearing in
a cost worth realizing. The majesty of God, the psalmist
wrote in Psalm 147, verse 5. Great is our Lord and mighty in
power. First Chronicles 2911.
Yours, Lord, is the greatness and the power and the glory and
the majesty and the splendor, for everything in heaven and
earth is yours. Does that sound like it's no big
deal? That sounds like someone to be
feared. Yours, Lord, is the Kingdom.
You are exalted as head over all.
Wealth and honor come from you. You're the ruler of all things,
and your hands are strength and power to exalt and give strength
to all. And they rightly did what the
psalmist called for them to do in Psalm 33.
Let all the earth fear the Lord. Let all the people of the world
Revere him. That should be our reaction to
when God is revealed to us. But don't miss what else they
say. They're gripped with fear,
filled with awe and praise God. But then they say a great
prophet has appeared. God has come to help his people.
The Jesus has identity of 1 of majestic and to be feared.
Yet he's condescending and close.
God Incarnate stood in their midst, exercising the power of
God alone to help them. Jesus had not come to smite them
in their unbelief, He'd come to help them.
If you don't see this balance clearly that He's majestic, yet
He's condescending in close, you can do something that John
Bunyan warned about in his pilgrims progress in the valley,
the shadow of death. He said as you walk down that
path, on one side there's a deep ditch that you can fall in and
on the other there's a great bog that you can fall in.
And we do this with with with different concepts in Scripture,
don't we? We may over emphasize the
sovereignty of God. Then we forget man's
responsibility to repent and believe or even to share the
gospel, or we do vice versa. And it's all about
responsibility. It's all about choice.
And it's all about this, that we've minimized the sovereignty
of God. The Bible holds it in great
balance. Among many other things.
This is one of them. So you can fall into one of
those ditches or bogs by doing this.
You can over emphasize God's majesty because you want to
avoid heresy. Anybody say Amen, but in that
you can run the risk of forgetting and missing his
closeness that God has come to help his people.
You may even miss his compassion.
You can overcorrect. Oh, God is so Manny and forget
that, yes, but he is compassionate.
Or you can do this. You can over personalize and
over trivialize as so often happens, God's compassion and
even his closeness that you forget that he is majestic and
should be feared. You see what I'm saying?
You see how this text holds them both there?
Yes, God is to be feared. He's come to help us.
And doesn't Jesus embody that? I mean, there's no further than
the cross. Does Jesus hate sin?
Does the Father hate sin? Does the Father love the Son
eternally? Does the Father love us?
Yet he poured out his anger on his only begotten Son because he
hates sin so much. What?
Yes, you see this. And Jesus came to this earth to
condescend, to bring us, to reconcile us to our Creator, the
high, holy, majestic Creator, who we were damned from.
You've got to see these two. And I'm no huge CS Lewis fan,
but I did watch The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe when I
was a little kid. I didn't read the books, too
much reading, but I watched the movies.
And they were good, weren't they?
But when the word got around the Aslan, the great Lion was
returning. And poor little Susan, she's
talking to Mr. Beaver about it, isn't she?
And she asked, is he quite safe? I feel rather nervous about
meeting a lion safe, said Mr. Beaver.
Who said anything about safe? Of course he isn't safe, but
he's good. That is what you need to see in
Christ. Course he isn't safe, but he's
good and compassionate and full of tender mercies.
We see that in this account. As they're fearing God, there is
a widow rejoicing that her Son has been compassionately raised
from the dead. As we fear God is high and holy
and unapproachable, yet He's been given us access to the
blood of Jesus Christ to enter his throne room of grace with
confidence. And He's done this for the lowly
Christian. This is, this is our Savior's
heart towards us. This is how he deals with us.
God has truly visited his people and you see it no clearer than
the life and work of Jesus Christ that the God man came and
he fulfilled all righteousness. The law that you could never
keep, He kept perfectly and he died as a punishment for your
sin. Believer in my sin.
And he rose victoriously on the third day and he calls every man
everywhere to repent and believe him.
May we rightly bow in wonder that he would love me.
He would love you, a Sinner condemned, lowly and unclean.
Let's pray together. Father, thank you that that is
true. Help us to believe it.
May we see Your compassionate heart, so full of grace, so
undeserved. May we be in awe of you.
May our all drive us to obedience and faithfulness to
You that you breathe life into dead sinners, and You give us
eternal life, abundant life that now brings honor to You to
fulfill our great purpose. Father, may we see you.
I pray that the words from your word will change us in Jesus
name, Amen. You've been listening to Key
Life Fellowship's Pulpit Ministry podcast.
Join us each week for more teaching from God's Word.