Jesus
Came to Seek and to Save the Lost
Luke
19:10
The
Widow of Nain and her Son
Luke
7:11ff
Luke set out to do research in order to
send a record of these things to his Gentile friend. He writes about that in the first Chapter of
his gospel and his other work, the Acts of the Apostles. He wanted to provide a
narrative, a story, a record of those things that had been fulfilled among the
many witnesses. He spoke with those who
ministered with the Lord and other eyewitnesses of the events in order to pen an
orderly account so Theo could know with certainty that those things he had been
taught orally, were true.
The word for orderly is the word that
means a sequence of one after another in time, space, or logically considered —
‘in order, in sequence, one after another. Luke accomplishes what he sets out
to do. And in doing that, Luke gives us
these little comments that convey a sense of time, geography and setting. It is
all a part of the orderly arrangement and presentation. He makes it all fit together so nicely. It is Luke’s stated purpose.
1.
The Setting
Luke 7:11 ¶ Now it happened, the day
after, that He went into a city called Nain; and many of His disciples went
with Him, and a large crowd.
2.
The Situation
12 And when He came near the gate of the
city, behold, a dead man was being carried out, the only son of his mother; and
she was a widow. And a large crowd from the city was with her.
3.
The Sympathy of Christ Jesus
13 When the Lord saw her, He had
compassion on her and said to her, “Do
not weep.”
4.
The Saying of Jesus
14 Then He came and touched the open
coffin, and those who carried him stood still. And He said, “Young man, I say to you, arise.”
5.
The Son Resurrected
15 So he who was dead sat up and began to
speak. And He presented him to his mother.
6.
The Statement of the People
16 Then fear came upon all, and they
glorified God, saying, “A great prophet
has risen up among us”; and, “God has
visited His people.”
17 And this report about Him went
throughout all Judea and all the surrounding region.
Let’s look at the text with greater
detail:
1.
The Setting
Luke 7:11 ¶ Now it happened, the day
after, that He went into a city called Nain; and many of His disciples went
with Him, and a large crowd.
It is commonly believed that Nain is about
25 miles from the place where Jesus healed the Centurion’s servant--another
Gentile he ministered unto. To get to
Nain, Jesus, his disciples and those from the multitudes who followed, must
have traveled after the healing on one day and before this event on the
next. Luke tells us that these events
happened one day later.
Luke also tells us that many of his
disciples went along for the journey, though not necessarily all of them. And,
with them was a large crowd. Not quite
the multitudes that we have seen in other places, but a large crowd
nonetheless.
All of these travelers walked to Nain. On
many occasions we have found that Jesus knows men’s hearts. His meetings with people are not accidental,
but purposeful. Here we have Jesus leading a large crowd to a place 25 miles
away from the point of ministry the day before.
We can’t assume it was mere coincidence that found Jesus where a great
need was. It is better to assume it is
purposeful travel based on the omniscience of the Son of man and his compassion
for those in need. Jesus went to Nain for one purpose. In this case, as in many others, to seek and
to save the lost. Let’s look at those specifics:
2.
The Situation
12 And when He came near the gate of the
city, behold, a dead man was being carried out, the only son of his mother; and
she was a widow. And a large crowd from the city was with her.
We meet a dead man, that is a man in whom
there was no more life. He had
died. He was so dead that he was being
carried out of the city on a funeral bier. Jesus meets them near the gate.
He had a large crown with him and there
was a large crowd from the city with this corpse. An important part of that funeral procession
was the mother of the deceased. She was
a widow and the body being carried was her only son. Two crowds of people, bump into each other
near a constricting gate that would have pressed them together even more. One crowd following the Lord Jesus, the Lord
of life; the other following a corpse without life at all. What a paradox. Then
all of a sudden the focus in upon this widow.
This focus is extremely important.
In our day and age with socialized care for widows we become
desensitized to the plight of people like this woman in Nain.
A Widow whose only son had died would be
unable to provide for herself. She would
be placed at the bottom of the social structure with the orphans. The widow would have to depend upon herself
with an ever-diminishing capacity to do so by virtue of age and ability. She was in a desperate situation.
Even in the New Testament, there is an
important component of true Christianity that demonstrates itself with a
concern for widows and orphans, as well as to maintain a life that is
unblemished by the world’s systems allied against God and his holy agenda.
But, in the life of the Lord Jesus Christ,
he needed to address this plight in order to fulfill all righteousness. The OT
Law demands the same thing that James presents in his epistle. James is presenting a practical and abiding
lesson from the Law of God.
Jesus takes up a most righteous cause as
he approaches the gates of Nain. We find.....
3.
The Sympathy of Christ Jesus
13 When the Lord saw her, He had
compassion on her and said to her, “Do
not weep.”
Do you see why Jesus was moved with
compassion and desired to extend mercy to this woman? Do you see how this is necessary in order for
him to be found completely righteous? He
could not neglect one needful thing that his father had given him to do. He was willing to take a lot of people on a
long march in order to give mercy to this one widow. Jesus sees her, knows her
need, is moved with compassion and immediately seeks to comfort her with the
words, “Do not weep.”
The word for compassion in the original is
a strong word that means to be moved deeply and profoundly within. Literally,
it is akin to having your intestines moved. There is a deep inward emotive
activity brought about by a proper assessment of a need. This is what occurred in the Lord Jesus
Christ. He was not just the messiah
going through the motions of a mission that had been given him to do by his
Father. He was intimately involved in
body and soul, divinity and humanity, in all that he saw and experienced. He knew the need of this one woman and knew
what needed to be done, so out of knowledge and compassion, he acts.
At this point in the Life of Christ we are
just a little less than two years from the crucifixion. In rough dates it is the late Spring of
28AD. So far in about 15 months of ministry
there have been a number of miracles in either particular narratives or in
summary statements. We could go look at how Jesus turned the water into wine, the
healing of the Nobleman’s son in Capernaum after leaving Nazareth in a hurry, there
is a summary in Matthew 4:24 that said Jesus had healed the sick, that included
the diseased, tormented, demon-possessed, epileptic and palsied, we saw how he
healed Peter’s mother-in-law on a sabbath and how the townspeople came to him
after sunset, we could go to see the paralytic let down through the roof to be
healed, We then find the healing of the paralyzed man near the Pool of
Bethesda, Then the narrative of the man with the withered hand, and the healing
of the Centurion’s servant. But there is
something new in the miracle we are about to consider. Do you know what that
is? In the other miracles we find Jesus
restoring the living to health and well-being.
This is the first resurrection of one who was dead to life. Jesus had demonstrated power over life to heal
and power over sin to forgive, but in this miracle, Jesus is showing that he
has the power over death. He is
attacking the Sadducees notion of no resurrection and doing what many would
have thought impossible, even if they believed it theoretically. You know how it is. How would you receive
news that someone had been raised from the dead? With great skepticism. I would. It is
unexpected now and it would have been then.
4.
The Saying of Jesus
14 Then He came and touched the open
coffin, and those who carried him stood still. And He said, “Young man, I say
to you, arise.”
Notice the simplicity of it all. The coffin was open with the son on display
as he was carried out to the place of the dead.
The Lord Jesus Christ comes to the coffin, the pallbearers stop. Jesus,
addresses a dead man, he who could not hear with his dead ears was addressed with
a command. The man is told to do what he can't do on his own. Jesus said, Young
man, I say to you, arise.” Jesus does not get worked up into all sorts of spiritual
gymnastics, he speaks and all creation obeys.
In this instant it was a young man who was dead called back to
life.
5.
The Son Resurrected
15 So he who was dead sat up and began to
speak. And He presented him to his mother.
Can you imagine what it must have been
like. These two crowds of people meeting and squeezing their way through the
city gates, all gets quiet, Jesus touches the coffin in the silence and speaks
a command. The one on the shoulders of others sits up in a way that he is way above
the crowd--he is the new center of their attention. And Jesus gives him back to his mother. That is what the word presented means, to
give to another. There was no greater
earthly gift the Lord Jesus could have given to this poor widow than the restoration
of her recently deceased son. Such is
the compassion of the Lord Jesus.
There is no greater gift I can offer you,
than life through this same Jesus Christ. What I can offer is spiritual life,
if you will obey God's command to repent and believe the gospel. Spiritual
resurrection, or being born again, is greater for all who believe than natural
life is for one who died. And, that is spectacular. The one gives you your life
back. The other assures you of everlasting life--you will live forever.
But the attention of the people in our
narrative did not stay with the young man for very long. Their attention and
affection was turned back to a more deserving object, the Lord Jesus Christ.
Consider their reaction:
6.
The Statement of the People
16 Then fear came upon all, and they
glorified God,
The work of God among them that day
brought about a healthy fear. Fear can
be a good thing when people realize that God has the right and power to give us
what we deserve, but graciously doesn’t.
The merging crowds of people who started with two vary different
purposes that day are now joined together in a common one. They knew the power of God from on high had
been manifest among them that day. They
did not know how to respond, except with fear of God and perhaps the
unknown. But the result of this fear
that gripped them was that they glorified God.
They knew it was a work of God. They did not glorify Jesus as a man, but as
he was in truth, God in the flesh dwelling among man. They were overcome. But this realization
brought about a common confession. The continued.....
saying, “A great prophet has risen up among us”;
and, “God has visited His people.”
To expressions: The first, that a great
prophet has arisen among them. After
four hundred years of prophetic silence except for John the Baptist, they have
an authoritative voice from God. But, they didn’t stop there. They believed
that God had come among his people to dwell. He has made a careful
consideration of their need and has come to meet it. God takes note of people
in need and sends what is needed to minister mercy and grace. God still visits his people in the same
lingering and merciful manner. That you are here listening to these words is
proof of this grace and mercy.
The special visitation of God brought
about actions that could not be contained to the little city of Nain. But
again, it is said..........
17 And this report about Him went
throughout all Judea and all the surrounding region.
The good news went forward. It could not
be contained, nor should it have been. It is still going forth today….
What do you do with knowledge of this Jesus
full of grace and mercy? Do you keep it
for yourself? Or, do you tell others
because you are so thrilled to know about and to have experienced the sympathy
and mercy of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now,
admittedly, people send signals when we bring up the subject of the Gospel.
And, many times it is right to not press the issue because of their sinful
unbelief. To press it would be to cast pearls before the unclean.
But, there are some who God will call
through the faithful witness of his disciples as the are scattered in this
life. And, there are others who may
accept an invitation to come hear the Gospel preached. We do not know who the Lord will call. Our hope is that he will surely call
some. We need to recovery a sense of
urgency for the work of the Gospel. We
need to be reminded that God is still visiting his people, that he is still
functioning as a prophet in that he gives pastor-teachers to churches. What surprises us about his mercy in this
narrative, should surprise us in new ways each day. His mercies are new every morning, great is
his faithfulness. We cannot live
unaffected by his mercy. He has done so
much for us, we should be quick to tell others.
Jesus came to seek and to save the lost.
And, he continues to call the lost. He seeks them out through the preaching of
the Word, ordinarily.
What about the skeptics who may be among
us? The Lord Jesus Christ is the only
hope of abundant life in this world and for fellowship with God in the age to
come. God can and may break the most
stubborn of hearts. He subdues men’s
pride, actually, he breaks it. Our response to his call ought to be one of
faith. If we respond in any other way,
we heap up wrath for the day of destruction. A sure and certain destruction
that will come upon all who refuse to bow their knee to the Lord Jesus as the
King of King and Lord of Lords. If you
have any concern for your soul, cry out for that same mercy that restored a
dead son back to life that it might bring your dead soul to life in
Christ. He is your only hope. If his spirit is at work in you this morning,
you will embrace the Lord Jesus Christ, or, at least you will pray. if he is
not at work in you, no words from these lips could convince you of you
desperate need. A need more spiritually
desperate than the need of the widow we talked about this morning. May God give you mercy and not let you
ultimately harden your heart. AMEN.
Jesus may be seeking after your attention and affection. Ask Him to help you
love Him with all you are and all you have.
No comments:
Post a Comment