According To Luke: It’s Never To Late For Jesus!

According To Luke: It’s Never To Late For Jesus!

Opening Illustration:

When I was a kid, I loved wrestling. That’s right, the big guys in tights that jumped off the ropes and hit each other with tables and chairs. Call it bad parenting but there was a short time that I was sort of into it. These guys seemed like super heroes to me and there was always a story line of good vs. evil taking place. I rooted for characters like Hulk Hogan and the Ultimate Warrior. Then there was Sting and Rowdy Roddy Piper. Of course there were carefully choreographed matches that already had predetermined outcomes. Now, as a kid I had not idea what was really taking place behind the curtain. It was just good clean boy fun. 

Then there were the tag team matches. Two top wrestlers teamed up against another couple of wrestlers. Only one wrestler could fight at a time of course. About half way through the match, one wrestler would get pinned. He would be on the mat, sweating, exhausted, and wanting to give up. Can you see it in your mind? I can because I am a child of the 80’s and this was about the only thing we had. Then the referee would begin to pound the mat.

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He would shout. Just when the referee would near his count to 10, the wrestler pinned to the mat would reach out in desperation and slap the hand of his partner. That meant that the pinned fighter would suddenly be relieved of the match and his energetic, and rested partner would fly into the ring. This would go on for a while until eventually one team had the victory. 

As a kid I wished I had a tag team partner. 

Boy this test is killing me, tag. 

I would love to ask that girl out but Im to chicken, tag.

Man, this kid sure is a bully, tag.

You would think that as an adult that the desire to have a tag team partner would go away. If anything I wish had one even more. 

Man, I really don’t want to deal with this confrontation, tag.

I wish I had the answer to this difficult problem but I don’t, tag.

I wish I knew what to do as a parent in this situation but I don’t, tag.

Some of us have had much more significant things we would like to tag out of. Sickness. Death in the family. Loss of a job. A mistake that has led to severe consequences. Tag on all of them. 

Point:

Well brothers and sisters, I have good news for you. Maybe you feel like the wrestler on the mat. You feel like you are being choked out and honestly you feel like giving up. You feel that everything is lost, you are in your darkest moment, and life is not really worth living. If that’s you today, boy do you have a partner in your corner. The sad thing about life is that we feel that we even have to fight. The truth is that Jesus wants to do all the fighting for us and he has already won the battle. Let me encourage you today, reach out your hand and tag Jesus in.

Answer this question for me this morning. 

Are You Tapping Out, Or In Touch With Jesus?

Background:

Last week, we were in Capernaum, Jesus launching pad for ministry. Capernaum was in Northern Israel and laid on the Sea of Galilee. Jesus begins to attract followers there as his teaching from earlier chapters of Luke are wildly different than that of the teachings of other Rabbi’s and teachers of the Torah. Jesus has also proven Himself to be adept at performing miracles. The people are beginning to see him as the embodiment of Isiah 35:4-6. 

Isaiah 35:4-6 ESV

Say to those who have an anxious heart, “Be strong; fear not! Behold, your God will come with vengeance, with the recompense of God. He will come and save you.” 5 Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf unstopped; 6  then shall the lame man leap like a deer, and the tongue of the mute sing for joy.For waters break forth in the wilderness,

and streams in the desert;

As we continue to read Luke’s Gospel, we will discover that the good doctor spends a great deal of time proving Jesus’ divinity by His ability to live out these Old Testament Scriptures. 

Jesus and His disciples take a short journey, about a day’s journey to Nain. It was about 20 miles away from Capernaum. As they approach Nain, they are again followed by large crowds. No doubt the disciples were feeling a bit like rock stars.  Nain is not that far from Nazareth. As they are about to enter, they encounter a funeral procession that is presumably on its way to a place of burial outside the city. Jesus approaches the body of a young man being carried on a bier, a structure that allowed for the transport of a body or coffin for burial. Jesus commands the young man to rise, and he does. With great reverence, the crowd praises God and exclaims that a great prophet has come among them, with news of what Jesus has done spreading far and wide.

So, let’s read the story together this morning. 

Scripture:

Luke 7:11-16 ESV

11 Soon afterward he went to a town called Nain, and his disciples and a great crowd went with him. 12 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. 13 And when the Lord saw her, he had compassion on her and said to her, “Do not weep.” 14 Then he came up and touched the bier, and the bearers stood still. And he said, “Young man, I say to you, arise.” 15 And the dead man sat up and began to speak, and Jesus gave him to his mother. 16 Fear seized them all, and they glorified God, saying, “A great prophet has arisen among us!” and “God has visited his people!”

3 Lessons From The Widow of Nain

I. See Her Condition vs. 11-12

Luke 7:11-12 ESV

11 Soon afterward he went to a town called Nain, and his disciples and a great crowd went with him. 12 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.

Point:

First she was a widow.

This was a desperate situation. As a widow, she had no husband to support her. We are not told how long she was a widow just that she was.

The plight of widows was difficult in that time. There were no social programs to give her financial aid. The life of a widow was filled with hard work just to have something to eat for the day. The Bible tells us in Deuteronomy the only social program for widows.

Deuteronomy 24:19-21 ESV 

19 “When you reap your harvest in your field and forget a sheaf in the field, you shall not go back to get it. It shall be for the sojourner, the fatherless, and the widow, that the Lord your God may bless you in all the work of your hands. 20 When you beat your olive trees, you shall not go over them again. It shall be for the sojourner, the fatherless, and the widow. 21 When you gather the grapes of your vineyard, you shall not strip it afterward. It shall be for the sojourner, the fatherless, and the widow.

From the book of Ruth, we gather a lot about how widows in Israel did to just survive. Ruth tells the story of Naomi, who had lost her husband, and her sons. She moved back to Israel from Moab, back to her home town of Bethlehem, where her daughter in law Ruth, went into the fields every day to gleam grain so they could eat every night. If not for the younger Ruth, it would have been Naomi in the fields. This was hard work and can you image for an ages widow, how hard it must have been.

Point:

Second She was a widow that lost her son.

What was even harder for the widow of Nain is that not only had she lost her husband but now her only son was gone too. Widows did not have social programs to take care of them, that responsibility fell back on whatever family she had left so she had a son.

But now, we find that her son has passed away. Now she has no one.

For a mother, there is nothing more devastating than the loss of a child. Of all deaths, the death of a child is most unnatural and hardest to bear.

I have heard many people say that the children are supposed to bury their parents and not the parents burying their children.

Can you imagine the pain, the confusion that she must be feeling? Now she has no one. She must deal with grief of course for what normal mother wouldn’t who lost a child, yet now her future is very uncertain.

How will she pay her bills? Where will she live? Could she be cast out in the street? All of these are these are questions that must be running through her mind.

Point:

She was a widow that many would view with suspicious.

The Jews had kind of a reverse prosperity Gospel message. We hear many today say if you live for God then you will never be sick, never have any problems, and be financially rich. Reverse that and you have an idea of what many of the Jews believed.

We see this theology in the story of the blind man found in John 9.

John 9:1-2 ESV

As he passed by, he saw a man blind from birth. 2 And his disciples asked him, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?”

This belief system believed that if bad things happened to you, then you must have sinned some hideous sin. It viewed God as One that sent bad things on those that disobeyed, therefore there would be many that would view the widow with suspicious and wonder what she had done to so displease the Lord. People would gossip about what she might have done.

This widow’s life appeared to be filled with fear and despair. Her future appeared to be filled with more pain and loneliness and also uncertainty.

But then came Jesus!

Philippians 419 ESV

And my God will supply every need of yours according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus.

3 Lessons From The Widow of Nain

I. See Her Condition vs. 11-12

II. See The Confrontation vs. 11-13

Luke 7:11-13 ESV

11 Soon afterward he went to a town called Nain, and his disciples and a great crowd went with him. 12 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. 13 And when the Lord saw her, he had compassion on her and said to her, “Do not weep.”

Point

Now the widow has lost her son, so he is being taking outside of town to be buried, no doubt in a tomb very similar to what Lazarus was buried in. It must have been a sad possession leaving town carrying the funeral byre of this young man.

Again Nain is about 25 miles from Capernaum, a good day’s journey away from where Jesus seems to have centered His ministry.

Now Jesus probably arrived at the city gate late in the afternoon on the same day the boy died. The Jews buried their dead the same day. So, two crowds met; the ones following Jesus, and the large funeral procession leaving the city and headed for the cemetery.

Someone described this as a procession of death meeting a procession of life. Life meeting death. Despair meeting hope.

Point:

If we read the previous verses, we find that Jesus and His company were rejoicing because of the healing of the Centurion’s servant. Yet as they enter into the city, they met the funeral procession of this young man, followed by a mother with a broken heart.

If we read the previous verses, we find that Jesus and His company were rejoicing because of the healing of the Centurion’s servant. Yet as they enter into the city, they met the funeral possession of this young man, followed by a mother with a broken heart.

In our day if we see a funeral procession, we pull to the side of the road and allow the procession to pass on by – and we then go on our way, most of the time, with what we have seen put out of our mind.

It was customary in Jesus’ time, that if you ran into a funeral procession, you joined it out of respect for the bereaved.

Point:

So as Jesus and His followers met this possession of death and despair, He and his followers joined the funeral procession. 

This is a key, whatever Jesus joins in with, it can be turned around. 

Here Jesus’ presence changed the whole situation.

Point:

We don’t know what the widow knew about Jesus. She may have not known anything about Jesus, before He raised her son to life. I doubt that she was thinking of Jesus because probably her world that day was limited to a dark despair of grief.

I know that faith is important, and I know that asking is important, but I think it is important to note that there is no record of the woman approaching Jesus to ask him to raise her son – indeed there is no record of her having any faith at all.

Point:

Luke chapter 7 is an interesting study in contrast. There are two stores here, one of a Roman centurion who had great faith, faith so great that Jesus marveled at it, and another story of a woman who appears to have no faith, at least that is mentioned, just gloom and despair.

Yet Jesus moves between the two extremes.

Quote:

Chuck Swindoll made this statement: “These differences illustrate that Jesus our Savior doesn’t demand that we fit into a set pattern to receive his help. He doesn’t restrain His compassion because we fail to meet “our good deed quota…or because we don’t say the right words. Or because we forget to follow the correct ritual.”

Point:

I don’t know how you feel about this but this gives me hope. We would like to think that we have great faith, but great faith is a rarity, this is why Jesus marveled so much at it. This is why Jesus asked in one place that when the Son of man returned, would He find faith on the earth?

When you are walking in the valley of despair, you wonder if Jesus really cares for you? You wonder if you have any hope, and faith seems to be often far away. Does anyone care? Trust me, Jesus cares!

Psalm 55:22 ESV

Cast your burden on the Lord, and he will sustain you; he will never permit the righteous to be moved.

3 Lessons From The Widow of Nain

I. See Her Condition vs. 11-12

II. See The Confrontation vs. 11-13

III. See The Compassion vs. vs. 13

Luke 7:13 ESV

13 And when the Lord saw her, he had compassion on her and said to her, “Do not weep.”

Point:

Jesus saw this woman and He had compassion on her. This woman was already a widow and had now lost her only son and means of support.

She was now at great social risk and embarrassment, because there was no one that would be able to care for her. So Jesus felt great compassion for her.

Greek:

Note that the Greek word “splaknizo’mai” translated here as “compassion” is only used in this form, just twice; once here of Jesus and also of the Good Samaritan. And each time it is used, the result of the compassion is not just detached concern or kind words, but always involvement and action. We don’t really have compassion until we do something about it.

Then Jesus does something that is totally unexpected, first He went and touched the funeral bier, literally stopping the possession.

Point:

Two things to note here; first note that according to the law and Rabbinical tradition, this would have made Jesus unclean. However, people are more important that words and traditions. Jesus was moved with compassion at the condition of this mother and He is letting the possession know that a greater Word is here than that of Moses.

Next this would have been considered somewhat rude. Why continue to delay the mother in her grief? Let her go on to what every fate she had. Yet Jesus wasn’t just an ordinary person, He was the Very Word of God.

He spoke to the young man and told him to “arise.” Then the young man got up.

Jesus demonstrated divine compassion. He was truly concerned about the plight of an obscure widow and her son. AND HE IS CONCERNED ABOUT YOUR PLIGHT – AND MINE! He is still moved with compassion. It is never too late with Jesus.

Closing Illustration: Abe Sets Her Free

There’s a story that Abraham Lincoln went to a slave market one time, and was moved with compassion to place a bid on a young black girl. He won the bid and walked away with his “property.” There was a sullen, angry expression on the girl’s face, because she knew that here was another white man who had bought her and would abuse her. As they walked away from the slave block, however, Lincoln told the girl, “You are free.”

“What does that mean?” she demanded.

“It means, you are free.”

“Does that mean that I can be what I want to be?” “Yes--you can be whatever you want to be.”

“Does that mean that I can say what I want to say?” “Yes--you can say whatever you want to say.”

“Does that mean that I can go where I want to go?” “Yes--you can go wherever you want to go.”

“Then ...” said the girl, “... I’ll go with you.”

Jesus went to extreme lengths to show us his love, to set us free, because He cares about us. He cares about you. If you hear nothing else today, remember that Jesus loves you like he loved the widow of Nain!

Mark 6:34 ESV

When he went ashore he saw a great crowd, and he had compassion on them, because they were like sheep without a shepherd. 

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