Rev. David Holwick I
First Baptist Church
Ledgewood, New Jersey
March 10, 2013
Luke 7:11-16
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I. How many funerals have you attended?
A. My own record.
1) In the 31 years I have been a pastor, I have conducted
223 funerals.
a) That's a lot!
b) I've only done about half as many weddings, though
weddings make me more nervous. (bridezillas...)
2) Evangelist D.L. Moody's discovery.
Early in Dwight L. Moody's ministry he was called upon to
do his first funeral.
He wanted to do it right, so he went to the Bible to
consider how Jesus would have done it.
He found an amazing truth -- Jesus didn't hold funeral
services!
Whenever Jesus came into contact with those who were dead
he gave them life! #12789
B. It is different for us.
1) Death will touch each of us, through loss of grandparents,
parents, spouses, friends...
2) Then it will come for us.
3) What is the best we can hope for?
II. Colliding with a funeral.
A. Jesus and his crowd encounters a funeral and its crowd.
1) Normally this would put quite a damper on a successful
preaching mission like the one Jesus just finished.
a) His followers are feeling "up."
b) The reminder of death would have been sobering.
2) The deceased is being carried in a container (probably not
a casket like we use) on the shoulders of the mourners.
a) A very large crowd accompanies it.
B. It was a young man.
1) Any funeral can be emotional, but it is especially so
for a young person.
a) When I was in high school, a student in a grade
below me died while climbing in the Alps.
b) I remember how emotional it was for the rest of
the students.
c) I didn't know Becky Trigg very well, but I have
always remembered her death.
2) Making this case even harder, the young man was the
only support for his widowed mother.
C. I wonder what was foremost on this woman's mind...
1) The death of her son.
2) Her own dire situation in life.
a) She had lost her husband and son, and was now alone.
b) Widows had it tough in the ancient world.
c) There wasn't much of a way for her to make a living now.
d) Many widows ended up as beggars, or worse.
3) The whole town has come out to share her grief.
D. Death isn't much easier for us.
1) We tend to hide it away.
a) People no longer wear special clothes when they are
in grief, like they did a generation ago.
b) We even cover the gravesite with flowers and Astroturf.
2) The pain is still there, even if it is private.
a) I looked at the old directory poster that we put
in the conference room of the Education building.
b) It is not that old - 2002, just eleven years ago.
c) 22 people on that poster are now gone.
1> Most of you knew a lot of these people.
3) We put so much focus on life, it is hard for us to handle
death when it comes close to us.
a) Some people never really get over losing a loved one.
III. Don't cry.
A. Jesus feels her pain.
1) Luke uses a special term for "his heart went out to her."
a) In Greek, it is the word for intestines.
1> That is what they associated with deep emotion.
2> It sounds weird to us, so the NIV gives a modern
equivalent of the heart.
b) But you might say it was "gut-wrenching" to Jesus to
see this widow with her dead son.
2) It is an interesting contrast with Greek Stoicism.
a) The Stoics thought emotions betrayed weakness - if
a situation moves you, it also controls you, and
gods are not supposed to be controlled by anyone.
b) The God of the Bible, on the other hand, is full of
emotion.
1> Especially as he is portrayed in Jesus.
2> Luke makes a special point of showing how emotional
Jesus would get when he saw human suffering.
3> He empathized with people - he cared for them.
B. How do you react when you see people who are hurting?
1) Maybe you find it unnerving and you avoid them.
2) That often happens after funerals - you don't know
what to say to them, so you stay away.
C. Jesus himself doesn't seem to say the right thing.
1) When they give you grief classes in seminary, they always
tell you not to tell people how they should react.
a) You don't tell people not to cry. (They might slug you.)
b) However they may wish to express their emotional
distress is fine.
2) Jesus does have a good reason.
a) He is not telling her that her emotions are invalid.
b) He is saying they are unnecessary.
1> You don't have to cry if they're not actually dead.
IV. Get up!
A. With a touch and a command from Jesus, the boy lives again.
1) Luke adds the nice detail that he began to talk.
2) Jesus reunites him with his mother.
a) The miracle is as much for her as it is for the boy.
B. Deja vu all over again. 1 Kings 17:17-24
1) 800 years previously, the prophet Elijah had encountered
a widow whose son had died.
a) She thinks God is out to get her. (Elijah does, too.)
b) So the prophet lays upon the boy and prays to God,
and his life returns.
1> Just like Jesus, he returns the boy to his mother.
2> And she doesn't just accept the miracle, but
acknowledges Elijah gives the true word from God.
2) Jesus gets a similar reaction.
a) The people proclaim him a great prophet.
b) There is even a hint that they saw the Messiah in him,
and they praise God because of him.
V. Praise God.
A. Today's passage is something you don't see very often.
1) I have never been to a funeral that was interrupted like
this.
2) Even in Bible days it was not a common event, contrary to
what many people think.
3) We often think they were credulous and it happened all
the time, but it didn't.
a) Examples in Old Testament.
1> Elijah (1 Kg 17:18-24)
2> Elisha
A> 2 Kg 4:20, Shunem - just around the hill from
Nain!
B> 2 Kg 13:21, his bones revive a body
b) New Testament.
1> Jesus (3): Lazarus, Jairus's daughter, widow's son.
2> Peter (Tabatha)
3> Paul (Eutychus, who died[?] during a boring sermon)
A> That's about it.
B. Extraordinary events point to an extraordinary person.
1) In Luke 7:19, John the Baptist is curious as to whether
Jesus is just a successful prophet, or something more --
the Messiah.
2) Jesus gives his answer in verse 22, and points to the
raising of the widow's son.
a) The proof is in the pudding - he is the Messiah.
b) It is interesting that this episode, unlike the
centurion story before it, doesn't mention the
person's faith.
c) Instead, Jesus is the real focus of the miracle.
VI. What does it mean for us?
A. We can look forward to a better raising.
1) The widow's son was brought back to life, but eventually
died again.
2) When Jesus raises us at the Second Coming, we will never
die again.
a) And we won't just exist - we will truly live and do
amazing things.
B. Jesus wants you to live with him forever.
1) You have to accept him as your Savior.
2) And you should want your family to be saved.
a) You will grieve when they die, like the widow grieved
for her son.
b) Will you have assurance they are still alive with
God?
c) It is not enough to just hope for it - challenge them
with the gospel.
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SOURCE FOR ILLUSTRATION USED IN THIS SERMON:
#12789 “No Funeral Message By Christ,” adapted from Rev. Don Robinson's
sermon "Power Of Life" (Kerux Sermon #12225).
This and 35,000 others are part of the Kerux database that can be
downloaded, absolutely free, at http://www.holwick.com/database.html
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Copyright © 2024 by Rev. David Holwick
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