How Jesus Deals With The Lowly

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If you would open your Bibles to Luke Chapter 7, looking there

Luke 7 · chapter mention

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.

Mark 6 · chapter mention

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

Luke 5:8

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,

Romans 10:14

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.

John 5:28

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

Psalms 147:5

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.