Luke The Orderly Account of Truth - The Compassion of Christ - Luke 7:11-17

We are continuing our series going through the Gospel of Luke called the Orderly Account

of Truth, or we're examining Luke's careful investigation and examination of eyewitnessed testimony accounts

of the life, death, and resurrection of our Lord Jesus. A quick

recap from last week. We looked at the beginning of chapter seven, at

the healing of a centurion's servant, and we saw that this centurion, this

Roman soldier, showed great faith in Jesus's power and authority to heal his sick

servant. And that centurion also showed us many examples of how a Christian is

to be generous and humble, believe in and follow our Lord's commands and promises

with a childlike faith, a childlike confidence in what our Lord commands and what

he says, and all these things we do with Jesus as our ultimate example,

as a response to the free gift of salvation through the power of the

Holy Spirit. My sermon today is titled the Compassion of Christ. Yeah,

it wasn't a joke, but I'll take it. I'll call you out,

Ashley, okay uh. Anyway, we're gonna be reading through chapter seven still

starting in verse eleven. Let's read through it first, and we'll pray and

we'll get into it. So this is right after the Centurions servant was healed

by Jesus, who, by the way, didn't even have to see this

sick servant. He didn't even have to say a word he saw. He

heard of this Aturian's great faith, brought to him by the Saturnian's friends,

and said, this is a greater faith than I've seen in all of Israel.

And his friends went back and found the servant healed. Soon afterward,

Jesus went to town called Name, and his disciples and a large crowd went

along with him. As he approached the town gate, a 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. They were all filled

with awe and praised 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. Let's pray, Lord, I thank you

for this example of your great compassion towards us, towards broken people. I

thank you for this recorded miracle of you raising this widow son to life that

we can know and hear. And I just ask you give us the faith

to believe in it, Lord, to believe in your power and authority over

death, and to be truly compassionate towards others as you were compassionate to this

woman. Thank you, Lord for your word. Amen. So as we

saw, Jesus wastes little time in continuing on his mission after healing the centurion

servant. When approaching the town of Nane, Jesus, his disciples, and

a large crowd following him come upon a funeral procession. Let's read Verses eleven

through twelve again. Soon afterward, Jesus went to a town called Nane,

and his disciples and a large crowd went along with him. As he approached

the town gate, a 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. So this dead person being carried out of the

town, we find out, was the only son of his mother. His

mother who was also a widow, and this woman who was preparing to bury

her only son, also had to suffer the loss of her husband prior to

her only son's death, so we can try to imagine just how devastated and

broken and lost she must feel. The loss of a child is the worst

earthly pain a parent could ever experience, and the fact that this was her

only son not only meant that she had lost a child, but she had

lost her support because the son would care for their mother if she was a

widow. It also meant that her family line had ended, as the firstborn

son the of this woman's late husband, was supposed to carry on through him.

He took the place of his late father as the head of his house,

and it became his role to care for his mother and to carry on

the family line. That's why in the Old Testament we see that the death

of the firstborn son was recognized as the epitome of grief. In the Book

of Jeremiah, we find the prophet instructs Israel to mourn the coming siege of

Jerusalem like they would mourn for the death of a firstborn son. This is

in chapter six. Put on sackcloth, my people, and roll in ashes.

We've all likely heard that when in mourning Jewish person, we put on

sackcloth and sprinkle ashes. Jeremiah's telling them to roll in ashes. This is

how extreme the grief is. Mourn with bitter wailing, as for an only

son. For suddenly the destroyer will come upon us, and it's speaking through

his profit Amos, God himself compares his coming judgment of Israel to be like

the loss of an only son. This is in chapter eight. In that

day, declares the sovereign Lord. I will make the sun go down at

noon and darken the earth in broad daylight. I will turn your religious festivals

into mourning, and all you're singing into weeping. I will make all of

you wear sackcloth and shave your heads. No, I'm not gonna talk about

that. Make that time to catch this. Make that time like mourning for

an only sun, and the end of it like a bitter day. And

similar to Amos. In the Book of Zechariah, the prophet God calls Israel's

mourning. He called Israel's mourning of the rejection of the Messiah, his son,

like that of one that grieves for a firstborn son. In chapter two.

Excuse me chapter twelve, and I will pour out on the house of

David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem a spirit of grace and supplication. They will

look on me, the one they have pierced, and they will mourn for

him as one mourns for an only child, and grieve bitterly for him,

as one grieves for a firstborn son. So this woman grew up knowing these

scriptures and having these teachings and instructions, these truths modeled to her. So

you get a sense of how utterly lost and terribly sad this woman must have

felt. You get a sense of the incredible grief she must have been carrying.

Even in understanding it. I can't imagine or even begin to empathize with

that much pain. But Jesus did Verse thirteen of our texts. Today,

when the Lord saw her, his heart went out to her, and he

said, don't cry. Your translation may say weep not Now. Before I

get to an exploit I'm going to set it up early on in my wife's

in my relationship. Just see her head go up. She didn't know I

was going to talk about this. And let me preface this by saying,

before I tell the story, guys, we say dumb things, like really

dumb things. Right, it is about me saying something dumb. But I

don't want to feel alone in this anyway. Early on in our relationship,

Lindsay had just moved away from her home in Colorado, her lifelong home,

moved away from all of her family, and was building a new life here

in Washington. She started a new job in Seattle. She was making a

ridiculous commute from Lacy Washington, Washington by car, bus train as well car

train, bus walk to the office. It was ridiculous all of that,

and she was under a huge amount of stress by all these changes. And

one day we're talking and she's sharing with me all these difficult feelings she's experiencing

because she wants me to listen. Just listen. Every guy in here knows

where I'm going with this. I, for one, had the tendency to

just want to fix things, okay, And if something can't be fixed,

it's not difficult for me to just let go of that thing. But as

I've grown up and grown wiser, mostly wider, but wiser somewhat, I've

learned that not everyone deals with or thinks about things in the same way I

do. What an epiphany? Right, So my then girlfriend is pouring her

heart out to me, wanting me to just listen, not fix, but

listen. And because she wasn't looking for a solution. After trying to give

all these solutions, I said the first logical thing that I would have done,

just don't be sad, Danny. Your reaction was like almost exactly what

her face did. Seriously, That's why I said, just don't be sad,

and she, for some reason still married me. Thank God. Some

quick advice for all the men in here, don't ever say something that dumb.

Okay, Not only was that a dumb thing to say, it was

without any thought to what Lindsay actually needed. It was void of any real

help, it was empty of any real value. When we first read the

words of Jesus, the words that he spoke to this woman, it's easiest

easy for us to think, why would he say that in her time of

mourning? Why would he say that in this moment. But when we see

Jesus approach this broken hearted woman who's mourning the loss of her only son,

the last of her family mind and we see how his heart went out to

her. She hears him say, don't cry, weep not. Let me

tell you. Those words from Jesus are not empty words. Those words were

not without empathy, value, or care. Why. This is why the

words of Jesus are never meaningless and never return void. The words of Jesus

are never meaningless and never return void. In Isaiah chapter fifty five, it

reads, for my thoughts are not your thoughts, this is God. Neither

are your ways my ways, declares the Lord. As the heavens are higher

than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my

thoughts than your thoughts. As the rain and the snow come down from heaven,

and do not return to it without watering the earth and making it bud

and flourish, so that it yields seed for the sower and bread for the

eater. Catch this. So is my word that goes out from my mouth.

It will not return to me empty, but will accomplish what I desire

and achieve the purpose for which I scent it. Wow. So it is

that my word goes out from my mouth, it will not return to me

empty, but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I

scent it. The words of Jesus, whom I'll remind you the whole world

and everything and it was created through by the very words of God, are

never spoken in vain. He does not utter empty promises, He does not

declare meaningless thoughtless commands. Every syllable of his words are spoken with all authority,

righteousness, wisdom, holiness, love, and sovereignty to accomplish his desires

and purposes every syllable. That's why when we read the Bible God's word,

when we read Jesus's commands, we cannot take them lightly. Every syllable is

spoken for his purpose. We cannot take them lightly. In John's Gospel,

when Jesus was speaking to the woman caught in adultery, and he said,

go and sin no more, leave your life of sin, that wasn't a

suggestion. In the Book of Matthew, when Jesus began preaching and said,

repent for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand, that wasn't a guess.

When he said. When he said love your enemies and pray for those who

persecute you. That wasn't a dare. It was a command. When he

said love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your

soul, and with all your mind. It wasn't a recommendation. When Jesus

said, not worry. Are you not much more valuable than the birds in

the air and the flowers in the fields. Can you add a single hour

to your life by worrying? That wasn't a limerick that he was quoting.

That wasn't a poem. He's telling you how much value you have in the

eyes of your creator. Catch this one. When he said, all of

those the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me,

I will never drive away. That wasn't the hope of a mere man.

That was the promise of God in flesh. Jesus brought you to faith

in him. He will never let you go. Amen. And with his

last breath on the cross, when he died for you and me and said

it is finished, that wasn't spoken in vain. Those words meant that he

had paid the debt for our sin, and he had told for our own

failings. He tore the veil that separated us from the Father and made the

only way to him. The words of Jesus are never meaningless and never return

void. Hallelujah. What I want us to see here is that when Jesus

tells us woman whose only son had just died, don't cry, weep not.

It carried weight, It had purpose. His heart went out to her,

and he had compassion on her. He didn't say this flippantly or carelessly,

like stop that crying, but with compassion, don't worry, weep not.

And look at what he does next after saying that to or weep not.

Then he went up and touched the beer they were carrying him on.

The beer is like a frame that they would carry the coffin on. And

the bearers stood still. He said, young man, I say to you,

get up. There are two things that stood out to me here.

The first thing that stands out is Jesus touching the beer or the coffin.

According to God's instruction in the Book of Numbers, if an Israelite touched a

dead body, they would be ceremonially unceremonially unclean. This is in chapter nineteen.

Whoever touches a human corpse will be unclean for seven days. They must

purify themselves with the water on the third day and on the seventh day,

then they will be clean. But if they do not purify themselves on the

third and seven days, they will not be clean. If they fail to

purify themselves after touching a human corpse, they defile the Lord's tabernacle. They

must be cut off from Israel. Because the water of cleansing has not been

sprinkled on them, they are unclean. Their uncleanness remains on them. So

for Jesus to approach this dead boy's coffin, dead man's coffin and touch it

was no small thing. I mean, just look look look at how the

pall Bearers reacted. They just stood there in confusion, like a guy.

You know, there's a dead body in there, right. Apparently the Paul

Bearers are from Boston, But hey, guy, what are you doing?

Okay, But this wasn't just some man touching this coffin. This was Jesus,

God in flesh, who has authority over death and death could not defile

him. The second thing that stood out to me was in doing this,

Jesus acted on his compassion towards this woman. He acted on his compassion,

and it's not to say that this event surprised him. This event came to

pass as he ordained it to pass, So don't get me wrong, it

didn't surprise him. While his words alone were powerful enough, as we've already

covered, he didn't stop there. He acted on his compassion toward this woman

by doing something and something that was contrary to Israel's instructions of cleansing this first

of all, but also by demonstrating his power and rule over death, similar

to how the centurion we read about last week. Jesus shows us what true

compassion looks like, godly biblical compassion. I say biblical because the world's definition

of compassion is simply this, and I couldn't. I couldn't believe this.

I could believe it, and it was sad to me that I could believe

that this was the definition sympathetic pity and concern for the sufferings or misfortunes of

others. Sympathetic pity and concern, no action. It doesn't sound like real

compassion to me. If Jesus only had compassion as the world understands it,

he simply would have kept walking by after saying weep. Not The world's understanding

of compassion is I'm so sorry, My thoughts and prayers are with you.

I hope things get better. I'm so worried for you. But that's not

true compassion by the standard of God's word. The standard of Jesus has written

actions, the standard we are held to by the way compassion begets action.

Yeah, compassion begets action. Compassion from the Latin is made of the prefix

come, which means with and passio, which means with feeling, meaning to

suffer with to see someone's pain and take action, not to sympathize, not

to just say you're worried, to take action. The next point is this,

true compassion means suffering alongside another person's pain. True compassion means suffering alongside

another person's pain. Now, all sinners just like me, so I'm sure

you're all thinking the same thing. That sounds like a lot of work.

Yeah, die to self. That's what we're called to do. Die to

self, suffer alongside another person's pain. It's not going to be easy to

see someone's pain and take action. But Jesus is our ultimate example of this,

and we're to follow his example. Among the many names and titles Jesus

holds, he's known as the Man of Sorrow. In Isaiah fifty three is

where we get this title. He was despised and rejected by mankind, a

man of suffering and familiar with pain, like one from whom people hide their

faces. He was despised, and we have him in low esteem. If

you ever think to yourself, how could the perfect Almighty God know my pain,

know my weaknesses, or even want to know, then you need to

hear this and Hebrews, For we do not have a high priest Jesus,

who is unable to empathize with our weaknesses. But we have one who has

been tempted in every way just as we are. Yet he did not sin.

Let us then approach God's throne of grace with confidence, so that we

may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.

And then, in Philippians, in your relationships with one another, have the

same mindset as Christ. Jesus, who, being in the very nature God,

did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage.

Rather, he made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant,

being made in human likeness and being found in appearance as a man.

He humbled himself by becoming obedient to death, even death on a cross.

Jesus knows your pain. Jesus knows your weaknesses, and he has compassion for

you, and demonstrated that love and compassion by dying on the cross for your

sin. Y'll doing okay, I swear I'm not angry at you, but

I'm very passionate about this. Let's continue on. Then he went up and

touched the beer they were carrying him on. 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.

They were 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. Now, the point

of Jesus's miracle here wasn't to gain publicity. It was to comfort this broken

hearted woman and display his power over death, to show that he is the

Messiah. The crowd that was with Jesus missed the point entirely. They saw

the woman's dead son rise from the dead. Yes, but what they missed

was Jesus's heart towards that woman, his act of compassion towards her, and

that he was the Messiah that they had been waiting for. At this point

when this happened, it had been four centuries since anything like this had happened.

And from this town of Nine where they're at, it was actually just

on the other side of a hill in Shunem where Elisha raised a young boy

from the dead. So people in this town likely grew up hearing that story.

That's the second Kings, if you want to look into that. Over

the course of those four hundred years, God had been silent. There were

no more prophets at this point. They were waiting for the promised Messiah.

And now right in front of them is the Messiah. Emmanuel is right there,

and they missed it. They recognized that God had visited them, but

failed to see that it was God himself. There the one ultimate prophet that

Moses had prophesied of in Deuteronomy and whom Peter can in the Book of Acts.

Let's read that. For Moses said, the Lord your God will raise

up for you a prophet like me from among your own people. You must

listen to everything he tells you. Anyone who does not listen to him will

be completely cut off from their people whoa This brings me to my final point

today. Jesus is God. You cannot accept him as savior and reject him

as God. Let me explain that you could replace the word savior here with

any other title you want to, because we will gladly accept what he gives

us, but completely mis or ignore who he is, making us consumers instead

of worshipers and giving him what's due praise, gol, woe and honor.

We take what he offers, but do not receive him. We'll say,

I see the benefits of his teachings, but I won't submit to him as

the teacher. I love the blessings of this world, but I won't bow

down to the one that created it. Will gladly live in the comfort of

his provision, but forget about the one that provides it. Just today,

when the sun was out, I was in prayer. I was going over

my notes, and I was thanking God for the sunshine like a good Christian

boy does when it's sunny out. But my prayer kind of shifted thanks to

the Holy Spirit. I believe I said, thank you for this sunshine that

you gave us in your mercy, because it's okay to enjoy the blessings of

God, but not okay to forget that He gives them all because of his

mercy. It's good for us to enjoy all that He's given us so graciously,

but if we only accept those things and reject him, we fail to

submit to him as the sovereign king. If we reject him, if we

enjoy all that he has to give us but still reject him, we're still

bound for judgment and hell. As we've already seen in Luke's gospel so far,

Jesus was constantly surrounded by crowds of people that wanted to see his miracles,

that had heard of his healings. Everyone wanted to be healed by him,

but few wanted to listen and submit to what he had to say.

Few believed he was who he said he was, and it's that rejection of

his deity that caused Jesus to weep over Jerusalem. That will see later in

chapter nineteen, I'm going to read it for you now. As he approached

Jerusalem, and saw the city. He wept over it and said, if

you even you had only known on this day, what would bring you peace.

But now it is hidden from your eyes. The days will come upon

you when your enemies will build an embankment against you and encircle you and hem

you in on every side. They will dash you to the ground, You

and the children within your walls. They will not leave one stone on another

because you did not recognize the time of God's coming to you. Can I

get the band to come up? Praise God that he grafted us gentiles.

But the reality of rejecting him remains. We must recognize Jesus as God.

We must accept his teachings and his words as truth, and then act on

them. We must bow down to him as Lord and sovereign King. God

is loving, God is full of grace. He is also just, and

his judgment is sure. In Revelation chapter twenty, John writes, then I

saw a great white throne in him who was seated on it. The earth

and the heavens fled from his presence, and there was no place for them.

And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne,

and books were opened. Another book was opened which is the Book of

Life. The dead were judged according to what they had done, and as

recorded in the books, the sea gave up the dead that were in it,

and the Death and Death and Hades gave up the dead that were in

them. And each person was judged according to what they had done. Then

Death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. The lake of fire

is the second death. Anyone whose name catch this, anyone whose name was

not found written in the Book of Life, was thrown into the lake of

fire. It's good for us to have. We all know them as fire

and brimstone sermons. I don't. We don't give him very often here.

But when Scripture confronts us with the truth, the truth, we're going to

talk about it. When Jesus returns, his judgment is sure by rejecting his

word, by rejecting him like Israel, did you reject the truth of who

he is? And your name is not written or found in the Book of

Life. For those that recognize him as God and submit to him as the

sovereign King that repent and accept his free gift of grace, he acts as

our mediator to God, the Father who will look on you at the coming

judgment and find your name written in the Book of Life, and next to

it it'll read forgiven by and through the Son. Anthony Ukema explains it like

this. The failures and shortcomings of believers will enter into the picture on the

day of judgment. They will enter into the picture. But the sins and

shortcomings of believers will be revealed in the judgment as forgiven sins whose guilt has

been totally covered by the blood of Jesus Christ. Amen. Amen, So

what do we do with all this? We covered a lot. You're probably

like, I'm tired of Jordan yelling at me. What do I learn?

What do I take away? First, we accept and submit to Jesus as

Lord. We repent of our sins and rely on his rich grace. Second,

we live a life that's pleasing and honoring to him. How we do

what Jesus did, like what Jesus did for the woman whose son had died.

We live our lives with proactive biblical compassion. We suffer alongside others as

Christ suffered and died for us. And Fourth, we trust in the power

of His word. The Bible is God's breathe and inspired living word to his

people. It's our responsibility and our privilege to have it, to know it,

to live by it, and to trust in it.