Luke 7:9-23; John's Question

Why don't we go ahead.

And just read the passage and then I'll make some

introductory remarks. We're going to be in verses 11-12. And

we're going to read down through verse 18. 11 through 18.

And it came to pass the day after he went

into a city called Nain, and many of his disciples

went with him and much people. Now when he came

nigh to the gate of the city, behold, there was

a dead man carried out, the only son of his mother,

and she was a widow, and much people of the

city was with her. And when the Lord saw her,

he had compassion on her, and said unto her, Weep not.

And he came and touched the buyer, and they that

bear him stood still. And he said, Young man, I

say unto thee, Arise. And he that was dead sat

up and began to speak, and he delivered him to

his mother. And there came a fear on all, and

they glorified God, saying that a great prophet is risen

up among us, and that God hath visited his people.

And this rumor of him went forth throughout all Judea

and throughout all the region round about. And the disciples

of John showed him of all these things. Dear Father,

we ask that you would help us today as we

consider your words, as we sanctify your name. Lord, as

we are here at this most important passage, we ask

that you'd speak to us according to your will. The

Holy Spirit would do his work among us today. Lord,

call those to you that have yet to be called

and strengthen the church. For we pray in Jesus' name, amen.

So we understand the grief of losing a loved one.

And even in the title of my message today, Weep Not,

that whole idea of the brokenness that we experience at

death is demonstrated. We are constantly reminded of the steady

march of death as people near us, famous people, distant

relations or acquaintances pass away. Laura just mentioned Betty Smith,

one of our dear members. She went on to be

with the Lord. And of course, we're brokenhearted that she's

no longer with us, but delighted that she is with

the Lord in heaven. And so there's that sense of

sadness that we've lost her, but wonder that she is

there with him. Betty Smith, and then of course we

also lost not only Betty, but a custodial member, Joan Moore,

who was a member of Winslow Park. We've also heard

about the deaths of Dolly Parton recently, Tim Curry of

Muppet Treasure Island fame, Gloria Steinem and Hayden Pantier, it's

just every week we can make a list of the

people near us and people that we know about who

are famous that have passed away. Death so surrounds us

that we have become immune to its emotional effects unless

it is someone within our orbit. We were sad to hear,

for example, Dolly Parton's passing, but we don't know Dolly.

so it doesn't really affect us emotionally like it, I'm sure,

does her family. And so in that sense, we are

sort of immune to the whole idea. The world system

tells us that death is a natural part of life,

but let me just say it is not. Yes, we

experience death just as we experience birth, and we will

all die, but to say it's natural is wrong. Things

that happen naturally are things that follow naturally, the Creator's order.

For example, a man leaves his father and mother and

cleaves to his wife, Genesis 2.24. That is natural because

it follows the order given in creation before the fall.

The order that God set in creation never included decay.

It never included death. He made us to live, not

to die. And so we read in Genesis 2.24, The

Lord God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of

the garden thou mayest freely eat, but of the tree

of the knowledge of good and evil thou shalt not

eat of it, for on the day that thou eatest

thereof thou shalt surely die. It wasn't until the day

that Adam and Eve took of the fruit that they

began to die. And so death has come upon every man,

and every man will die. Every funeral then... is a

sad reminder of God's strong stroke against Adam's sin and

against our own complicity in that rebellion. And so when

someone dies, we shouldn't say, oh, it's just a natural

part of life. We should say, here is evidence of

the curse of God against sin. Just one evidence of it.

Adam's sin and our own complicity. It's right there. One

of the great joys of the gospel truth is is

the subject of resurrection. The ministry of Jesus included several

accounts of the dead being raised. Here we have it

in Luke 7, as we just read, the widow's son.

We also have in the next chapter, in chapter 8,

Jarius' daughter. And then, of course, Lazarus in John chapter 11.

John 11 · chapter mention

And if you want to include them, the saints who

were raised after the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus in

Matthew 27. Then there are the ones raised to life

during the apostolic period, Dorcas and Eutychus. Also, the teaching

in the New Testament makes it clear that those who

believe in Jesus, their bodies will be changed at the

command of Christ one day and made like his glorious body.

And so you can go to places like 1 Thessalonians 4, 15-18,

talks about the last trump, the shout, the bodies being raised,

the dead, and the living meeting with the Lord in

the air. John chapter 5, 28 through 29, we're told

John 5 · chapter mention

about the resurrection when Jesus calls both the wicked and

the righteous to come out of the graves. Philippians chapter 3,

Philippians 3:21

verse 21, 1 Corinthians chapter 15, of course, is a

1 Corinthians 15 · chapter mention

notable passage. 50 through 57 talks about the change in

our bodies that will take place, all of these are

resurrection passages. And that's just, what, one, two, three, four passages.

There are many more. I quoted nothing from the Old Testament.

You can find that as well. Notably, Job's statement, you know,

that in his body he would stand on the earth

one day and see his Savior, his Redeemer. So there's

resurrection in the Old Testament as well. Today, we will

enjoy a unique story. It's unique to Luke. You won't

find it in any of the parallels, Matthew or Mark.

It's only in Luke's gospel about a widow's son who's

raised from the dead. And we just read that. And

this passage teaches us that Jesus, he's more than a prophet.

He's more than a great man. He's much more than that.

He's more than a healer. He's more than a caster

outer of demons. He's more than that. He has the

power over death and life. And we'll see that in

this passage. He is literally Lord of all things. So

we come back to our passage there in Luke chapter 7.

Luke 7 · chapter mention

And just notice in verse 11, it says, And it

came to pass the day after. Okay.

Okay.

So the day after what? Well, last week, where were we?

We were in Capernaum, somewhere in Capernaum, and we went

to the centurion's house. So this is the next day.

He's gone home, presumably somewhere, and he's had a good

night's sleep, and then he decided that he was going

to go on quite a long little trip from Capernaum

all the way down to Nain. So this is the

day after the encounter with the centurions, his elders and

his friends and all of that the day after Jesus

marveled at a Roman soldier's faith faith placed firmly in

the words of Christ and you notice the something interesting

here is the alacrity of Christ is seen here he

is active he leaves Capernaum after only one day And

he's happily taking his tour in the southern part of Galilee.

He just doesn't stop. He's just always moving. He's always going.

Of course, he's on the clock. He doesn't have a

whole lot of time. And so now he's making his

way through the southern part of Galilee. And he comes

to this city called Nain. There in verse 11. The

day after, he went... to a city called Nain. And

you'll notice it says he went into. Apparently, this was

his destination. He was headed there. The city is located

southwest of Capernaum. It's two miles west of Endor. It's

just a few miles west It's just a few miles

from Shunem where the widow's son was raised in Shunem

by Elisha. Since it had a gate, we can assume

that it was a walled town. It stood on a

rocky northern facing slope of the hill Moreh, also known

as Little Hermon. You'll find the hill Moreh mentioned in

the story of Gideon. when Gideon and the people that

were with him rose up early and pitched beside the

well of Herod, so that the host of the Midianites

were on the north side of them by the hill

Moreh in the valley. Moreh is the southern marker, really,

of the Jezreel Valley. The Jezreel Valley is huge. It

goes all the way up through the Galilee area, from

the Sea of Galilee all the way to the west

towards the Mediterranean, And it's bordered by the Nazareth Spur.

And what's the mountain where Elijah had the confrontation with

the prophets? What's the name of that mountain? Carmel. That

Carmel Range. looks down onto that valley. It's a huge

area of land. I'm sure they've measured square miles. I

don't have that in my notes, but it's massive. And

it's an agricultural place. And, of course, that's where the

Midianites were because they were stealing the crops. And that's

a beautiful place to grow whatever you want to grow.

It's still today used in that fashion. It's still agricultural.

You can drive miles and miles through that valley, sunflowers

and corn and all the rest. It's just marvelous what

they grow there. It is the breadbasket of Europe, they say.

So the hill of Mori was at the southern end

of that great valley of Jezreel. And on that little slope,

that northern slope as it went towards the north, there

was built the city of Nain. And it's right there.

And they still point to a place there that they

believe is that city. Many of his disciples went with

him and much people, it says here in verse 11.

So two groups, you'll notice. Many of his disciples went

with him and much people. The ones who believed, who

heard the word of God to their prophet, This is

nothing new. When Israel left Egypt, there went out with

them a mixed multitude. But you had the Israelites, and

then you had the mixed multitude. And they were not

in the camp of the Israelites, but they went with

them out of Egypt. Well, here you have the same

kind of idea. You have the disciples, and then you

have the others, the much people. They followed along, these

much peoples. They wanted to, I don't know, see the

miracles maybe. Maybe they wanted a show, and they needed

that for whatever reason. They wanted to catch Jesus in

a misstep maybe. Perhaps there were the Pharisees and the

scribes with the much people, and they had their notebooks

that are taken down notes because they want to be

able to accuse him. So you've got the people that

are there for the sensational things, You've got people that

are there for the legal things. And then you've just

got probably people there who are just part of the crowd.

They just love to jump on the bandwagon. So you've

got all these folks that are traveling with Jesus. The disciples,

those who hear the word of their prophet, and then

the rest. And isn't it amazing that Luke gives us

this division? The incarnate Christ doing miracles and teaching... and

yet there are those who do not consider themselves disciples.

What is that about? The much people, they're just there.

They're listening, they're seeing all the rest, but it does

not profit their soul in any way. That tells us something,

doesn't it? And if we shouldn't be discouraged when we're

preaching the gospel today and we don't get very much

in the way of... We don't get very much in

the way of responses. Jesus himself didn't get very much

in the way of responses either. Apparently there were those

who heard him, the word of God coming out of

the mouth of the word of God, and still they

did not believe. It just points to the fact that

the doctrine of election and the unique work of the

Spirit of God on the hearts of men is in

force even in the time of Christ. We shouldn't be surprised.

that many hear the word of God and yet they

don't hear. They hear with the ears, but there's no

heart hearing. So you have the disciples and the people,

the much people, this crowd that's gathered, that's traveling with them.

Now when he came nigh to the gate of the city, behold,

there was a dead man carried out. So the ancient

gates were meant to be a choke point for for

entrance into a city. They were also used as meeting

places for the local elders and judges to hold court.

Now there was no court being held at this gate

on this day because this funeral procession was coming out

and everybody would have been attending the funeral procession as

it came out. So you have the funeral coming out

through this gate and Jesus and his crowd wanting to

come in through this gate. And, of course, when they

see the funeral, Jesus and his crowd would have stopped

because the funeral takes precedence there. Just like we treat

funerals today. We see a funeral procession. What do we do?

We pull off to the side of the road. We

let the hearse and the family pass before we continue.

We give a great deal of respect to families that

are mourning. So that would have been the case here.

A dead man was carried out. Notice that it tells

us this man was dead. He was a man. He

had died. And there were stone tombs just outside of

the city of Nain. Archaeologists tell us that they found

tombs outside of this location. Although the ancient city is

no longer there, they have found burying places there. Perhaps

this fellow was headed to one of those tombs. Dead

men are always, you know, being carried out. This is

an illustration of our condition before coming to Christ. Paul

told us in Ephesians chapter 2 verses 1 through 5

Ephesians 2:1–5

that we're dead in our trespasses and sins before God.

And his great mercy quickened us. So we couldn't, we're

all dead and we're being carried about by one thing

or another. until God in his great mercy quickens us,

that is, makes us alive in Christ. And so this

dead man is being carried, just like every dead man

is being carried. But now we get a little identification

of him. He's the only son of his mother, and

she was a widow. The great loss of this situation

really cannot be overstated. Only one child and his sons.

who would have been her shelter in her widowhood, but

now he's lost. She was dead as well. There was

nothing left for her. She had lost her husband. She's

a widow. Her husband had provided her a son, and

now the son is gone. And who knows how closely

those two events took place. Can you imagine the double

grief that was on this woman's heart? As she was losing,

she had lost her husband, now her son, What in

the world is she going to do? A woman without family,

without any kind of mooring, death has come to her,

but it's a living death. It's not a literal death.

And it says that the man's carried out, his mother,

she was a widow, she's probably at the head of

the right behind the buyer. She's right there. She's weeping.

She probably has people there trying to comfort her. And

it says much people of the city was with her.

So this is a large procession. The entire city was

mourning this man's loss. Professional mourners would have been there

amongst the crowd, but the size of this group that

Luke gives us here Indicates a much larger train than

just professional mourners. And so we have much people that

I just imagine the entire city was a small place.

So they're probably all there because they know her. And

they know her son. Everyone is known in a small town. place.

And an adult man in the prime of his life,

the only son of a widow who at some point

previous had lost her husband, everyone in the town would

have felt this. It would have been a great loss

for them as well. And so you have this mass

of people trying to come through that choke point in

the gates. So the men carrying the buyer, the widow,

her friends close to her, and then the entire city

streaming out behind her. What a sad scene this was.

And you can imagine the colors all black and drab

because they're all mourning. There would have been no music,

not music to be happy to. There would have been

crying and weeping. And, of course, Jesus' crowd cried. They've

come down to the city of Nain, and they're probably

pretty chipper, you know? They just heard about, maybe even

were there, when Jesus healed the centurion's servant and said

about the centurion's faith, and now the next day, they're

walking along, and they're probably all talking and happy and

wondering what's next. And, you know, when will Christ speak?

And who's going to be healed? And what's the next plan? And,

you know, the buzz that is in a crowd like that.

And then they come to the gate of Nain and

everybody stops. What pain. Suddenly daylight fades. And they're faced

with the reality of this tragedy that could be anyone's tragedy.

And so even then, everyone in the crowd, not only

the people that are in the train that's following the

buyer out to the grave, but even the people in

Jesus' group, they're feeling this horrible grief. And then you

have there in verse 13. And when the Lord saw her,

he had compassion on her. and said to her, weep not.

As I said, this must have put a damper on

the jubilant chipper crowd that was following Jesus as these

two groups met. And of course, it affected our Savior. Notice,

he had compassion on her. And said to her, weep not.

Such a statement from anyone of us to a mourning

widow would be considered cruel, wouldn't it? You wouldn't say

that to anyone at a funeral Especially if they're following

the body of the grave and they're bawling because they

know that they're not going to travel with this person

ever again. You wouldn't say, it's okay, don't weep. Because

this isn't a hopeful, it's okay, don't weep. He's in heaven.

It's not that. No, this is a command. Jesus walks

up to her and says, don't weep. It's a command.

It's not a suggestion. It's not a hope. He speaks

specifically to this poor widow and says, don't weep. Weep not.

And this will not be the last time Jesus said

such a thing during a funeral. You remember Jarius' daughter.

We'll see that, one of my favorite passages in Luke

Luke 8 · chapter mention

chapter 8. And it says, all wept and bewailed her

and he said, weep not. She's not dead. And they

all They all laughed him to scorn, knowing that she

was dead. Their mourning turned to laughter just like that. Well,

here he walks up to this widow and says, don't weep.

He knew what he was going to do. She didn't,

but he did. Don't weep. Nothing could change for the

man or for the mother if compassion was not present.

Jesus had compassion on her. Thank God that he has

mercy on us. Thank God that he loves us enough

to have mercy on us. Thank God that he loves

us enough that he made a covenant with the Son

in eternity past, which he executed in the life of Christ,

and he sent him to the cross to die for us,

and then to be raised the third day for our justification.

Thank God for that. What compassion, what eternal, universal passion

is that? For us, we're nothing, less than nothing, We're

creatures here on some blue globe in the middle of blackness.

God cares for us? Just as the psalmist said, what

is man that you consider him or the son of

man that you think about him? And yet, he has

compassion on us. And here it's demonstrated by Christ for

this poor widow. He had compassion on her. He walked

up to her and he said, don't weep. Because he...

He knew what he was about to do. Robertson translates

weep not, and I mentioned Dr. A.T. Robertson, one of

the greatest Greek scholars that Baptists have ever produced. He

said weep not, and he translates that as cease weeping.

It's an imperative. Jesus is life and light, and he

intended to translate the death to life and grief to rejoicing.

Something only he could do because he is Lord. And

he came and touched the buyer. So he has compassion

on this widow. He sees her there at the head

of the line. He walks up and he says, cease weeping.

And then he doesn't even wait for anybody to say

anything to him. He just walks up to the buyer

and he puts his hand on it. He touches the buyer.

There's also, you'll find this mentioned as a bed. It

would have been borne by several men, possibly as many

as 12, three on each part, on each side of

the bed. And touching the bed of the buyer was

not forbidden by the law and carried no stigma of

uncleanness with it. And Jesus just walks up and touches

that pallet that they're carrying the body on with the

same amount of freedom and confidence that he touched the

leper in chapter 5. The leper came up to him

and said, if you will, you can make me clean.

And Jesus says, I will. And he touched him. Here

he comes to the buyer. He says to the mother,

cease weeping, goes up and touches the buyer. And it says,

and they that bear him stood still. Jesus touched the

buyer and the procession stopped. He staunched the progress of death.

Only he could do such a thing. Notice that Jesus

stopped the train without a word, simply a touch. They

were coming out of the gate. Jesus and his followers

are there outside watching this happen, this proceed. And he

walks up and says to the widow, don't weep. And

he touches the buyer and everything just stops. The power

of Christ, the power of God's son over death. The

living obeyed even his touch. They could go no further

because he had given the command to the widow. Weep not.

Something is about to happen. A change is in the air.

This is no longer grief, but now wonder what's next.

What's going to happen? There was no more need for buyers.

No more need for pallbearers. One of the commentators that

I read about this passage said that they probably set

the thing down on the ground now. Jesus touches it

and they stop and probably laid it down on the ground.

And then Jesus stands there and he says to the man...

There was no more need for mourning, no more need

for making a show of grief, no more need for mourners,

professional or otherwise, no more need for the blackness of

loss because the light of light has come to name.

And when Jesus says, weep not, friends, something is about

to happen. And he said, young man, I say unto thee, arise.

So we know that he was a young man. He's

a man, but he's a young man. Again, imagine the

grief of that mother. Her son in the prime of

his life is lost. Young man, I say unto thee, arise.

One word directed to the dead man on the buyer,

carried by bearers. Now we know why he said, Weep not.

And you notice how specific he is. He doesn't just

say arise. All the tombs would have opened. The power

of the son of God. The creative word of the universe.

When he speaks things happen. Because it's by his word

that all things are created. And if he said arise.

Well then everybody would have come out of the graves.

But he looking at that young man says young man.

And there's only one young man there who's dead.

Arise.

Arise. And did it take two weeks? Did he have

to go to therapy? Did he have to take some medicine? No.

He sat up and began to speak. Don't you wonder

what he said? Don't you just wonder what he said?

I bet he looked at his mother and said, Mom,

what's going on? why am I here why am I

on this thing why does everybody look so sad of

course by that time everybody's eyes were you know big

as saucers this man sitting up talking you know only

Jesus friends only Jesus he wasn't dead any longer Dead

men don't sit up on their own. They certainly don't speak.

He was very much alive and all because Jesus spoke first.

Do you know why I am alive today? Do you

know why you are alive today in Christ? Because Jesus

spoke first. And we set up. He gave us new life.

We're born again. And he delivered him to his mother. Now,

this was the... the complete reversal of her misfortune. For her,

this was life from the dead. She had her son back. Yes,

he's alive, but for her, this meant a future, something wonderful.

Just like the Gadarene demoniac, Jesus doesn't invite him to

go along to be his disciple, but rather to do

what he needed to be done for his mother. The

Gadarene demoniac, he sent back into the city. He said,

you tell people what's happened. Here, he gives him to

his mother because that's the thing that's needful. You go

and take care of your mom. He didn't say, why

don't you come and follow me? And you can be

a great testimony. I can put you up on stage.

And you can tell everybody how I raised you from

the dead. No, Jesus doesn't do that. He says, go

take care of your mother. That's your duty. Go do that.

Presents him. Delivered him. I love that. Delivered him to

his mother. What a marvelous, marvelous reversal. And of course,

By this time, the weep not thing's been forgotten. She's

overwhelmed with joy that her boy is alive. And then

I'm going to use the last couple of verses here.

Let's see. Beginning in 16 as the conclusion for the

sermon today. It says, there came a fear on all

And they glorified God saying that a prophet has risen

up among us and that God has visited his people.

There came a fear on all. Now this wasn't a

fear of oh no disaster is upon us. This is

not a fear of oh no God is going to

judge me. This is not that kind of fear but

rather oh no God is at work. What does that

mean for me? That's the fear. This is the hand

of God come to a little place at the southern

end of the Jezreel Valley, a little-known place, and we

would never know about name if it weren't for this.

And they're saying, something is happening. What's going on? They

saw a man sit up who was on his funeral

pyre in the open street at the command of a

man named Jesus. What was God up to? Who was

this man who gave the commands? And they glorified God.

Fear of the Lord leads us to glorifying him. When

we don't fear the Lord, we're not going to glorify him.

Because we don't think he's great at all. But when

we fear him, the glory of God is natural. And

they glorified God saying, a great prophet is risen up

among us. They saw in Jesus a reason to glorify God.

They were worshiping God because of what Jesus had done.

In the face of this miracle, they at that moment

knew the truth of the prophet's words. O death, where

is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory? In

the presence of Jesus, every knee will bow, even the

knee of death. John faces the Lord Jesus in the

first chapter of his revelation. And he writes, and when

I saw him, I fell at his feet as dead.

And he laid his right hand upon me, saying to me,

Fear not. I am the first and the last. I

am he that liveth and was dead. And behold, I

am alive forevermore. Amen. And have the keys of hell

and death. Well, apparently Jesus has the keys of hell

and death while he was in his life, in his ministry.

And he pulled that key out of his pocket and

unlocked it for this young man and said, Arise. and

delivered him to his mother. And they not only stopped there,

but they said, God hath visited his people. That's right.

They got it right. This was a messianic sign. But

Jesus was more than just a prophet, wasn't he? He

was prophet, priest, and king. Zechariah's prophecy had come true.

Remember Zechariah, John's father, there in the first chapter of

the book of Luke? when he gives that prophecy... and

he says blessed be the Lord God of Israel... for

he hath visited... and redeemed his people... and hath raised up...

a horn of salvation for us... in the house of

his servant David... absolutely and that's exactly what the people saw...

and it was right for them to bless God... It

was right for them to glorify God. It was right

of them to be fearful of God and was right

of them to say God has visited his people because

that's exactly what has happened. This visitation of God did

not stop with the resurrection and ascension of Christ. He

has now shed forth the Holy Ghost and given us

the gospel so that Jesus Christ can appear before all

generations of men until that day in which he returns.

and that all may know him who speaks life to

the dead. And then you have this piece there, I

think it's verse 17. It says, and this rumor of

him went forth throughout all Judea. I love the way

that King James puts that. Probably in your translation, you're

going to have something like the report of him, which

is maybe a better translation, but rumor just You know,

that's such a juicy word, the rumor of him. This report,

you know. The word, the Greek word actually means to

cast forth, to emanate, to take rise from, to come abroad.

So it's the report, you know. Everybody's talking about what's

happened here. And just imagine, too. Just in chapter 7 now,

we've had the We've had the centurion servant healed and

now the widow of Nain's son raised from the dead.

Can you imagine the talk? Everybody's talking about this. Jesus

is here. God has visited his people and he's doing

a work through this man, Jesus of Nazareth. So the

translators have this as the report, but I think it's

something more than that. I think it It borders on

rumor because it has a life of its own. It's

just spreading across hill and dale. And it says, and

throughout all the regions round about. So it wasn't just Judea,

but it was going everywhere. And the disciples of John

showed him all of these things. Now this sets up

for us next time when the disciples of John come

to Jesus. and ask him, you know, what do we

tell John? John's in prison, and John's maybe doubting, maybe

his disciples are doubting, and they're going to come to

Jesus and say, what do we tell John about all this? Okay. So,

are you spreading a rumor? Is it a good one?

Because God is still visiting his people. He's still calling

out a people out of this crooked and perverse world.

He's still reversing the curse of death. Yes, we're still

going to die. These bodies are going to expire. But

ladies and gentlemen, let me just tell you something. There

are only two places for the soul to inhabit after

the body is ended. That is hell in punishment until

the great day of judgment. when they will be raised,

body and soul, to stand before God at the great

white throne and receive their eternal punishment, or it is

in heaven with Christ and the Father before the throne.

Those are the only two places. There is no other place,

there is no other existence for the soul of man.

There's no such things as ghosts that wander about or spirits.

There's no such thing as a nirvana where you just

fade into nothingness. There is either hell... Awaiting the punishment

of God or heaven because we have trusted in Christ.

Those are the two options here. Those are the two options.

This young man in Luke chapter 7, he's going to

Luke 7 · chapter mention

die again. He's going to die again. Jesus raised his

body up, but it wasn't the resurrection to life. This

was just a raising of a body. But there's going

to come a day when we will all be raised

from our graves if we've trusted in Christ. That's the

first step. resurrection and blessed are those who participate in

that first resurrection and so when we have a funeral

like we had with Betty Smith and we all grieve

her loss but we know for certain that Betty Smith

trusted in Christ she followed him in believers baptism She

participated in local churches. She gave her heart to Christ

in everything she did. And so we say to ourselves,

we know exactly where Betty is. She's with her Savior.

And so we rejoice in that. And one day, that

body that they laid in a grave is going to

come out and is going to be joined with her

soul and she will ever be with the Lord. That's beautiful.

Absolutely wonderful. And this passage teaches us something about that

so i ask you the question have you trusted in

christ because there's coming a day we don't know when

that day is for any of us when we too

will be mourned we will be lost and we will

either go to an eternal salvation or we will go

to an eternal judgment father we thank you for this

story and for all that it teaches us and so

much more lord we ask that you'd Help us today

as we consider that, ponder this in our hearts. Call

the sheep to yourself today, dear Savior, dear Shepherd. Do

your work among us, for we pray in Jesus' name.

Amen.