11-06-2022 – “A Dead Man Raised To Life”
Above are the
Sunday video audio recordings
Links from Our Website:
Bulletin (pdf)
Sermon Notes (pdf)
November Calendar (pdf)
YouTube Video Sermons
Upcoming Events
FBCW Website Calendar
November 6, 2022
“A Dead Man Raised To Life”
Luke 7:11-17
The last time we were together, we read from
Luke 7:1-10.
1 When He had completed all His discourse in the hearing of the people, He went to Capernaum.
2 And a centurion’s slave, who was highly regarded by him, was sick and about to die.
3 When he heard about Jesus, he sent some Jewish elders asking Him to come and save the life of his slave.
4 When they came to Jesus, they earnestly implored Him, saying, “He is worthy for You to grant this to him;
5 for he loves our nation and it was he who built us our synagogue.”
6 Now Jesus started on His way with them; and when He was not far from the house, the centurion sent friends, saying to Him, “Lord, do not trouble Yourself further, for I am not worthy for You to come under my roof;
7 for this reason I did not even consider myself worthy to come to You, but just say the word, and my servant will be healed.
8 For I also am a man placed under authority, with soldiers under me; and I say to this one, ‘Go!’ and he goes, and to another, ‘Come!’ and he comes, and to my slave, ‘Do this!’ and he does it.”
9 Now when Jesus heard this, He marveled at him, and turned and said to the crowd that was following Him, “I say to you, not even in Israel have I found such great faith.”
10 When those who had been sent returned to the house, they found the slave in good health.
Jesus leaves the Mountain and heads for Capernaum with His Disciples. While there He receives a request from a centurion to come and heal his servant. This centurion believes that Jesus has divine power and authority and that Jesus can heal his servant just by speaking the words for him to be healed.
In Luke 7:9,
9 Now when Jesus heard this, He marveled at him, and turned and said to the crowd that was following Him, “I say to you, not even in Israel have I found such great faith.”
Jesus says to the crowd, “not in all of Israel have I found such great faith,” and in
Luke 7:10
10 When those who had been sent returned to the house, they found the slave in good health.
we read, “the servant was healed.”
Read Luke 7:11-12…
11 Soon afterwards He went to a city called Nain; and His disciples were going along with Him, accompanied by a large crowd.
12 Now as He approached the gate of the city, a dead man was being carried out, the only son of his mother, and she was a widow; and a sizeable crowd from the city was with her.
“Soon afterward” (a few hours to a few days later) Jesus leaves, and a large crowd follows Him, probably hoping to see another miracle.
Jesus arrives in Nain (20 miles SW of Capernaum, 6 miles SE of Nazareth) just as a dead man is being carried out of the city to be buried. A coincidence? No!
See John 4… Jesus has a divine appointment with a woman in Samaria (at a well near Sychar), where He talks to her
(John 4:10-14)
10 Jesus answered and said to her, “If you knew the gift of God, and who it is who says to you, ‘Give Me a drink,’ you would have asked Him, and He would have given you living water.”
11 She said to Him, “Sir, You have nothing to draw with and the well is deep; where then do You get that living water?
12 You are not greater than our father Jacob, are You, who gave us the well, and drank of it himself and his sons and his cattle?”
13 Jesus answered and said to her, “Everyone who drinks of this water will thirst again;
14 but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him shall never thirst; but the water that I will give him will become in him a well of water springing up to eternal life.”
about God’s gift of eternal life, while also confronting her sin
(John 4:16-18);
16 He said to her, “Go, call your husband and come here.”
17 The woman answered and said, “I have no husband.” Jesus said to her, “You have correctly said, ‘I have no husband’;
18 for you have had five husbands, and the one whom you now have is not your husband; this you have said truly.”
the woman tries to change the subject
(John 4:19-20),
19 The woman said to Him, “Sir, I perceive that You are a prophet.
20 Our fathers worshiped in this mountain, and you people say that in Jerusalem is the place where men ought to worship.”
and Jesus reveals Himself to her
(John 4:21,
21 Jesus said to her, “Woman, believe Me, an hour is coming when neither in this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you worship the Father.
John 4:23-26);
23 But an hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for such people the Father seeks to be His worshipers.
24 God is spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.”
25 The woman said to Him, “I know that Messiah is coming (He who is called Christ); when that One comes, He will declare all things to us.”
26 Jesus said to her, “I who speak to you am He.”
she is forever changed
(John 4:28-29),
28 So the woman left her waterpot, and went into the city and said to the men,
29 “Come, see a man who told me all the things that I have done; this is not the Christ, is it?”
and her testimony led many to the Savior, believing in Him as she did, received forgiveness for sin and eternal life
(John 4:39-42).
39 From that city many of the Samaritans believed in Him because of the word of the woman who testified, “He told me all the things that I have done.”
40 So when the Samaritans came to Jesus, they were asking Him to stay with them; and He stayed there two days.
41 Many more believed because of His word;
42 and they were saying to the woman, “It is no longer because of what you said that we believe, for we have heard for ourselves and know that this One is indeed the Savior of the world.”
Only God can raise the dead, for He is the Creator, sovereign in the affairs of men
(Proverbs 16:9),
“The mind of man plans his way, but the Lord directs his steps.”
Proverbs 16:33,
“The lot is cast into the lap, but its very decision is from the Lord.”
In Acts 1, prior to the coming of God’s Spirit to indwell true believers and followers of Christ, it was necessary for Judas Iscariot to be replaced by a man who was sovereignly chosen by God
(see Acts 1:20-26).
20 “For it is written in the book of Psalms,
‘LET HIS HOMESTEAD BE MADE DESOLATE,
AND LET NO ONE DWELL IN IT’;
and,
‘LET ANOTHER MAN TAKE HIS OFFICE.’
21 Therefore it is necessary that of the men who have accompanied us all the time that the Lord Jesus went in and out among us--
22 beginning with the baptism of John until the day that He was taken up from us--one of these must become a witness with us of His resurrection.”
23 So they put forward two men, Joseph called Barsabbas (who was also called Justus), and Matthias.
24 And they prayed and said, “You, Lord, who know the hearts of all men, show which one of these two You have chosen
25 to occupy this ministry and apostleship from which Judas turned aside to go to his own place.”
26 And they drew lots for them, and the lot fell to Matthias; and he was added to the eleven apostles.
Back to Luke 7:12…
12 Now as He approached the gate of the city, a dead man was being carried out, the only son of his mother, and she was a widow; and a sizeable crowd from the city was with her.
Jesus arrives in Nain as the only son of a woman (also a widow), is being carried out to be buried, accompanied by a large crowd.
In the Jewish culture, the loss of an only son was often symbolized as the epitome of grief
(Jeremiah 6:26),
“O daughter of my people, put on sackcloth and roll in ashes; mourn as for an only son, a lamentation most bitter.”
Read Luke 7:13…
13 When the Lord saw her, He felt compassion for her, and said to her, “Do not weep.”
The Lord expresses compassion for this woman and her loss, basically saying, “Don’t cry, it will be okay.” The Scriptures often reflect the great love of God for humankind
(Exodus 33:19),
“I will be gracious, and will show compassion on whom I will show compassion,”
(Psalm 103:8),
“The Lord is compassionate and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in lovingkindness.”
The Israelites repeatedly hardened their hearts and turned away from God, and yet He repeatedly had compassion on them and forgave them
(Judges 10:16),
“He, being compassionate, forgave their iniquity and did not destroy them, and often He restrained His anger and did not arouse all His wrath.”
Read Luke 7:14-15…
14 And He came up and touched the coffin; and the bearers came to a halt. And He said, “Young man, I say to you, arise!”
15 The dead man sat up and began to speak. And Jesus gave him back to his mother.
Jesus walks up to the procession and touches the stretcher on which the dead man lays, causing the procession to stop. He then speaks to the dead man saying, “get up!” The dead man sits up and begins to talk; he is fully restored to life, and now returned to his mother.
Read Luke 7:16-17…
16 Fear gripped them all, and they began glorifying God, saying, “A great prophet has arisen among us!” and, “God has visited His people!”
17 This report concerning Him went out all over Judea and in all the surrounding district.
Awe and fear gripped the hearts of the people in the city of Nain that day, as Jesus raises a dead man back to life. The people express their excitement by giving glory to God, believing that a great prophet has visited them, one like Elijah or Elisha, both of whom (cf. 1Kings 17:17-24; 2Kings 4:18-36) raised a person from the dead by God’s power, after praying for God to do so.
Note:
When the angel Gabriel (Matthew 1:18-25; Luke 1:26-38) declared to Mary and Joseph about the coming of God’s Son (Jesus), it had been over 400 years since God departed Israel, because of their hard hearts and evil ways.
The people in Nain, like all of Israel, had been waiting hundreds of years for God to return to them, to speak to them, and now God in the flesh of Jesus [Yeshua, God’s Salvation; Immanuel, God with us] has come to Nain, and yet it would seem that the people are completely blinded to the fact that He is God.
2Corinthians 4:3-4,
“Even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing, in whose case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelieving so that they might not see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.”
Jesus is God the Son, the second person of the Trinity, equal in power, nature, and majesty, with God the Father and God the Holy Spirit. To better understand how God is expressed in three persons, yet remaining to be One God, please pick up a copy of: “The TRI-UNITY of GOD: God is Spirit, God is One, God is Three” (available in the foyer), or contact me and I’ll send you a copy.
God is the Creator, Sustainer, and Judge over all of Creation. God was present among the people of Nain, but they, like most of Israel, failed to recognize Him.
Near the end of Jesus’ earthly ministry, He expressed His deep sadness over the rejection He received from Israel during His first advent.
Luke 19:41-44,
“When He approached Jerusalem, He saw the city and wept over it, saying, ‘If you had known in this day, even you, the things which make for peace! But now they have been hidden from your eyes. For the days will come upon you when your enemies will throw up a barricade against you, and surround you and hem you in on every side, and they will level you to the ground and your children within you, and they will not leave in you one stone upon another, because you did not recognize the time of your visitation.’”
In A.D. 70 (27 years after Jesus’ ascension) God’s judgement came upon the Jews for their rejection of His Son. Jerusalem was destroyed, over one million Jews were put to death, and most of the survivors were forced into slavery world-wide.
Romans 1:16,
“I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek [Gentile].
Galatians 3:26-29,
“For you are all sons [and daughters] of God through faith in Christ Jesus. For all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free man, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus. And if you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s descendants, heirs according to promise.”
John 1:11-13,
“He came to His own, and those who were His own did not receive Him. But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, even to those who believe in His name, who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.”
The qualifier for having an eternal relationship with God was never about an individual’s ancestral blood line, personal piety, or their religious belief and practice, it was always about God’s holiness and His great love for us.
1Peter 1:3-5,
“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His great mercy has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to obtain an inheritance which is imperishable and undefiled and will not fade away, reserved in heaven for you, who are protected by the power of God through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.”
1Peter 2:9-10,
“You are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God’s own possession, so that you may proclaim the excellencies of Him who has called you out of darkness into His marvelous light; for you once were not a people, but now you are the people of God; you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.”
The Jewish people of Nain had God in their presence, and they didn’t recognize Him where as, the despised Samaritan woman (John 4), an adulterer, realizing she was in the presence of the Messiah, God’s Son; she believed in Him and spread the word to those in her village, many of whom also believed and were saved.
The Samaritan woman, before responding to Jesus, was dead in her sins, like all unbelievers; but believing in Him, she went from being spiritually dead to being spiritually alive
(2Corinthians 5:17),
“Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come.”
In John 5:24-25 Jesus said,
“Truly, truly, I say to you, he who hears My word, and believes Him who sent Me, has eternal life, and does not come into judgment, but has passed out of death into life. Truly, truly, I say to you, an hour is coming and now is, when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear will live.”
Perhaps this story of the dead man raised to life, in Nain, is new to you; but most likely, you know the story of Lazarus being raised back to life.
Please turn to John 11:1-46. Martha’s interchange with Jesus expresses her genuine belief in Him as Lord and Savior
(John 11:20-27).
20 Martha therefore, when she heard that Jesus was coming, went to meet Him, but Mary stayed at the house.
21 Martha then said to Jesus, “Lord, if You had been here, my brother would not have died.
22 Even now I know that whatever You ask of God, God will give You.”
23 Jesus said to her, “Your brother will rise again.”
24 Martha said to Him, “I know that he will rise again in the resurrection on the last day.”
25 Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life; he who believes in Me will live even if he dies,
26 and everyone who lives and believes in Me will never die. Do you believe this?”
27 She said to Him, “Yes, Lord; I have believed that You are the Christ, the Son of God, even He who comes into the world.”
Many who witnessed Lazarus come out of the tomb alive believed Jesus to be the Messiah
(John 11:38-45),
38 So Jesus, again being deeply moved within, came to the tomb. Now it was a cave, and a stone was lying against it.
39 Jesus said, “Remove the stone.” Martha, the sister of the deceased, said to Him, “Lord, by this time there will be a stench, for he has been dead four days.”
40 Jesus said to her, “Did I not say to you that if you believe, you will see the glory of God?”
41 So they removed the stone. Then Jesus raised His eyes, and said, “Father, I thank You that You have heard Me.
42 I knew that You always hear Me; but because of the people standing around I said it, so that they may believe that You sent Me.”
43 When He had said these things, He cried out with a loud voice, “Lazarus, come forth.”
44 The man who had died came forth, bound hand and foot with wrappings, and his face was wrapped around with a cloth. Jesus said to them, “Unbind him, and let him go.”
45 Therefore many of the Jews who came to Mary, and saw what He had done, believed in Him.
they went going from being spiritually dead to being spiritually alive.
Two things are true: everyone is a sinner in need of forgiveness, and God forgives everyone who asks Him
(1Timothy 2:3-4),
“God… desires all men (women and children of age) to be saved and come to a knowledge of the truth.”
What truth?
That Jesus Christ is
(John 14:6),
“the [only] way [to God], the [only] truth [of God], the [only] life [with God]; and no one comes to [God] the Father (Who is in Heaven) except through [God’s Son], i.e., no one is made acceptable, no one is made righteous, no is saved and goes to heaven, unless they believe.”
Hebrews 9:26-28,
He [God’s Son, Jesus Christ] has appeared [once for all at the end of the ages] to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself. And inasmuch as it is appointed for men to die once and after this comes judgment, so Christ also, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time for salvation without reference to sin, to those who eagerly await Him.”
Hebrews 10:17-18,
“‘And their sins and their lawless deeds I will remember no more.’ Now where there is forgiveness of these things, there is no longer any offering for sin.”
Romans 3:10-12,
“There is none righteous, not even one; there is none who understands, there is none who seeks for God; all have turned aside, together they have become useless; there is none who does good, there is not even one.”
Romans 3:23,
“for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,”
Romans 6:23,
“For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord,”
Romans 5:8,
“God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us,”
Romans 8:1,
“Therefore there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus,”
Romans 10:9-10,
“if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved; for with the heart a person believes, resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses, resulting in salvation,”
Romans 10:13,
“Whoever will call on the name of the Lord will be saved.”
Have you done that? Have you admitted your need for forgiveness from sin and believed in Jesus Christ to save you? If so, praise God!
But if you haven’t, why haven’t you? Look, you are a sinner just like every other person on this earth; but in order to receive forgiveness and the assurance of eternal life in heaven, you must confess your sinfulness and believe in Jesus Christ, God’s Son, as Lord and Savior: crucified, resurrected, and coming again.
1John 5:11-13,
“And the testimony is this, that God has given us eternal life, and this life is in His Son. He who has the Son has the life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have the life. These things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, so that you may know that you have eternal life.”
Pastor Mike
>’(((><