Sermon Outline:
TWO CROWDS MEET:
The widow and the mourners
Jesus and his followers
TWO ‘ONLY SONS’ MEET:
The woman’s son and heir
The Father’s son and saviour
TWO SUFFERS MEET:
Widow: alone and grieving
Jesus: ‘man of sorrows’
TWO ENEMIES MEET:
Boy: death and decay
Jesus: life and resurrection
Sermon Text:
Ill:
• A Mother was taking her four-year-old daughter to school,
• She was a doctor and had left her stethoscope on the car seat,
• Her little girl picked it up;
• And very exited began to play with it.
• Excellent, thought the Doctor,
• My daughter wants to follow in my footsteps!
• Then the child spoke into the instrument:
• “Hello and welcome to McDonald’s may I take you order?”
All parents have high hopes for their children:
• The Mother in our reading this morning was no different;
• Only she saw those hoped shattered, by the premature death of her son.
ILL:
A young New Yorker named Glenn Chambers,
• Had a lifelong dream to work for God in Ecuador.
• At the airport on the day of departure,
• He wanted to send a note to his mother but he didn’t have time to buy a card.
• He noticed a piece of paper on the terminal floor and picked it up.
• It turned out to be an advertisement,
• With the words “Why?” spread across it.
• He scribbled his note around the word “Why?”
• And posted the letter at the airport.
• That night his aeroplane exploded into the 14,000 foot Colombian peak El Tablazo.
• A few days later his mother received the note in the post,
• Recognising the hand writing on the envelope;
• She opened the envelope and starring up at her from the page was the word “Why?”
Here was another mother, a widow:
• Who like the mother of Glen Chambers;
• Had one question racing though her heart and mind – “Why?”
• Notice as we study this passage;
• I want to divide it up under four headings.
(1). Two crowds meet.
First crowd verse 11:
“Soon afterward, Jesus went to a town called Nain, and his disciples and a large crowd went along with him “.
Second crowd verse 12:
“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.”
WHAT A CONTRAST:
• Between the crowd that was following Jesus,
• And the crowd that was following the widow and her dead son.
(a).
• Jesus and His disciples were rejoicing in the blessing of the Lord,
• But the widow and her friends were lamenting the death of her only son.
(b).
• Jesus was heading for the city,
• While the mourners were heading for the cemetery.
• ill: In fact even to this day, ten minutes walk from Nain on the road to Endor,
• There is a cemetery of rock tombs in which the dead are laid.
• Now the widow in our passage, never made it there:
• Because she was halted, then turned completely around by her encounter with Jesus.
TWO CROWDS MEET:
(1). The widows crowd:
Now the Jewish custom at this time was to bury their dead on the same day;
• The widow, the corpse & the mourners had to come out of the city,
• Because no burial was ever allowed inside a Jewish city.
• So it is likely that it was late In the afternoon, on the very same day the boy died.
• That the widow encountered Jesus and His disciples arriving at the city gate,
• The funeral procession would have been headed by a group of professional mourners:
• Quote: Jewish writings (Ketuboth chapter 4 verse 4):
• “Even the poorest in Israel should hire not less than two flutes and one wailing woman”
• These folks would have been hired, paid to be there, they were funeral experts;
• They would turn up with their clothes torn,
• Playing flutes and cymbals,
• Their voices making a frenzy of shrills & cries of grief.
Ill:
Funerals are rarely happy occasions
• I did hear about the gifted public speaker,
• Who was asked to recall his most difficult speaking assignment.
• He said,
"That’s easy. It was an address I gave to the National Conference of Undertakers.
The topic they gave me was ’How to Look Sad at a Five Thousand Pound Funeral!’"
• Well for most of us; funerals are sad occasions,
• And in the ancient near east,
• You paid professional mourners to help you to express your grief!
(2). Jesus and his crowd of followers.
• Jesus would have had his 12 disciples with him,
• Plus other people who were his genuine followers (e.g. Luke chapter 8 verse 2)
“…… some women who had been cured of evil spirits and diseases:
Mary (called Magdalene) from whom seven demons had come out; 3Joanna the wife of Cuza, the manager of Herod’s household; Susanna; and many others.
These women were helping to support them out of their own means”.
• Jesus also attracted a large assortment of hangers-on.
• Those who came for a show, who wanted to see the miraculous happenings,
• This crowd would have a buzz of excitement,
• A kind of carnival atmosphere surrounding it.
• Notice: The contrast - Luke pictures for us:
• A procession of joyous life,
• Meeting a procession of grieving death on the edge of nowhere.
As the two groups meet:
• Jesus, his disciples and the crowd who accompanied him;
• Doubtless stood back respectfully to allow the funeral procession to pass.
• Part of that funeral crowd was a solitary mourner.
• She needed not so much courtesy, but compassion.
• In a crowd of people,
• Jesus was aware of this lonely woman’s situation.
Pause to say: The incident is rich with imagery (picture language):
• These is a spiritual parallel to this earthly situation.
• Spiritually speaking, each of us is in one of these two crowds:
• If you have trusted Christ, if you are a committed Christian,
• The Bible makes it very clear that you are spiritually alive;
• And you are going with Jesus to the heavenly city (Heb. 11:10, 13-16; 12:22).
• If you are not yet a Christian then the Bible teaches you are “dead in sin,”
• And sadly on the way to the eternal cemetery (Eph. 2:1-3;John 3:36).
(2). Two only sons meet.
Quote Warren Wiersbe:
“One alive but destined to die, the other dead but destined to live.”
(1). The Widows Son. (Feel the heart ache in these verses):
“The ONLY son of his mother, AND she was a widow “.
Sons were important in New Testament times:
• They were the life blood of the family;
• It was there responsibility to perpetuate the family line (name alive).
• Sons were the ones who protected and provided for the family.
ILL:
• Still true today in third world countries;
• Often the poor have large families because the more children you have;
• The better chance of them looking after you in your old age.
Now with this widow’s only son dead:
• What would happen to the mother?
• She was now left alone in a society that did not have resources to care for widows.
• There was no social services or home help or pension scheme,
• So who would provide for her?
• The widow had pinned all her hopes in her only son:
• But he had failed to meet those expectations.
• He promised so much, but had delivered so little.
(2). The Fathers only son.
• If the first son of the widowed mother failed to meet her expectations;
• Then the second son mentioned in the story – Jesus;
• Would certainly meet all expectations.
Christians believe that Jesus was and is the Son of God.
• Jesus was and is in every sense of the word ‘unique’.
• i.e. fully human and fully divine!
• Fully human born after a full 9 months pregnancy;
• Fully divine – he existed before his conception and birth!
Quote:
“In heaven he had no mother, on earth he had no father”.
• “In heaven he had no mother”, i.e. he was and is the eternal Son of God.
• “On earth he had no father”, i.e. conceived by the Holy Spirit.
Ill:
• Bob Telford & OAP Home.
• He only had one and he gave him up for you and me!!!
(3). Two sufferers met.
ILL:
A young New Yorker named Glenn Chambers,
• Had a lifelong dream to work for God in Ecuador.
• At the airport on the day of departure,
• He wanted to send a note to his mother but he didn’t have time to buy a card.
• He noticed a piece of paper on the terminal floor and picked it up.
• It turned out to be an advertisement,
• With the words “Why?” spread across it.
• He scribbled his note around the word “Why?”
• That night his aeroplane exploded into the 14,000 foot Colombian peak El Tablazo.
• When his mother received the note after the news of his death,
• As she opened the envelope the question that stared up at her from the page was, “Why?”
There are few experiences that are more distressing to the human heart than loss.
• ill: Ring with great sentimental value.
• ill: Pet animal we can still feel heart broken.
• When it is a person, some one we love, it is a tragedy:
• Our sense of emotional devastation can be almost unendurable.
• And there are not enough words to communicate the heartbreak.
(1). A woman sorrowing:
• This mother was grief-stricken over the loss of her son.
• She was now all alone in the world, with no-other family to support or comfort her.
• She is without a male protector and provider,
• Which no-doubt led to feelings of fear & insecurity,
• She must have wondered just how she is going to survive financially in the future.
• There were few openings for women to earn a living in the first centaury.
• It seems all hope had gone!
Quote:
“We can live 40 or 50 days without food.
We can live 8 or perhaps 9 days without water.
And before brain damage we can live about 4 minutes without air.
But we can only live a few seconds without hope“.
Notice:
• The compassion of Jesus (verse 13):
• “When the Lord saw her, his heart went out to her and he said, “Don‘t cry”.
• There is no stronger word in the Greek language for sympathy.
• Than the word Jesus uses hear translated as “his heart went out”.
• Now this was not a time for words, but for action.
• So Jesus restricted himself to just a couple of words,
(2). Jesus the man of sorrows.
Ill:
• If I asked you to come up with names and titles for Jesus;
• I guess most of you would be able to reel off quite a few.
• We would probably choose something like ‘Man of holiness’,
• Because, he was without sin.
• We might have called him a ‘Man of eloquence’;
• Because no-one ever spoke like this man.
• We might have called him a ‘Man of love’;
• Love never shone out of any life, as it did out of the life of Jesus.
• Now here is an incredible thing in Isaiah chapter 53 verse 3:
• Jesus is called: “A man of sorrows familiar with suffering“.
Quote:
• An artist is best known through his works,
• The soul of a painter is seen in his paintings.
• The heart of a singer is heard through his songs.
• Suffering is a mirror in which may be seen the reflection of Jesus.
• And Jesus, “the Man of Sorrows,”
• Easily identifies with the widow’s heartache.
Note:
• That expression “Familiar with suffering”;
• Is a phrase you could write all over the life of Jesus:
• Born in poverty,
• i.e. forced to sheltering in someone else’s stable.
• i.e. Then forced to flee his home-land,
• (Matthew chapter 2 verse 13 – a refuge family in Egypt for a few years).
• i.e. Tradition (not Bible) tells us Joseph (step-father) died while he was still a teenager.
• As the eldest son, that meant an extra weight of responsibility on his shoulders.
• i.e. He was rejected by his own people (John chapter 1 verse 11).
• “He was in the world, and though the world was made through him, the world did not recognize him. He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him.”
• i.e. Rejected by his own family (Mark chapter 2 verse 21).
• “He is out of his mind”.
• i.e. Pressured by the religious establishment., poisoned by misunderstanding his mission.
• As they constantly criticized him and sought to trap him and eventually kill him.
• i.e. Brokenhearted over his people (Matthew 23:37)
• “0 Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you, how often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing.”
• i.e. Classic incident in the Garden of Gethsemane (Mart 26:37).
• Then he said to them, “My soul is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death. Stay here and keep watch with me.”
• i.e. Betrayed by a friend - Judas.
• Forsaken by his disciples.
• i.e. Tortured by the Romans,
• Falsely accused and tried in illegal and biased courts.
• i.e. Abandoned by God the Father (Matthew 27 verse 46).
• “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”
Surely this is the deepest sorrow of the all:
• Because this sorrow did not come from men but from God,
• Not from without but from within.
• For it was the hand of a holy God that bruised him,
• And it was the iron rod of heavens justice that broke him.
• Isaiah 53 verse 10: “Yet it was the LORDS ‘Will to crush him and cause him to suffer”
Jesus was and is the “the Man of Sorrows,”
• Familiar with suffering
• Who could easily identify with the widow’s heartache.
(4). TWO ENEMIES MET.
• Death is an enemy to every human being,
• It robs us of our life and separates us from our loved ones.
• In contrast Jesus is the ‘the life giver’.
• The one who said; ‘I am the resurrection and the life’.
• He is the enemy of death and separation.
Verse 14:
• Jesus went up and touched the coffin; causing the procession came to a halt.
• He then spoke some words:
• That if you or I said them;
• Would make us cruel, insensitive to the situation or even a laughing stock.
• Verse 14:
• “He said, “Young man, I say to you, get up!””
Don’t miss the drama of this next moment:
• We read these verses as if these things happen every day!
• This is an incredible incident that is about to take place.
“Then he went up and touched the coffin, and those carrying it stood still.
He said, “Young man, I say to you, get up“.
Ill:
When you read the word coffin:
• Don’t think of a wooden box, like most if not all of us will be buried in.
• This would have been an open coffin, often they were long wicker-work baskets,
Jesus had only to speak the word and the boy was raised to life and health.
• Imagine the amazement of the mourners,
• Talk about the hairs standing up on the back of your neck.
• They were astonished,
• This was an incredible moment!
Quote:
“Jesus claimed as his own what death had seized as his prey “.
Notice:
• The boy who had been dead and was ready to be buried;
• Now gave two evidences of life (verse 15):
• (1).He sat up. (2). He spoke.
• Because he was lying on an open stretcher, it was of course easy for him to sit up.
• Luke who was a doctor by profession:
• Actually uses a medical technical term in the Greek text,
• The word for “sitting up” actually means; a patient “sitting up in bed”.
• Verse 15 is an act of tenderness.
• We read; “Jesus gave the son back to his mother.”
Notice: The crowd react in two ways (vs 16-12):
“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”
(1). “Awe”
• They had never seen anything like this and would probably never see it again.
• To use a modern expression, ‘they were gob smacked’.
(b). “Glorify God”.
• They are stunned at the authority of Jesus,
• He even has power over death.
• No wonder in verse 16 they call him the: “Great Prophet”.
• Unsurprisingly verse 17: tells us that;
• It did not take long for the report of this miracle to spread:
• People were more enthusiastic than ever to see Jesus,
• And great crowds followed Him (8:4, 19, 42).
• Word even reached John the Baptist in prison.
Notice: Again this story is so rich with imagery:
• For the widow her death sentence,
• Had been set aside by the authority of Christ.
• What was true for her physically,
• Is true for us spiritually.
Ill:
• All of us are subject to the law of gravity.
• Newton discovered it, “What goes up must come down”.
• And the law of gravity holds us down.
• Now if you look in the air on your way home (careful if your driving)
• You will see birds actually denying the law of gravity,
• You will see planes defying the law of gravity
Question: Why?
Answer:
• Because there is another law called the law of aerodynamics.
• And by adapting that law, birds can fly and men have been able to create aircraft,
• Whenever a bird or the plane takes off,
• Another law which comes into operation
• And the law of gravity is defeated,
• By the law of aerodynamics.
Do see what I’m trying to say, in connection with death & Jesus?
• The law of gravity; i.e. sin & death,
• Which has held captive every man, woman and child throughout history:
• Can now be broken by the law of aerodynamics,
• i.e. The eternal life which is ours through Jesus Christ.
Quote: 1 Corinthians chapter 15 verse 55:
“Death has been swallowed up in victory.”
“Where, 0 death, is your victory?
Where, 0 death, is your sting?”
Ill:
• Shortly before his death, Gandhi wrote,
• "All about me is darkness; I am praying for light."
• Contrast this with evangelist D. L. Moody’s last recorded words:
• "This is my triumph; this is my coronation day! It is glorious!"
