Latest / Calvary Church with Ed Taylor Podcast / #20231022 - Not Without Power - Luke 7:11-17

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#20231022 - Not Without Power - Luke 7:11-17 · Calvary Church with Ed Taylor Podcast

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Welcome to the Study of God's Word, recorded live at Calvary
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Church in Aurora, Co To learn more about the many resources
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available through Abounding Grace Media or to tune into our
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live stream services, visit us online at Calvary Co dot Church
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or download our free Calvary Church app.
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Now let's open our Bibles and study God's Word.
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Thank you guys may be seated. So this morning I want to talk
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to us a little bit about pain and what pain looks like and
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what it looks like to partner with the Lord in your pain.
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What it looks like to have the Lord guide us through seasons of
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extreme difficulty, seasons that sometimes are self-inflicted.
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Sometimes they're caused by others, and sometimes they seem
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to just pop up out of nowhere and they can shake us deeply.
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They can shake us to our core. And Pastor Bob had shared last
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week about seasons of doubt and the passage that he had taught
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from I was actually out of town, but it's the passage right after
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my passage in Luke 7. And so they actually complement
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each other pretty well. But the context, if you weren't
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here, is Jesus cousin. John the Baptist had been
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telling people about Jesus, that he was here to set the captives
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free, that he had a powerful ministry, that he was the
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Messiah, the one who would come and save.
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And John ends up getting arrested and thrown into prison
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because he crosses King Herod. So John's in prison and he's
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waiting for the Lord, he's waiting for freedom, he's
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waiting for something to happen that Jesus will do on his
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behalf. And what happens is his
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expectation is not met. In the way that he thought it
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would be. And so it leads him to send some
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of his followers to go to Jesus and say, hey Jesus, are you the
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one that we are waiting for or we should we be looking for
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somebody else? Is there another one?
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And so John's having a moment in his faith where he's battling
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some very serious doubts about what's going on, and it's highly
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relatable to us. But what Jesus does is he tells
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his disciples, like, look around and tell John that the dead are
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being raised, those who are sick are being healed.
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The gospel is going forward. Encourage John with this.
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And so they end up going back to John, and John ends up passing
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away in that prison. And, you know, sometimes these
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seasons are very relatable to us because we come into a season
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where we get Shook A. Little bit and have some doubt
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in our faith and we have some pain maybe that gets mixed into
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that and we're not exactly sure how do we approach this and what
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do we do with this? And John at the end of the book,
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The Gospel of John, John chapter 20, verse 31.
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It says, but these are written so the things in the gospel that
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you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, so the Messiah, the
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Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in
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his name. So pray with me as we get ready
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to open up the Bible and get into the Word.
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So, Jesus, we pray right now that you would cover us.
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Under your precious blood we ask that you would come against
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distractions, that you, Holy Spirit, would bring forth the
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word that you have to speak to each person.
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We pray, Lord, that she would move in power, and we welcome
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your presence and moving among us.
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And so, Lord, we do ask for the peace of Jerusalem.
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We ask that she would be in the middle of each conflict around
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the world. And Father, we ask that you
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would be with the persecuted Church this morning, as we
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remember them too. We love you, Lord, We thank you
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that we can be here. We ask that you would come
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forward and move in power, and we love you.
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We pray this in your name. Amen.
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So if you're with me, go ahead and open up to John or sorry,
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Luke, Chapter 7, and we will be looking at verses 11 through 17
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this morning. And if you have a Bible from the
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back, you're going to find it on page 712.
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If you have a Bible in general, it's It's split in half in the
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New Testament if you're not familiar with it.
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And it will be the third book over.
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And so we find ourselves in the middle of a story where Jesus
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has come into a woman who has lost her husband.
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Now she's lost her son, so she's lost her stability within the
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culture she's hurting. And Jesus comes to her town, and
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Jesus actually ends up coming upon her at the exact moment
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that she's getting ready to bury her son.
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And so, as we move into this passage, I want to encourage you
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guys to take a special look at how Jesus treats those who
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struggle with their worth and their value.
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And one of the reasons why I love the Book of Luke is because
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it really deals a lot with people who are not religious at
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all. It deals with people who are
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very religious and in bondage because they've misapplied God's
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heart to different things. It deals with women and children
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who didn't have a lot of power in society.
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It deals with people that Jesus engages who are steeped in
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poverty and people who have authority and position.
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And so Jesus is dealing with all kinds of these different people.
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But Luke really focuses on people on the edges of society.
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The passage just prior to this, Jesus is dealing with the
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centurion who is a Roman occupying force and he's an
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officer in this force. And Jesus is moved by his
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understanding of God's authority, that if God speaks a
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word, power goes forth, power comes out.
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And so for the centurion, Jesus was honored by his faith.
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But for the widow that we're about to read about, she had no
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covering. She had no one looking out for
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her. She had no special place
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necessarily in society. And so Jesus comes to her and he
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offers to be her covering and to do something for her that she
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would not have expected on one of the darkest days of her life.
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And so if you'll pick up with me, Luke Chapter 7, verse 11
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that says now it happens the day after that, so after the
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centurion that he went into a city called 9.
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And many of his disciples went with him, and a large crowd.
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And when he came near the gate of the city, behold, a dead man
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was being carried out, the only son of his mother.
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And she was a widow, and a large crowd from the city was with
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her. And when the Lord saw her.
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He had compassion on her, and he said to her, do not weep.
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Then he came, and he touched the open coffin, and those who
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carried him stood still. And he said, Young man, I say to
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you, Arise. And so he who is dead set up and
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began to speak. And he presented him to his
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mother. Then fear came upon all, and
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they glorified God's saying. A great prophet has risen among
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us, and God has visited his people.
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And this report about him went throughout all of Judea and into
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the surrounding region. So here at Calvary we have a
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vision for the church. It's very simple, 3 words when
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disciple and said we want to see people come into relationship
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with Jesus. We want to see them grow up in
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their faith, but we also want to see people scatter and go out
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and take their faith with them. And it's important to exercise.
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Our faith. Because, as AB Simpson, the
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founder of the Christian Missionary Alliance, wrote,
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because the ruin of humanity came through a loss of faith, so
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the recovery of humanity must come through the exercise of
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faith. Now, sometimes it's easier to
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have faith than at other times. We have seasons in our walk
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where things are going well, and we have seasons where we're
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rudely interrupted. By something very painful or
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discomforting or unexpected. And we have to ask ourselves
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this question. How will we approach our faith
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when it's not playing out like we expected?
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When we're in a place where we're hurting one of the.
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Early Church fathers wrote Scriptures are not given to us
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that we should enclose them in books, but that we'd engrave
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them upon our hearts. See, there can be no disconnect
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between this book that we have and the life that we're living
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among our culture. And so what's really important
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for us is that as we read this book, we remember there is great
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power in the words that are here, because this is not just
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paper and ink, but this is the living, breathing word of God.
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As you read this word, it will read you and it will deal with
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how you think and it will deal with how you feel and it will
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deal with how you approach different things in life.
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In Ephesians chapter 4, verse 15 it says rather speaking the
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truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into Him who is the
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head into Christ. You see, some lessons come
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easier than others, but the Lord uses a variety of shaping tools.
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To get our attention. And one of the tools that God
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can use that we don't necessarily care for all the
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time is pain. And so as I was prepping for
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this message, I was reading through my journal and I was
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kind of thinking back over a season on my life a few years
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ago that actually Pastor Ed walked with me in.
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I had put myself into a season of deep pain that was
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self-inflicted. I was not in a good place.
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We had lost the home that we were having built.
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I was living in a basement with my in laws.
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Our kids didn't understand what was going on.
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Our marriage was not in a good spot.
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We were not doing very well at all.
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And I was carrying this around and I was walking into the
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garage one morning at my In Laws house and the Lord spoke to me
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very clearly. And he just said, Andy, you're
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going to be all right. And God was going to heal me.
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Not fully, but completely. Holy God doesn't do things
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halfway. And so we remember in seasons of
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pain, the only crushed grapes can give us sweet wine, right?
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And so when we're in a season of pain, God is forging something
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within us, and He's giving birth to something in our life.
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And there's many forms of pain, but thankfully there is one
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healer who has access to every portion and piece of our heart
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and life. John Wimber used to say the good
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news is that Jesus is praying for you.
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The bad news is that you're going to need it.
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And we can relate to that, right?
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Because we all go through different seasons where Jesus
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didn't promise us it was going to be easy.
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But pain has a a funny effect on our life.
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It causes us to stop and consider that something is wrong
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with the way things are going and there should be more.
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So I want to challenge you. If you're taking notes, write
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down a thought This morning. What comes to your mind when you
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think of God? It's been said that it's one of
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the most important things about you.
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Some of us think of forgiveness, grace, love.
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But how many of us would consider the word authority when
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we think of God? It's the authority is defined as
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the power or the right to give orders, make decisions and
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enforce stability. A person or organization having
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power or control in a in a particular sphere.
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So basically it means you have the right to make decisions and
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you have the power to back it up.
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And how many of us consider that when we consider God?
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For a lot of us, authority can be a painful word.
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We've seen it abused or misused, or somebody who had a position
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of privilege or power in our life that didn't handle it with
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responsibility and we suffer the consequences.
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How many of us were getting pulled over by the police?
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We see the lights in the mirror. We whisper a prayer of thanks to
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God for the authority that caught us.
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Right. Not a lot.
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I know you've all been pulled over.
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I have too. And so when that happens, it's
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hard for us. But you know what?
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We need it. We need authority and our life
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to enforce stability, to bring and provide safety.
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A lot of people don't care for God's authority in their life.
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They don't want him to interrupt anything.
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They're much more comfortable with the idea that God is simply
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a divine observer. But I want to tell you, like
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Psalm 46 verse one says that God is not just an observer, but
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he's a very present help in times of trouble.
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God wants to be intimately involved with us, and we need
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somebody safe at the will of our life.
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To enforce boundaries and stabilities.
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And Jesus wants to provide this for you.
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A lot of churches and ministries spend a lot of time praying for
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revival and like God send revival spiritual awakening and
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that's good. But what they don't always
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understand, when they pray for that, is that revival is often
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found in the gutters of our lives, in the seasons where
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we're being wrung out regardless, stripping us.
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Of sin, of things that we have, that are idols that we value
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above him, got us dismantling in a world view and a perspective
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that, however it came about, needs to come apart.
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See, in the West we tend to value comfort highly, but in the
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Kingdom Jesus values growth. And so Jesus knows and tells us
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that there will be hard days ahead, and some people just shy
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away from pain altogether because they feel like.
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If they show weakness or vulnerability, it will somehow
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diminish their worth. It will make them less if people
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know that they're struggling or that they're suffering.
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It's funny, I remember having a conversation with Lauren in that
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season. We're going back and forth, And
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I asked her, Do you think that I will lose all the things that
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God has done in my life up into this point?
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That was deeply wrestling with my faith and I was in a lot of
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pain, you know, and she encouraged me that anything that
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God allowed me to lose, I didn't need in the 1st place because
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God loves me too much to let me carry things that I don't need.
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And that had a humbling and important effect upon me.
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And I started thinking in terms of God being a doctor and a
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healer. And when you go in a lot of
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times and we're feeling pain, we just want something to stop it.
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Right. The doctor is trying to explain
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to us what he wants to do, and they're like, I don't care, just
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make it stop, make the hurting go away.
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But if you have a good doctor, he's not going to allow that to
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happen, because the pain is actually not a problem.
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It's a map to your problem. Something is causing that pain,
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and if you numb it and you turn it off before you get to it, you
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may be comfortable, but you will die in your comfort.
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And so the doctor could run thousands of tests.
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But what he does is he begins a dialogue with you.
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How long have you had this pain? What type of pain is it?
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How strong is it? How often does it come about?
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What was the source of it? And what you're getting to is
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the core of the problem. And so through prayer, we can do
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the same thing with the Lord. And he begins to trace the
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source of a problem. And so it teaches us dependency
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upon the Father. So let's pick up in verse 11
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again and it says Now it happened the day after that that
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he went into a city called 9. Many of his disciples went with
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him in a large crowd, And when he came near the gate of the
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city, that behold, a dead man was being carried out, the only
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son of his mother. And she was a widow, and a large
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crowd from the city was with her.
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And when the Lord. Saw her.
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He had compassion on her and said to her do not weep.
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It's interesting when you consider where this little town
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was. It was on the side of a mountain
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face north. It was a part of a barren Ridge,
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and so it was really the end of the road. 9 wasn't on the way to
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anywhere. It was the last stop.
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It was nothing special. There weren't a lot of trees or
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bushes. It was very steep and so the
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steps or the pathway up to it were cut into the side of the
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mountain. And a lot of tombs would be
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carved out in the sides of the hills.
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And so as they're going to this place as Jesus is happening to
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come here, it's interesting that there has to be a lot of purpose
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and anybody going here because it takes effort to get there and
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you don't end up there by accident.
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And so if you're taking notes, I want you to consider this
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thought and relationship to Jesus and his authority.
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Authority takes on responsibility.
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It recognizes the burden upon its role, and it accepts the
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value of what's been entrusted to it.
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You see Jesus. When he went, he went knowing
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that he would find this mother. He would find her in the middle
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of a memorial for her son. Now, typically in this culture,
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you wouldn't let the sun go down without burying someone if you
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could help it. Chances are that her boy had
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died just that morning. And so as she's passed, the pain
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for her is going to be very fresh, very raw.
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She may be in shock. And so she's in a place where
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there's a lot to consider, a lot to process.
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This little boy that has become a man that she loves deeply,
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that she has hopes and dreams for, for how his future.
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Will come out, has died. And that will impact her
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significantly, because without a husband, he was the next male
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heir. He was the covering.
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Without him, she has no protection culturally, doesn't
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necessarily have the ability to own anything.
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She doesn't necessarily have the ability to provide.
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And so she's in the middle of this memorial.
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She's working her way down the side of the hill.
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Jesus is coming up the side of the hill.
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And she is steeped in grief and she's absorbing it by herself.
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Now it says that there was a large crowd with her, but most
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likely culturally and traditionally a lot of these
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people were paid to be there. They were mourners, they were
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musicians. They had joined the party and so
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they were going out with her. In some areas of the country,
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those guys would lead the procession and it would provide
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her, however little a small piece of anonymity where she
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could be at the back of this crowd.
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But because of the region that they were in, in Galilee, what
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happened was culturally, women were at the front of the
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procession and I was reading an ancient Jewish commentary and it
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was commenting on this and it said this region held the belief
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that because through Eve, Sinn had come into the world.
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That when there was a funeral, the women who were grieving
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would lead the procession out because there was some
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responsibility for death. However messed up or cruel that
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is, culturally, that's how it works.
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And sometimes culture can be quite cruel to us.
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We're in places where we struggle, we battle, we're
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having a hard time and it feels like things in the culture will
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kick us while we're down. The enemy may not 'cause
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something in our life, but he will seek to exploit it and take
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full advantage of it. And so she is in this place, and
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the only thing that she's bringing to this experience is
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her grief as Jesus comes to meet her.
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And in some ways, there's similarity to us coming to meet
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Jesus because the only thing that we brought to our salvation
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experience with Him was the need for one.
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And so here she is. She's in this place, The Lord is
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doing this. And as she's there, she's
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working her way down with the crowd.
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Jesus is coming up with the crowd.
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She's at the front of this procession and she's leading it,
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which has to be a personal nightmare for her.
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And somebody else is coming at the front of this other crowd.
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Now, this person is not somebody that she knows that we're told,
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not somebody who's particularly handsome, not somebody who
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really would stand out in a crowd at all, as Isaiah would
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tell us. But none the less, he's
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magnetic. He walks with a sense of power,
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a sense of purpose, a sense of authority.
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And at this moment, she probably just wants to hide and be buried
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somewhere in a crowd. But Jesus knows that he's going
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to find her in this place now. It's interesting.
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A lot of people, when they they feel pain, we talked about they
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wanted to be numbed, that there was a study or series of studies
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done by a doctor named Doctor Paul Brand in Louisiana who
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worked on a disease called Hansen's disease.
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Which we would probably know better by the other name,
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leprosy. And what he found as he was
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studying this was that people who had leprosy and wanted to
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continue living some semblance of a healthy life needed to feel
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the sensation of pain. Pain was crucial.
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And then being able to respond and treat wounds that they were
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incurring. And so the thing that often led
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to their demise was not the fact that their tissue was dealing
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with rot, but it was the fact that their pain receptors were
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blocked, came to a place where they couldn't feel it anymore.
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And so they would self abuse themselves until they were in a
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place where it was no longer tenable for them to be living
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life. And sometimes pain can be like
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that. It may have been like that for
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her, where it overwhelms us, it chokes out our ability to
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process, to move forward, to think through things.
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She's in a poor village. Jesus is showing up, as far as
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we know, with no invitation. He's showing up with a crowd.
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Some of them were followers of Jesus.
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They had watched what he had done.
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They knew that he was capable of great things, but nobody was
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expecting Jesus to do what he was about to do.
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Some of the people in the crowd were probably curious.
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They didn't have a special affinity for Christ, but they
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were happy to go along and watch him do stuff.
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And to be amazed by him. And So what happens is as
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they're carrying this dead man out, it had to be so cruel for
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this mom at the front of the procession to know that the son
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that she loves so dearly had now been reduced to this sentence of
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a dead man being carried out of the city.
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You see, every death is hard because it's not natural to us.
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We were created for life. We were created to live.
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Which is why, when we come in a relationship with Jesus and
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we're covered underneath the blood of Christ, and our sins
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are forgiven, we don't have to grieve like other people grieve
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because we understand this isn't the end of the story.
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This mom probably thought this was the end of her future, but
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it wasn't the end of her story. It wasn't the place where she
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would end up. So picture, if you will, a bunch
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of wailing. It's dusty.
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It's hot. They're in this place on the
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side of a hill. The mourners are singing about
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the finality of death and what's happened.
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Meanwhile, Jesus is bringing life up the hill to meet her.
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And as they cross and they come together, the natural eyes would
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only see pain and death. But the spiritual eyes can see a
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canvas for what God is about to do.
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And so as they're coming together, they end up bogged
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down in this narrow passage, right?
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One crowd's trying to get to the bottom, The other crowd is
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trying to get to the top. And so as they meet in the
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middle, Jesus is at the head of 1 and she's at the head of
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other. What we see is that death has
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done its best. It's landed its best blow
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against this family. But the awesome thing is that
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death has met its match in Jesus Christ.
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And so Jesus stops her and stops the procession.
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And what's about to happen is a rehearsal on a small scale of
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what First Corinthians 1522 and on says that will happen with
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each of us, that those who have died in Christ will come alive
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and then death, The last enemy will be destroyed at the return
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of Jesus Christ. And so Jesus comes, and Jesus
26:20
despises death. He hates death.
26:24
Jesus regards death as an enemy in every instance, but he also
26:29
understands that as frail human beings we have the inability to
26:32
make ourselves live. It's not within us to force life
26:37
to happen. It has to come from God.
26:41
And so here they are in this backwater town, and you think
26:46
about everything that's happening here, and there's this
26:49
standoff, and Jesus walks up to this mom and he essentially
26:52
tells her. Hey, don't cry anybody.
26:57
But Jesus doesn't get away with that because you're in that
27:01
situation and the emotions are so high and the grief is so
27:05
fresh. And Jesus walks up to her and he
27:07
says do not weep. And he saw that as he had
27:13
compassion and sympathy for what was unfolding in her life.
27:18
Literally the the dreams, the thoughts that she had had the
27:21
day before, perhaps. We're collapsing upon each other
27:25
as it was, taking her down with them.
27:28
And so she's in this place, and Jesus feels her pain and his
27:32
compassion goes out. He feels the loss, He feels the
27:36
depth of it because we have the capacity to feel as broken
27:40
people. Jesus is not broken, so Jesus
27:43
feels things in their fullness, as they were meant to be felt.
27:47
He's feeling her grief. And you look at that and you
27:51
say, well, God, why would you choose to feel that if you
27:55
could, just not if you could just avoid the pain and you
28:00
could avoid what's happening and you could step around it, just
28:03
like most of us would, and keep your comfort.
28:07
And yet God puts on flesh, and he comes down, and he lives
28:11
among us in the middle of our messes and our pain.
28:15
And you say, why, God? And I'll tell you why.
28:20
It's because he loves you. That's what love does.
28:24
Love meets people when they're not lovely.
28:27
And love helps them up and it encourages them and it speaks to
28:30
them and it brings them hope. There's a story about Renoir,
28:35
the famous French artist. He was known for painting
28:39
masterpieces about family life. And as he got older, it became
28:44
much more difficult for him to use his gift.
28:48
You see, Renoir had developed arthritis, so every time he
28:52
wanted to move forward and create something new, what would
28:56
happen is he would grimace in pain because it would feel like
29:01
the pain had taken hold of his gift, of his talent.
29:06
So as he was finishing one such masterpiece and he was coming to
29:10
the end of it, he was in a special kind of pain.
29:14
Had a long day and a friend approached him and said, you
29:17
know, I wish you valued your health as much as you value
29:21
creating these works of art. And meanwhile looked at his
29:25
friend and and explained to him, you see, I do it because the
29:31
pain passes away, but the beauty remains and so Jesus is the
29:38
exact same. He is here with us in our pain.
29:42
He has compassion for the effects of sin.
29:45
This mom's heart was laid open, but the beauty was coming, even
29:49
if she couldn't see it. The people standing around her,
29:52
the people standing around Jesus.
29:54
Some had faith, some didn't. It's a tight passage.
29:58
It's hard to hear. It's probably hot because
30:01
there's not a lot of air flow. And so they're in this little
30:03
place and you can tell that Jesus is speaking to her.
30:07
Hey, don't weep. And they're probably telling
30:09
each other be quiet. I want to hear what he's saying.
30:15
I don't want. I don't know what he's saying.
30:16
And the bearers who are holding the coffin, they stop.
30:21
Everybody comes to a complete stop because they're waiting to
30:24
see what can he do, what will he do?
30:30
In the silence, Jesus was hearing the unspoken requests,
30:33
the unspoken aches and needs of this woman's heart.
30:37
You know, Max Lucado wrote that we need to learn to filter our
30:41
pain through the brevity of this life, and we need to look at it
30:46
with the unending beauty of the next.
30:49
And so, as Jesus is here and pain is so strong within her, we
30:55
understand that she has a choice here.
30:59
She can politely sidestep the ministry that Jesus is offering
31:04
and continue with her dead son down the hill, or she can invite
31:10
Jesus to engage her in the place that's her personal health and
31:16
so she decides to allow Jesus to do something.
31:22
If you're taking notes, next thought I would have you
31:24
consider is that authority follows through when you're in a
31:29
position of authority, you leave no task unfinished, or you want
31:34
to have authority for long and so.
31:37
You move forward and you do the things that need to get done.
31:40
Hebrews chapter 12 verse two tells us to run in our faith and
31:44
it says we run. We looking to Jesus, the author
31:49
and the finisher of our. Faith, Who for the joy set
31:52
before him, endured the cross, despising the shame, and set
31:56
down at the right hand of God. You see the expectation was now.
32:02
Heavy there wasn't really a good way to avoid.
32:06
Where they were, the air was probably tense and thick.
32:12
And notice what Jesus does not do here.
32:15
Jesus doesn't shy away from her pain.
32:19
Jesus doesn't engage her other than saying do not weep by
32:23
saying like I'll do my best here.
32:28
I know you're in a lot of pain, but lower your expectations of
32:32
what God is capable of doing with a mess like yours.
32:36
Jesus doesn't sweat. He doesn't stumble over his
32:39
words or stammer, but Jesus rather approaches the coffin
32:45
with authority. How many of us know that the
32:48
Creator does not fear creation. He leads creation.
32:53
So Jesus doesn't stop. He doesn't hesitate.
32:57
Read with me in verse 14. Verse yeah, verse 14, it says.
33:02
Then he came and he touched the coffin.
33:06
This is a huge no no numbers. Chapter 19 says that if you're
33:11
Jewish and you come in contact with a dead body, you're unclean
33:14
for a week. Clearly he was a teacher, even
33:18
if people didn't necessarily know who he was.
33:21
So for somebody with respect and authority to do something like
33:27
this that was so wildly out of the normal context would have
33:31
been shocking. People were stunned, were
33:34
frozen. And so as they're there and
33:39
they're waiting, Jesus, regarding death as an enemy,
33:42
does what he does best and he brings life.
33:45
And it says at the end of 14. And he said, young man, I say to
33:50
you, arise, Jesus speaks. To somebody who's dead, like
33:55
they're alive and brings them life.
33:59
Somebody who offers no effort, no performance, no ability to
34:03
bring anything to the situation, Jesus engages and he engages in
34:08
power. And Jesus does this in a way
34:12
that many of us and our culture today would maybe not expect.
34:16
I often think of the quote of East Stanley Jones, the
34:19
missionary to India, and he said a reduced Christ is a rejected
34:22
Christ. A lot of times we reduce Jesus
34:26
and our prayers to what? We feel like we can answer
34:29
ourselves, and that's wrong. Because we don't recognize who
34:34
we're talking to and the ability that he has.
34:37
In the same way that Jesus ministry is to pain and those
34:40
feeling the effects of sin, so it is his followers and his
34:44
people in his church that is their direction and their desire
34:48
to engage people where they are and their lostness and their
34:51
pain. Mark chapter 2 verse 17 says
34:55
when Jesus heard this he told them healthy people don't need a
35:00
doctor. Sick people do.
35:03
I come to call those not who think they are righteous, but
35:07
those who know that they are sinners.
35:11
You see, the ministry in the Kingdom of Jesus is at home
35:14
among brokenness. General William Booth, the
35:19
founder of the Salvation Army, is a story that was told about
35:23
him as they were doing ministry in London.
35:26
They couldn't meet in churches because the churches that were
35:29
established didn't care for the types of people that he was
35:32
saving. They didn't care for the people
35:35
who were approaching the church and coming to faith in Jesus.
35:38
And one night they're finishing up.
35:40
They're walking home, he and his 12 year old son Bramwell, and he
35:45
grabs his son and they take a turn off the street.
35:48
And remember, this is a different time, This is the
35:50
1800s. But he takes his son into this
35:52
Tavern. People are drunk swearing.
35:58
Making many poor choices. All kinds of things are
36:01
happening that shouldn't be happening. 12 year old's
36:05
watching. He's stunned.
36:07
Dad, why are we here? And finally he asked his dad,
36:10
can we go now? And his dad responds to him in a
36:15
way that will forever shape the direction of his life going
36:18
forward. And his his dad says Son, these
36:21
are our people. These are the ones that I want
36:25
you to love. These are the people I want you
36:27
to live for. These are the people that I want
36:30
you to bring to Christ. You see, when God gives us a
36:34
call, no call is too good for us.
36:38
Jesus does not give the Church menial tasks that are not
36:42
important. He doesn't give his people busy
36:45
work to stay frozen until they finally die.
36:49
What happens is if you have the spirit of Almighty God inside of
36:53
you and you have a pulse and you have a gift, God wants to use
36:57
that. And God calls us to be in the
37:00
middle of important work because God's desire is mercy.
37:07
Matthew chapter 19 tells us that God desires mercy and it says,
37:11
but go and learn what this means.
37:13
I desire mercy and not sacrifice, for I have not come
37:17
to call the righteous, but sinners.
37:19
Romans 19, verse 16. The Bible tells us about God's
37:23
surpassing mercy over our desires and it says it does not
37:27
therefore depend on human desire or effort, but on God's mercy.
37:33
You know when you read the Gospels, the historical
37:35
eyewitness accounts of Jesus engaging people, one of the most
37:39
common questions that you will see people approach him with is
37:43
Lord, have mercy on me. And when God extends mercy, he
37:50
doesn't do it like it's falling out of his pocket and he doesn't
37:53
see it. He doesn't extend mercy by
37:56
mistake. It's not a clerical error that
37:58
some of us get into heaven and some of us don't.
38:01
And none of that is the case when God extends mercy, it's
38:05
with complete and full intentionality.
38:09
God does not love you this morning or the people in this
38:12
city that don't go to church anywhere that are feeling a lot
38:15
of pain. Because of who he thinks they
38:18
are, He loves them because of who he knows they are.
38:23
He died for us while we were enemies of his.
38:26
So this picture is stunning of Jesus approaching this open
38:29
coffin. And he looks at this dead person
38:32
and speaks to him like he's alive.
38:35
And what happens is that while everybody's frozen and they're
38:37
stunned, they're probably all asking the same question.
38:42
Why is God doing this? Why is he doing it?
38:46
Have you ever asked God that question in your life?
38:50
Why do we have to go through this?
38:52
You have authority. Why am I in pain?
38:56
Why are you not doing something about this?
39:00
And we approach our pain and we approach our seasons of life and
39:04
our difficulties like it's the end of the story.
39:08
But it's not. Anytime Jesus is involved, it's
39:11
not the end of the story. There's always hope in life.
39:16
And so Jesus reaches in as if to say you've been dead long
39:19
enough, wake up and come to me. And Jesus is not intimidated.
39:23
He's not pushed back, John 521 says, For as the Father raises
39:27
the dead and gives life to them, Even so, the Son gives life to
39:31
whom he will. Jesus doesn't ask for
39:33
permission. This guy is a shell.
39:36
He's a casing. If you pull back the sheet, you
39:39
would see that he's pale, he's stiff.
39:44
There's no life there. There's nothing that would
39:46
suggest that there's any hope. And yet Jesus approaches him,
39:52
and Jesus meets him, knowing he can't meet him halfway.
39:55
And he says, Young man, I say to you, arise.
39:58
And when it happened, from the moment it left the mouth of God
40:02
until it struck that kid was instantaneous.
40:08
The power of God had no delay. And people are watching as this
40:12
kid is being, this man is being called back from the Graves grip
40:17
it's releasing. Death is surrendering to life.
40:22
That's interesting. He gets that.
40:24
Power comes forth, there's light in his eyes.
40:28
Color comes back to him. He's mobile.
40:31
He's able to start his life as a new creation, a new person
40:36
coming out from among the dead, and because of what Jesus has
40:39
done in him, he can't go to the cemetery.
40:42
Now, right? When Jesus does a work in our
40:46
life, we can't go to the place where we should be buried.
40:50
We have to follow him and what he has next for us.
40:53
Jesus helps him down from the coffin and gives him to his
40:56
mother. If you notice, Jesus doesn't
40:59
invite him to follow him as part of the 12 Jesus doesn't use him
41:03
as a trophy. Jesus doesn't need people to
41:06
prop up his ministry. Jesus does it because he wants
41:09
this guy to be free. He wants this guy to live.
41:12
Galatians 5 verse one it says it's for freedom's sake that
41:16
Jesus has come to set us free so he helps him down.
41:20
The words aren't recorded but we know the imprint on this
41:23
mother's heart is something that she will never forget.
41:27
And if she's heard scripture, she may have been thinking of
41:30
Psalm 41, verse 3. And it says the Lord nurses them
41:33
when they are sick and restores them to health.
41:37
You see, God's really good, really, really good, better than
41:41
your thinking. Whatever you're thinking of him
41:44
right now, that surpasses that. If you're taking notes, the
41:49
final thought and have you consider is that authority flows
41:52
down. Everything that happens at the
41:56
top effects everything downstream.
42:01
You don't think that the people in this crowd were watching this
42:04
and that they didn't have a newfound respect and love for
42:07
what God was capable of? You don't think that people had
42:11
come in contact where Jesus made death kneel before him and they
42:15
didn't appreciate the authority and the ability that he had to
42:19
bring life and freedom to them. Don't think that an encounter
42:24
with Jesus can leave you the same.
42:27
And Luke, chapter one, verse 17. An Angel about 30 years before
42:33
had come to Jesus, Uncle Zacharias.
42:37
And told Zacharias that Jesus was coming.
42:40
And the words he used were from the end of Malachi, which is the
42:44
last book of the Old Testament. It's the last phrase that says
42:48
that there will be one who comes and he will come in the Spirit
42:52
and the power of Elijah, and he will turn the hearts of the
42:54
Father to the Son and the hearts of the Son to the Father.
42:59
So Jesus, or the Angel speaking to Zacharias.
43:01
And he says, And he will go before him in the spirit and
43:04
power of Elijah, to turn the hearts of the fathers to the
43:06
children and the disobedient to the wisdom of the jest, and to
43:10
make ready for the Lord our prepared people.
43:16
Usually when we're preparing for something in the back of our
43:19
minds we have this thought that it's going to be bad.
43:23
But in Jesus and with the Spirit of God, the odds are never
43:26
stacked against us. And when we are becoming a
43:30
prepared people who are going out into the culture with the
43:33
authority of Jesus and the power of the Holy Spirit, and going
43:37
out in ministry, what happens is that we will meet people who
43:42
need the hope of Jesus. They need good news.
43:46
They need life. They're dead.
43:49
They're numb. They offer no effort.
43:51
Sometimes they don't even know that they're dead.
43:53
They've been dead for so long. But God.
43:56
Calls us to them. Jesus doesn't call this boy to
44:00
be a part of his group. He leaves him with his family as
44:02
an irrefutable testimony of the power of God for this little
44:06
backwater village. But then something happens.
44:10
Verse 16 It says Then fear came upon all, and a glorified God
44:15
saying a great prophet is arisen among us, and God has visited
44:19
his people. And this report about him then
44:23
went throughout all Judea and all the surrounding region.
44:28
His people were persuaded that God cared about them because
44:32
Jesus was among them. They were persuaded that he had
44:35
not forgotten about them, that he was not afraid to enter into
44:39
the messy places in the dark places of their life, the
44:42
realities that they went through day in and day out.
44:46
And the report, of course, went out like wildfire.
44:49
God is moving again after four centuries.
44:52
Something is happening, and Luke takes special care to say that
44:56
it went in a southerly direction towards Judea.
44:59
You know who's in Judea? John the Baptist in prison.
45:05
And so eventually he would have heard this story.
45:08
But we need to understand that as much as the enemy comes
45:10
against us, as much as death would intimidate us, as much as
45:14
we feel pain and we feel sin and we feel the effects of a lost
45:18
world, God is equally at work. Many people are afraid because
45:23
of what's unfolding in Ukraine, Israel.
45:27
They're afraid of what's happening in Ethiopia and Libya,
45:30
Myanmar all around the. World people suffering.
45:34
There is prophetic semblance and importance to this and what's
45:37
happening. But you need to understand
45:40
something this morning. You are not left without someone
45:43
in authority. You are not left without a
45:45
covering. God is still on the throne and
45:48
has not abdicated. Abdicated it now or at any other
45:52
point in time. You were secure and the love and
45:56
the protection. Of Jesus Christ.
45:59
In the summer of 490 BC there was a great battle that was
46:04
fought. The Persian Empire was seeking
46:07
to gain a foothold on the European continent and So what
46:11
happens is they decided to wage war on Greece.
46:15
And ultimately wanted to take Athens.
46:17
And so they gathered up their soldiers, and they landed about
46:21
25 miles outside of Athens at a place called Marathon.
46:26
As they were getting out, the Greeks assembled what little
46:29
army they had and showed up for the fight.
46:32
They were outnumbered 4 to 1. The odds were not good, and so
46:36
they couldn't let it play out like it was anticipated because
46:40
they would lose. And So what happens is they
46:43
decide to attack, surprise attack the Persians.
46:47
Now as they come out and they began to wage war.
46:50
What happens is they were successful and by the end of the
46:53
day only 192 Greeks had died, but 6400 Persians had died.
47:00
The Persians, realizing that they were losing their advantage
47:03
of a superior force, got in their boats and they decided,
47:07
hey, if we go sack Athens, the people in Athens will think that
47:11
we defeated their army. Even though we haven't.
47:13
And so we'll take the city while it's unguarded and the city when
47:19
we take it, will demoralize the army and they'll quit fighting
47:22
this. So they go with this.
47:24
Plan to attack Athens to take it down, and what happens is
47:29
recorded by Plutarch and Herodotus Greek historians.
47:32
And they they say that there was a man who felt the call to warn
47:37
them. And so he ran.
47:40
The first marathon and 25 miles over rocky terrain to Athens to
47:45
warn them that the Persians were coming, but it would be OK
47:48
because there was still an army, there was still authority in
47:52
their land. So he reaches the city, and
47:55
right before he dies he says rejoice, we conquer and the city
48:01
hearing that made preparations and they held.
48:03
Out until the army came and they were able to not surrender to
48:08
bondage. See, the bondage wasn't
48:10
necessary. But the enemy sought through
48:13
intimidation to undermine their will and their ability to fight.
48:18
And I want to encourage you this morning with the authority of
48:21
Jesus Christ that he has power. You don't need to be
48:26
intimidated. You don't need to lose your will
48:30
to live your will to fight. Because in Jesus Christ we have
48:34
conquered. We are more than conquerors.
48:39
We carry the story of the greatest coup that's ever
48:41
happened in the history of mankind, where Jesus shredded
48:46
death. And so if you are a follower of
48:50
Jesus, I would say to you this morning you have been delivered.
48:55
You can walk in authority in relationship with the Lord and
48:59
don't let pain or anything else convince you otherwise.
49:04
It's not the end of the story. He's given you so much.
49:07
You have so much freedom. So many blessings still occupy
49:11
the place that the Lord has given you.
49:14
Now, if you are not a follower of Jesus, I want you to think
49:18
very, very carefully about your position for your soul this
49:22
morning. See, life is fragile and you
49:25
were teetering on the edge of eternity and you have a decision
49:30
to make. And I would submit to you that
49:32
when Jesus says that all authority under heaven and earth
49:35
has been given to him, he did not misspeak, but he literally
49:39
meant. All and Jesus would be your
49:43
protection and your covering because He looks at you with
49:46
mercy and compassion and wants to heal your sin and begin a
49:51
process of giving you victory, of teaching you what it means to
49:56
be a conqueror and walk with Him, you know, the Russian
49:59
author Leo Tolstoy wrote. Everyone thinks of changing the
50:02
world, but nobody thinks of changing themselves.
50:07
But you do have a decision. You have a choice.
50:11
God can help you. The title of the sermon I want
50:15
us to remember that God is not a God without.
50:18
Mercy. He's not a friend without
50:21
vision. He's not a king without power.
50:25
When God meets us in our pain, and he offers to be authority,
50:28
and he offers to walk with us and protect us and move forward
50:32
with us, whatever that looks like, we should take him up on
50:36
it. Because if you could save
50:38
yourself, Jesus would be redundant.
50:43
It wouldn't be necessary for him to leave heaven and come, But
50:46
you can't. And so it is.
50:49
And so you have a decision to make, and God doesn't hold a
50:52
grudge against you. But he wants to forgive you.
50:56
But you have to recognize that you have to let go of your sin.
51:01
The wages of sin is death, it tells us in Romans.
51:05
So Henry, if you and the worship team would come up.
51:08
I was thinking of this passage in Revelation 22, verse 17 at
51:12
the very end of the Bible and it says the Spirit and the bride
51:16
say come and let the one who hears say come and let the one
51:21
who is thirsty come and let the one who desires to take of the
51:26
water of life take it without price.
51:31
So maybe Jesus is interrupting your memorial.
51:34
You feel a lot like a dead. Man in your life, it's being
51:37
carried out by your son or your decisions and your places.
51:41
And we would be remiss this morning if we did not give you
51:44
the opportunity to accept Jesus as your Savior, as you're
51:50
covering. So I won't be up here.
51:53
I'm not going to beg. I'm going to trust that the
51:55
spirit of God is at work in the room.
51:58
But is there anybody here this morning that would slip up their
52:01
hand that wants to accept Jesus? You want to give up your life
52:05
and you want to move forward with him and you want to follow
52:08
him and maybe online and on the radio, maybe that's you that
52:16
we're speaking to. And maybe you're on the opposite
52:20
side, and you've walked with the Lord for a while, and you've
52:22
allowed things in your life to take you out.
52:26
Maybe you once were in ministry. You were more involved in what
52:29
God had for you. You were walking in your call.
52:32
You had a lot of trust and faith in who the.
52:34
Lord was, But you've experienced some things that have jaded you,
52:39
that have made you skeptical, that have caused you to pull
52:43
back and shy away from what God wants to do through you and in
52:47
your life. I don't know if that describes
52:50
anyone, but is there anyone who would slip up their hand?
52:53
And we can pray for you and we can encourage you.
52:56
Thank you. Yeah.
53:00
All right. Well, let's pray and we will
53:05
take communion in a second. But Lord, I pray for my brother,
53:09
and I ask that you would just show him your tenderness, your
53:15
compassion, and your mercy and your heart towards him.
53:19
I pray that you would free him from any kind of bitterness or
53:23
unforgiveness that he may be struggling with.
53:26
And Jesus, I pray that you would refresh his spirit and his soul.
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Pray for a fresh anointing upon his life.
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We love you, Jesus, and we trust you, and we pray these things in
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your mighty and your powerful name.
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Amen. We pray that you've been
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encouraged by this Bible study delivered live from the
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sanctuary of Calvary Church. For prayer, call us at 87730
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Grace. That's 877-304-7223.
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To listen to this message in its entirety or to join us for our
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live stream services, visit us online at Calvary, Co dot Church
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or download our free Calvary Church app, Be Blessed as You
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Worship Jesus this week.