Luke 7:11-17 Arisen: Both a Prophet and a Dead man

In this world, we certainly have all kinds of joys and wonderful things, but we also realize that this world is full of toil and pain and hardship.

It seems like the world is spinning around, and my question this morning really is, does anyone care?

Does anyone care that there's so much lamenting and wailing and difficulties and sickness and illness and death?

Is there anyone out there? Does anyone seem to care? If you take your Bibles and turn to Luke chapter 7, we're going to find out the answer to that question today with the resounding yes.

Someone cares. Someone knows. Someone can comfort. Someone can sympathize.

Not only here in the Bible account, but in your own life, you can think about what difficulties you might be going through and pain and sickness and death and other things that go on.

Does anyone care? Does anyone give me comfort? What in the world is going on?

Today we're going to look at the Lord Jesus and His compassion and His sympathy and more.

And I think as we come to Luke 7, you'll say, I don't think there's anyone like Jesus.

I don't think there's someone who could act like He does, preach like He does, and have comfort like He does.

Does God really care? The answer is found in the incarnation of the Lord Jesus.

You want to know what God the Father's disposition is to people? You look at the life and ministry of the

Lord Jesus. And so we come to Luke chapter 7 today, verses 11 through 17.

And I just want you to know, dear congregation, something that you are already familiar with, but just to reinforce it.

If you were asked the question, why do we teach the Bible verse by verse? I wonder what your answer would be.

What are the assumptions that undergird that kind of teaching, that philosophy, that methodology?

And just to give you an idea, what undergirds it all is we think that the Bible is authoritative. We think that there's no other higher authority.

And that's why, to this day, I don't like to set anything on top of my Bible. It's not a legalistic thing. It's just reminding me that confessions, creeds, commentaries, they all serve the

Bible in terms of helping us understand it, but they are subservient. When we teach the Bible verse by verse, what else are we assuming?

We're assuming that the Bible is sufficient. That it can cover every possible need that is out there.

So we just continue to go verse by verse. When we teach this way, we also realize that the

Bible has no errors. It is called inerrant. It can't have any errors because it is infallible.

And so we come to the Scriptures, and what do you do if you're a pastor? What do you tell people? Do I give you book reviews?

Do I tell you my own philosophy, psychology? No, I want to give you the Bible because it is

God's literal word to us, and it is sufficient, authoritative. It is

God -breathed, and it is good for us. And I don't know if you remember this or not.

I'm sure you do, but it changes people. Week by week, it changes people.

I don't know how many arguments have you won on social media, by the way, in the last week, in the last year, in the last 10 years.

But there's something about coming on Sunday morning, sitting underneath the Word of God, and it slowly and surely conforms us to the image of the

Lord Jesus. So we come to Luke chapter 7 today, really trying to answer this question.

Does anyone care when people suffer? Does anyone notice? Can anyone do something about it?

Can anyone sympathize with our problems? Now last time, we looked at Luke 7, 1 through 10, and we saw that someone was really sick.

Someone was suffering, and that Jesus could heal them. Remember it was the centurion's servant.

The centurion, on behalf of his servant, says, I'd like to have the Jewish elders go to Jesus and request that Jesus might heal my servant.

And by the way, I am a centurion. I'm a leader of a hundred soldiers, and I tell people to do things.

They do it. I tell people to come here, and they come here. I tell people underneath me to get the job done, and they do it.

And so Jesus, you don't even really have to come to my house. I'm unworthy. You're a Jew. I'm a

Gentile. You're holy. I'm a sinner. All you have to do is what? Say the Word, and you can heal my servant.

And that's exactly what happens in verse 10 of chapter 7, when those who had been sent returned to the house, they found the servant well.

You know, it's one thing to heal somebody who's sick. How about raising somebody from the dead?

Who raises people from the dead? And so we're going to look at that passage today. Probably the greatest miracle in all the

Bible is having people raised from the dead. And it doesn't happen that often, but here we're going to see it happens.

Basically this morning, if you want to know why I'm preaching, what my purpose is, I want you to see the authority of Jesus, I want you to see the power of Jesus, and I want you to see the compassion of Jesus.

Because when you're dealing with your own struggles in life, it's good to know that God has power, that God has authority, and that God cares.

I mean, think about it. God just had power, but He didn't care. Other religions have that, but not

Christianity. Maybe I could ask you, if you look at verse 16, everything's driving this to this.

This would be a good response to the sermon today. Fear sees them all. That would be good, as Bethlehem Bible Church would realize that God is in our presence.

They glorified God, saying, a great prophet has arisen among us, and God has visited

His people. That's what I'd like you to echo as we look through the passage today.

How do we want to work through it to kind of give some flow and to give an outline? Let me just give you three scenes, three scenes that help us understand who

Jesus is and how compassionate He is. Three scenes, and we're going to have some practical exhortations mixed in the middle of this.

Scene number one, in verses 11 and 12, the collision of the crowds.

Scene one, the collision of the crowds, and we're going to see the sovereign hand of God here quite clearly.

The gospel of Jesus, according to Luke, chapter seven, verse 11, soon afterward, He went to a small town called

Nain, and His disciples and a great crowd went with Him. As He drew near to the gate of the town, behold, a man who had died was being carried out, the only son of His mother.

And she was a widow, and a considerable crowd from the town was with her.

And all I have to do is draw your attention to the random, lucky, coincidental meeting of a woman in need and Jesus.

I mean, the stars are aligned. The astrologists were right. Serendipity, luck is happening.

You can just see it, can't you? And if you're a visitor to the church, we don't call it pot luck around here.

We call it what? Pot providence. I love that. We could call it pot blessing, if you like.

Would you not agree with me that Scriptures are littered with this kind of coincidence? We know it's not coincidence.

It's the sovereign hand of God, providential. You go, she's walking out, He's walking in.

This is amazing. It's amazing. Abraham was told to slay his son Isaac.

And just before he was to slay his son, Abraham, Abraham, don't do that. And just by luck, there's a ram caught in the thicket.

You see this language everywhere. Ruth is supposed to go out into a field, and Ruth 2 -3 says, and she happened to come on the part of the field belonging to Boaz.

I mean, how fortunate can you get? Abraham's trusted servant was supposed to go get a wife for Isaac.

And Genesis says, before he had finished speaking, behold, Rebekah, who was born to Bethuel, the son of Melchah, the wife of Nahor, Abraham's brother, came out with her water jar.

And so here you see the sovereign hand of God where everything is working perfectly. And someone said something to me years ago,

I've never forgotten it. Mike, when you read Genesis 37 -50 and you see Joseph's life, and you see how sovereign

God is in Joseph's life, you say to yourself, it's obvious God is sovereign in Joseph's life.

Why do you suppose that is? And then the man said, because in our lives, it doesn't seem so obvious.

But we need to be reminded that the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob is our God. And if God is sovereign in Joseph's life, isn't he sovereign in yours as well?

And we know the answer is yes. God has a plan. It's unchangeable. It's definite. It's all -encompassing from the lot that's cast in the lap to Nebuchadnezzar saying

God's dominion is an everlasting dominion. And he does according to his will. So this is perfect timing.

This is a good little section to be reminded that our lives, maybe from our perspectives, might seem out of control.

The world's spiraling out of control, but there's no accidents. God is in control.

Perfect timing. Now, what's a city? This is a little city called Nain.

It's a town in verse 11, and it's a little south of Capernaum. Remember the centurion's servant, and they were in Capernaum.

And so he's going south. It's probably a day's walk, and he goes to this town called Nain. And so you've got

Jesus and his merry band, as it were. Everybody with Jesus is probably joyful, happy, excited.

The Messiah is here. He can heal with a word. He's a great preacher. He's a great teacher. The end of Luke, it says his fame was spreading everywhere.

And so you can imagine where Jesus is going. Everybody wants to go with and learn. And here's this rabbi that they're following and how happy they must be.

Now maybe there's a couple Pharisees following, but everybody else is happy. So this one crowd of people, happy with Jesus, going to this town.

And of course, Jesus purposely is going to meet this lady. It's all in the sovereign plan of God, just like he said,

I have to go through Samaria to meet that lady. But the crowd that they, happy ones, run into aren't so happy.

They run into a funeral procession. And so with funeral procession, you have mourners, paid mourners, loud mourners, weeping mourners.

You have musicians who are playing laments, and people that want to pay their last respects.

So here comes Jesus and the joyful ones, and he meets the funeral procession.

And of course, we know that the wages of sin is death, and sin has come into the world, and it has wrecked

God's creation. Romans 5 says, sinning came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men, because all sinned.

And so we have this tragic situation here, where this widow loses her son. Luther said,

Martin Luther said, when you hear of death, you must not only think of the grave and coffin, and of the horrible manner in which life is separated from the body.

But you also must consider sin. So happy with the people of Jesus, so sad these others were.

I think it's gonna be important if we remember this, dear congregation. How do people mourn in different cultures?

I'll tell you how Germans mourn. This is how we mourn. Stayed, stoic,

I've been in some funerals from other cultures, and people are much louder in other cultures when they're mourning.

They're showing expression, they're not afraid. And here in this oriental scene, in this eastern scene,

I mean, they really show on the outside what they're feeling on the inside. Some cut their hair, some put dust on, some wear sackcloth, some really wail aloudly.

When someone dies in the village back in the Bible days, the people in the home would shriek out loudly to let everyone else know, in fact, that person had died.

And the word nain means pleasant, but the scene isn't so pleasant. The word nain means beautiful, it's just a beautiful town, but this situation doesn't look very beautiful.

Crying, weeping, wailing, it's loud. Psalm 119, rivers of water run down my eyes.

And there are two strikes against this lady. Strike number one, what's the text say in verse 12? She was a widow. I mean, can you imagine, she's done this before.

She's had the funeral for her husband, and now she's a widow. I wonder what

God's disposition to widows might be. Exodus 22, you shall not mistreat any widow.

Deuteronomy 10, God executes justice for widows. Deuteronomy 27, curse it is anyone who perverts justice due to the widow, and all the people shall say amen.

She's in distress, she's lost her husband, and now the second strike, it's almost worse, the only son of his mother.

By the way, no 401Ks in those days, no 403Bs, no

SEP IRAs, no Social Security. The only way you'd get money if you were a lady is your husband would provide, or if you had a son.

Some people could actually have to go in to do prostitution and other things just to pay for food.

She has no husband, she has no son. I can just imagine the sights.

I can just hear the sounds. Did you know they would hire mourners to mourn loudly?

I'm trying to think of an illustration that's somehow close. Who do we hire when we have a funeral? I think the only people maybe we hire, and I've seen maybe this happen eight times here at Bethlehem Bible Church, where you might hire someone to play the bagpipes.

But it's not the same here, is it? And so what you would do back in those days, we have coffins today made of wood and other things, there's not a lot of wood in Israel, so they would have kind of like this little plank.

And you'd put the dead body on top of the plank, and by the way, you should try to bury the body the same day it dies because of the decomposition.

Here's these two crowds, they're going to collide. And what is Jesus going to do? He's setting the stage,

Luke is setting the stage for Jesus to raise this person from the dead, which brings us to scene two.

From the collision of the crowds to now with alliteration. Sorry, we don't do it that often, but sometimes you have to.

From the collision of the crowds to the compassion of the Christ. Verses 13 through 15. Collision of the crowds, now the compassion of the

Christ. This is the central part of the passage. Luke wants you to know that Jesus has compassion, so you keep trusting in him, or you trust in him for the first time.

And when the Lord saw her, verse 13, he had compassion on her and said to her, do not weep.

Then he came up and touched the beer, the thing that's carrying the body. And the bearer stood still, and he said, young man,

I say to you, arise. And the dead man sat up and began to speak, and Jesus gave him to his mother.

One of my all -time favorite quotes is from a man named D .L. Moody. Here's the quote. Jesus spoiled every funeral that he went to.

Jesus spoiled every funeral that he went to. Whether it was Lazarus's, Jairus's daughter, or here with a widow from Nain.

And when the Lord saw her, verse 13, he did not say, I'm sorry for your loss.

He did not say, I'm going to miss him too. I hope you're surrounded with a lot of love.

I'm sharing in your sadness as you remember your son, with deepest sympathy regarding your son.

My all -time worst thing to say to someone, my thoughts are with you. That's basically what the world says.

Thinking of you as you celebrate your son's remarkable life. We're missing your son along with you.

He didn't say any of that, did he? I read in a website article, how do you express sympathy?

And you know what? It's really good. How do you express sympathy to someone who's lost a loved one?

What's the best response? And everything had to do with not just,

I'm sorry, but could I do something about it? Not just, I feel your pain, but I'd like to somehow alleviate that pain.

Here was a few illustrations just online. Thinking of your family with love and wanting to help out in any way

I can. I'll call to see when it'll be a good night to bring over a meal. So I'm sorry and I want to alleviate.

You've got so much on your mind and on your heart now. We hope it'll make one less worry to know that Kevin and I will be taking care of your yard as long as you need it.

Sad, sorry, but also I'd like to do something. That's what sympathy is.

So when I think about sympathy, I think about comfort, I think about compassion. What would the perfect man do?

What would the perfect man do when he saw someone who needed sympathy?

Would he in fact just say, I'm sorry? Or would he do something perfect like,

I know that you're having pain and I'm going to do something about it. That's what sympathy is.

Does this not sound familiar then? Hebrews 4, since then we have a great high priest who's passed through the heavens.

Jesus, the son of God, let us hold fast to our confession. For we do not have a high priest who is unable to what?

Sympathize with our weaknesses, but one in who every respect has been tempted as we are yet without sin.

Let us therefore with confidence draw near to the throne of grace that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.

Jesus is not far away. He's passed through the heavens as it were, but he's close. He's the great high priest.

First Peter chapter 5, casting all your anxiety on him because he cares for you.

Go back to Luke. As you sit and just kind of look at the passage, think about the passage, ask questions about the passage, study the passage.

Something will probably come to your mind sooner or later. And that is, it's Jesus that takes the initiative.

It's Jesus is the one that says, I'm going to help. Now, of course, the leper said, please help me.

Jesus heals the centurion on behalf of someone else's. My servant needs healing. Please heal here.

The lady, the widow here, the crowds didn't ask Jesus, would you do something? It's Jesus that takes the initiative.

And we all know grace initiates. Sovereignty initiates. God's mercy initiates.

God is the one who initiates. And. Hosea chapter 14, verse four says,

I will love them freely. It's not that they do something first and then I respond or transactional.

God is the one who initiates. He sees this woman and he's going to do something about it.

Of course, as you know, isn't this a good little picture of salvation?

When you read Jesus saying to Lazarus in John 11, Lazarus, be raised, arise.

You say to yourself, that's exactly how God saves people. God says, you're a

Christian. You're made alive. You're brand new. God saves. God interrupts.

God intervenes. God rescues every person. And for my friends that say,

I have to move first before God can save me. I just remind you, dear friend, that that's not how you pray, is it?

If you have a prayer for a loved one who needs salvation, how do you pray? Do you pray,

God, please work in their life, but make sure you keep their heart and their will and their freedom and their free agency all separate and somehow intervene?

Do you pray that way? I don't think you do. I think you pray this way. God, take the initiative and save.

God, do whatever it takes to save my loved one. On your knees, you believe in the sovereign initiation of God, don't you?

Of course you do. And here Jesus, the protector of widows, Psalm 68, is going to do something.

Some people can't be bothered with those who grieve. Here Jesus, the perfect man, he knows exactly what to do.

He knows exactly what to say. And what does the passage show us? What is the name that Luke uses here?

Title in verse 13, and when the Lord saw her.

First time I think that the narration calls him Lord. Other people have called him

Lord, but Luke wants you to know, sovereign, authority, Adonai, powerful,

Yahweh. And he goes up and he touches this kind of movable frame that you put the body on.

Would that be good for Jewish people to touch something that a dead body is on? What would that do to them? That would make them ceremonially unclean.

But just like with the leper, when Jesus, the clean one, touches the unclean leper, instead of the contamination going to Jesus, the cleansing goes to the leper, right?

Same thing here, exact same thing. Numbers 19, whoever touches the dead body of any person shall be unclean for seven days.

But not Jesus. And the text says,

I love this, he had compassion on her. Kim and I regularly talk these days about the overkill in the medical industry on gut health.

Kim usually says, I don't even want to say gut. How's your gut health doing? And you can be off in your own gut health world if you like, but there's a lot of gut health.

To describe compassion of a person back in the Bible days, you would talk about this thing in your inner gut.

In your bowels, as it were. A visceral kind of feeling. And the word is splankna, basically.

And it just means, from the insides, from the heart, with compassion and sympathy and real love,

Jesus has compassion. It's the same compassion that Zechariah said of his son

John the Baptist in Luke chapter 1. That John the Baptist would give knowledge of salvation to his people as the forerunner because of the tender, compassionate mercy of our

God. And maybe sometime you like to just type in the word compassion in your

Bible app and just see, what does the Bible say about God and his compassion? Is God far off and remote and just kind of above us, or is he compassionate?

You probably know the most famous one, Lamentations 3. The Lord's loving kindness, indeed, never ceases. His compassions, what?

Never fail. They're new every morning. Great is your faithfulness. Exodus 33.

I myself, God said to Moses, will make my goodness pass before you and will proclaim the name of the

Lord before you, and I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and I will show compassion to whom

I'll show compassion. Deuteronomy 4. The Lord, your God, is a compassionate God.

Jesus, when he sees people without a shepherd, he has compassion. He sees the leper and it says, moved with compassion.

He stretches out his hand and says, you're cleansed. And if you ever need compassion, the times that you need it the most, and some here have experienced that, is the death of a child.

Here, the mom loses the son. Do you need compassion when you have the death of a child?

Of course you do. There's a theologian named Robert Dabney, and he was out of town.

He lived in the 1800s, Civil War time, and he was out of town on church business, and he heard his son was sick, and so he rushes home, and here's what he says.

We used prompt measures and sent early for the doctor, who did not think his case was dangerous, but gradually grew worse until Sunday, and his symptoms became alarming, and he passed away after great sufferings.

A half hour before he died, he sank into a deep sleep, and became quiet, and sighed his soul away.

And then he says a sentence that I've not forgotten. I have learned rapidly in the school of anguish this week, and am many years older than I was a few days ago.

And here Jesus comes, lost a son, and what does he have?

He has compassion. Not like me, not like you, maybe thinking about our own problems, but fully on board,

I'm going to not just have compassion, but I'm going to do something about it.

Sin has ruined, and God has a remedy. Some philosophers back in those days would say, do not grieve, because it'll do no good.

And then something happens. What does the Lord say? He had compassion on her and said to her, do not weep.

My first gut reaction is, to use that word again, how is that compassionate?

Don't weep at your son's funeral. Now I've said a lot of dumb things to people in my life, but I would never say that.

Would you? I mean, don't cry.

This kind of crying isn't a whimpering cry. This is a loud lament cry. Not just from the inside, but it kind of flows to the outside.

Just stop crying. Of course, we know that Jesus is going to do something about it. Of course, it's appropriate to cry, but knowing what

I'm going to do, you're not going to need to cry. You can stop your crying because I'm going to do something right now.

And of course, the writer of Luke wants you to say, who's like this? Who is this? This has to be the Messiah. This has to be the

Son of God. I should be trusting in this one. Who's like this? Stop grieving.

I mean, my father would say kind of abruptly, that person has no class.

But of course, Jesus, the perfect man, says, I want you to look at me.

It's almost like he's saying, eyes on me. Look at me. Trust, look up.

Isaiah says of Jesus, He was despised and rejected by men, a man of what? Sorrows, acquainted with grief.

Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows. Now, if Jesus would have said to her, don't cry, and walked away, it would have just been awful.

But he doesn't do that. He says, don't cry. He doesn't stop there. He came up and touched the beer.

Bear stood still. Hey, what's going on? It's kind of bad form to interrupt during a funeral.

I don't think we've ever had a funeral here interrupted. A couple times when I've preached, there's been some people that shouted out things or mumbled under their breath.

And that's when I am glad we have really strong ushers. But how about this interruption of a funeral?

What were these bears thinking, I wonder? Jesus comes up and touches it. It had to surprise them.

It had to startle them. So they stop. And he said to the young man, or he said, young man,

I say to you, arise. As I was studying this week,

I smiled when I read somebody who wrote this. There was nothing in the dead young man to merit this miracle.

Jesus didn't say, what a good -looking corpse. I've never seen such a fine corpse.

I'm going to raise him from the dead. And then the writer said, I don't care how nicely you dress a corpse up.

Corpses do not have any merit. And of course,

Luke is setting this up for the ultimate, not just Jairus' daughter being raised, not just this woman's son being raised, not just Lazarus being raised, but the language of eternal life when

God makes us alive. Listen to Ephesians chapter 2. And you were dead in trespasses and sins, but God, being rich in mercy because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, what made us alive in Christ Jesus.

Colossians says the same thing. When you were dead in your trespasses, God made alive together with him.

This is the sovereign Lord initiating, calling dead people to be raised.

It happens physically with God. It happens spiritually with God. I think

I could probably look back and all Jesus has to do is say the word and something would happen, right? Say the word.

Arise. Isaiah 55. For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven and do not return there without watering the earth and making it bare and sprout, so shall my word be which goes forth from my mouth.

It shall not return to me empty without accomplishing what I desire and without succeeding in the matter for which

I sent it. Sometimes Jesus will say your faith, I see your faith and I'm going to heal you.

No faith here, corpse. You talk to a corpse and what will happen?

If you talk to the corpse and they are raised, you must be supernatural. You must be powerful.

You must be the God man. That's what Luke wants us to see. Now I've told my children over the years and I know

I've told you the stories that when I would officiate funerals that I would bring my children when possible and that when we would go to the wake,

I would always kind of prep them and say we're going to walk in and there's going to be some funeral home people and they'll greet us and we'll probably sign the little booklet there to show that we're there and then you're going to see there's a casket.

It might be open. There might be a dead body in there and there's going to be a line of people over here, loved ones, and all you have to do is say to them nothing and hug them.

Say I'm sorry. Say I love you. But I want you to come over to the casket and we're just going to look at that dead body just for 15 seconds, 30 seconds.

I'm trying not to say the children's names because as you know, if I say their names when they're present, they get a dollar.

So I'm not trying to say my daughter's name. It starts with an M. Ours starts with a G. They're sitting over there.

And then I'd always say three things. I'd say the person's soul is not in that body anymore because you can tell it doesn't look like a live person and their soul has either gone to heaven or to hell and they're going to get a new body one day at the resurrection.

And then I'd also say dear children, I hope it's not for a long time but one day you'll be in that casket.

It'll be you. So make sure you're trusting in Jesus now. And then lastly I would say who could go up to a body like that, cold, looks bad, stiff, and just say, no medical equipment, but just say arise, get up.

Who could do that? It has to be Jesus. He has the power to do that. And so let's make sure, by the way,

I try to encourage you to take your children to funerals and to encourage and to bring them.

Many like the Goddards and others would do that very thing. Who can say to a dead body, arise.

I mean, the heart doesn't beat anymore. Pulse is gone. Brain is dead.

Reflexes are gone. Muscles relax. Temperature drops. Blood gets pulled downward.

Your body stiffens and more. Death is an enemy. It's ugly. And Jesus says arise.

I like Hebrews 2, since therefore the children share in flesh and blood. He, Jesus himself, likewise, partook of the same things, that through death he might destroy the one who has the power of death, that is the devil.

Listen, and deliver all those who through fear of death were subject to lifelong slavery.

All of us, this slavery of fearing death, what happens after we die? And Jesus says, be raised.

He didn't say to the young man, raise yourself. The language, for those of you that like grammar, it's passive language.

Somebody's going to have to raise you. God is going to raise you. It's not active. Raise yourself up. Jesus had power over disease with the centurion servant.

Now he has power over death. He must be the right Messiah. Who on earth walks up to a casket and says, get up, when it comes to waves at a beach?

I like Job 38. Thus far you shall come and no farther. Here shall your proud waves be stayed.

God says, this is how far the waves come up, and not only waves, but this is how far death can go, and no farther.

There's going to be another resurrection, by the way. Does this sound familiar? John 5. Jesus said, truly, truly,

I say to you, an hour is coming and now is here when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear will live.

For as the Father has life in himself, so he has granted the Son also to have life in himself. And he has given him authority to execute judgment because he is the

Son of Man. Listen. Do not marvel at this. For an hour is coming when all who are in the tombs will hear his voice arise and come out, those who have done good, that is, trusting in Jesus to the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil to the resurrection of judgment.

Verse 15. And the dead man sat up and began to speak, and Jesus gave him to his mother.

I just kind of love that. It's so concise. I want to know what the dead man said, by the way.

I'm enjoying heaven and the presence of God, but if you want me to go back to earth, I guess I go.

I mean, I don't know what he's thinking. Sad for that man that he never wrote a book called

Heaven is for Real. He could have made a lot of money. When you really go to heaven, you don't come back and write about it.

Remember, Paul even said, it's just too wonderful. He talks,

I'm certain, because it's authenticating that he's alive. It's real.

It's true. He talks. The point is, and what does he say? The point is, Jesus can look at someone and said, arise.

I love 1 Corinthians 15. Oh, death, where is your victory? Oh, death, where is your sting? The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law, but thanks be to God who gives us the victory, that is, over death and sin and hell, through our

Lord Jesus Christ. He sits up. He begins to talk.

How many Old Testament people were raised from the dead? If you had to look through and you say, oh, how many lepers were cleansed?

How many people were raised from the dead? In the New Testament, I can think of, and I've said it twice before, Jairus' daughter, here this man, and Lazarus, and of course,

Jesus raising himself. In the Old Testament, how many people were raised from the dead, and how were they raised from the dead?

Two people were raised from the dead, under Elijah's ministry and Elisha's ministry, but they weren't the same, because Jesus, all he has to do is say the word, and they're alive.

Listen to how Elijah healed someone. And he cried to the

Lord, 1 Kings 17, O Lord my God, you have brought calamity, even upon the widow with whom

I sojourned by killing her son. Then he stretched himself upon the child three times, and cried to the

Lord, O Lord my God, let this child's life come into him again.

And then, raised from the dead. With Elisha, it's the same thing. It wasn't just a word, because these were prophets, we're looking at Jesus, the ultimate prophet.

Elisha came into the house, 2 Kings 4, he saw the child lying dead on his bed, so he went in and shut the door behind the two of them and prayed to the

Lord. Fascinatingly, he went up and lay on the child, putting his mouth on his mouth, his eyes on his eyes, his hands on his hands, and as he stretched himself upon him, the flesh of the child became warm, then he got up again and walked back and forth in the house, and went up and stretched himself upon him, and then the child, anybody remember what happened?

Sneezed how many times? Who just said sneezed? Of course Barry would, scholar in residence.

He sneezed 7 times and the child opened his eyes. What's the point? Resurrections are few and far between.

And if you're not the God man, you're going to have to pray, and there's some other actions probably involved, Elisha. But if you're

Jesus Christ, God incarnate, you say, arise, and the person gets up. And Jesus gave him back to his mother.

I think every time Jesus raised somebody from the dead, it was for ladies, Lazarus, Martha, Mary, etc.

I don't know what he said, but I think I can get an idea of what the bearers of the coffin, beer, corpse, plank, would do.

I wonder how long it took for them to go, why are we still carrying this body? This is like a lot of weight.

We should probably put him down. He seems fine. Luke is writing this so that you believe.

You're certain. How do I know Jesus is real? How do I know I'm trusting the right Messiah? A lot of people follow

Allah. A lot of people follow Buddha. A lot of people follow Confucius. A lot of people follow all these other people.

Are Hindus right? Who's right? Well, I'll tell you who's right. Someone that can walk up to a coffin and say, you're going to be raised.

And now we come to, I had no idea how to do my alliteration on this one. So when

I don't know what to do, I asked Pastor Steve, could you help me? And so I'm blaming Steve on this one.

The confession of the community. It's actually pretty good. Thanks, Steve. The collision of the crowds, the compassion of the

Christ, and now the confession of the community found in verses 16 and 17.

And basically this is the response. When you see something like this, what do you do? Fear, verse 16, sees them all.

And they glorified God saying, a great prophet has arisen among us and God has visited his people.

And this report about him spread throughout the whole of Judea and all the surrounding country. What happens there?

There's fear, they glorify slash praise the Lord, and they spread the report. That is a great response to God's supernatural work of creation, of new creation.

When God works, raises from the dead, temporally, physically, spiritually, this is the response.

Fear. Now this is not the kind of fear that an unbeliever has of hell. This is awe.

This is reverence. This is God's here. Something's going on. Look at the gospel of Jesus according to Mark.

Every time Jesus does a supernatural fear, a supernatural thing, they fear. God is here. Something's going on.

There's a holy reverence. It grips them. In addition, they glorified the

Lord. It's so good the way that Luke phrases it. A great prophet has arisen among us.

I mean, the dead have just arisen, and now the prophet has arisen. Same word. This language of God has visited his people is language from the

Old Testament that says, when the people are really hurting, God helps. When the people are in dire strait,

God shows up and does something. It's not just kind of, I'd like to stop by for a visit, as my grandma would always say.

She'd say, Mike, when are you going to come by for a visit? When God visits, he doesn't just show up. He does something about it.

Exodus 4 .31, and the people believed. And when they heard that the Lord had visited the people of Israel and that he had seen their affliction, they bowed their head and worshiped.

He's come to help. All you have to do is think about your own salvation, dear

Christian. You know now where you are going to go forever. And God showed up by his own initiative and said powerfully, as it were, arise.

And your response, of course, was faith, and then followed by that with all kinds of thanksgiving and praise and joy.

Hopefully there was a reverential awe. Who is this? And then glorifying the Lord. And you could say, I needed something, salvation, and God visited me.

And what a great picture even of the incarnation when God visits his people. They're bursting with praise.

And then what else do you do when God saves, heals the dead, raises the dead, gives you new life spiritually, raises the dead, the reports spread.

They can't contain themselves. They've just got to tell people. They're going to tell others. God has turned his face toward us.

We tell other people how wonderful that is, the confession of the community.

Dear congregation, as I close, Jesus is a friend of sinners. Jesus is compassionate.

Jesus is an almighty friend. What a friend we have in Jesus. Jesus is a sympathetic friend.

He's a comforting friend. He's a providential friend. He's a powerful friend.

He's a joy -producing friend. He's a fear -producing friend. He's a praise -producing friend. And he's a friend worth telling others about.

So Christian, does anyone care? Does anyone notice?

Not just about people in the world, but you. Does anyone care? The answer is found in the

Bible, and the answer is yes. Aren't you glad? Let's pray. Thank you, Father, for your word. Who is like the

Lord Jesus? No one. And so we want to worship him and praise him today.

And, Father, for those that are here that aren't trusting in the Lord Jesus by faith and faith alone, would you have them to be saved?

I think about the call to salvation in Ephesians. Awake, O sleeper, and arise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you.

So, Father, would you do that for them? For us as Christians, we struggle in many ways. And we need compassion, and we need sympathy, and we need help.

And so we're thankful that we have someone like Jesus, the perfect man, the perfect friend. We praise you for that in Jesus' name.