Jesus Turns a Funeral into a Celebration (Theme for this message came from "Outflow" by Sjogren and Ping)
Luke 7:11-17
Can you imagine the shock of the widow of Nain and the crowd surrounding the funeral procession when Jesus walked up and stopped the procession? Jesus saw the widow and had compassion on her. She probably had just recently lost her husband and now her only son is dead. Jesus waked up to the casket and said, “Young man, get up.” The young man sat up and began to talk to those around him. The crowd began to praise God.
Can’t you see the mother jumping for joy? Her only son who was dead is now alive.
Funerals are a time for reflection on life. When a loved one dies we do some deep thinking about the meaning of life. I find myself recommitting my life to the Lord at the funerals of loved ones.
One subject we tend to avoid is the topic of death. Carollyn worked for ten years for the Free Methodist Foundation helping people plan their wills, trusts and doing estate planning. The Foundation discovered from their studies that 80% of Americans do not have a will or a trust. Why? People don’t like to think about death and dying.
Jesus made it clear in His teachings that you are not really ready to live until you have faced the reality of death. A good practice sometime is to write out your own obituary and write what you would like your gravestone to have written on it.
Beside attending funerals of loved one pushing me to rethink my life and make new commitments to live for the Lord, when I have faced close calls they were wake up calls for me.
My second year of High School I was involved in a car accident near Salina, Kansas. I was knocked out when my head hit the dash and then thrown out of the car on the passenger side and the wheel of the car missed my head by inches. When I came to while lying in the ditch of the road I could hear the siren of the ambulance coming, and my first thought was, “God help me to be okay and I’ll stop compromising and live for You.”
In my first church where I served as Pastor in Kansas City, Kansas we purchased three acres of property on a hill and build a new church and parsonage. The back of the property slopped down to new homes built along that hillside. When it rained dirt was washed down into the back yards of the homes. So we decided to rent a backhoe and fill up the holes. I started down with the front end loader filled with dirt to fill a hole and the brakes failed to slow me down and the several ton tractor was headed to go through the backyard of a house and run into the back of the house so as I got near the bottom of the hill I turned sharply and the tractor flipped over. Fortunately I was thrown clear and landed in the bushes. If any part of the equipment had fallen on me I would have been a goner. I did some deep soul searching and praised the Lord for saving my life.
I. Time of Sorrow
When Jesus approached the village gate of Nain he met the funeral procession of the Widow and her friends following the coffin of her dead son. The atmosphere was one of sorrow and mourning.
Sorrow is something that all of us go through from time to time. We tend to make jokes about death to somehow take away the reality of death.
#A young minister who was asked by a funeral director to hold a graveside service for a homeless man who had died while traveling through the area. The service was to be held at a new cemetery way back in the country. This man would be the first person laid to rest there.
As he was not familiar with the back woods area, the young minister soon became quite lost and finally arrived over an hour late. He saw the backhoe by the grave and noticed that the crew was eating lunch under a nearby tree, but the hearse was nowhere in sight. He apologized to the workers for his tardiness, and stepped to the side of the open grave, where he saw the vault lid already in place. The young preacher assured the vault crew he would not hold them long, but this was the proper thing to do. The workers gathered around still eating their lunch. The young preacher poured out his heart and soul.
As he preached the workers began to say “Amen,” “Praise the Lord,” and “Glory hallelujah.” The young preacher preached and preached like he’d never preached before, from Genesis all the way through Revelation. He closed the lengthy service at last with a prayer and began to walk toward the car. He felt he had done his duty to the homeless man, and that the crew would leave with a renewed sense of purpose and dedication, in spite of his tardiness.
As he was opening the door and taking off his coat, he overheard one of the workers saying to another, “I ain’t never seen anything like this before . . . and I’ve been putting in septic tanks for over twenty years.”
How do you handle death? I have held many funerals and I can tell you there is a vast difference in the atmosphere between families who have assurance that their loved one is in heaven and the families who are sure.
The scriptures teach the reality of death and having the assurance of eternal life or eternal death. Hebrews 9:27, “It is appointed unto man once to die and after that the judgment.” Romans 6:23, “For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life.”
For Christ followers’ death is not feared nor is it sought. As followers of Jesus we are committed to living as long as possible to continue the work Jesus started. We have the assurance that when we face death Jesus is by our side. Jesus promised that where He is, we also shall be.
II. Time of Compassion
When Jesus encountered the funeral procession outside the village gate of Nain He witnessed their sorrow. He also had compassion for the widow and her friends. “When the Lord saw her, his heart overflowed with compassion. ‘Don’t cry!’ he said. Then he walked over to the coffin and touched it, and the bearers stopped. ‘Young man,’ he said, ‘get up.’ Then the dead boy sat u8p and began to talk to those around him! And Jesus gave him back to his mother.” Luke 7:13-15
A cloud of sorrow and gloom hung over the crowd. Then Jesus enters the scene. When all looks bleak, dark, and hopeless, Jesus comes along and the situation is reversed. Jesus said that he came to give us life and a life that is more abundant. John 10:10b
Jesus said in John 10:10, “The thief’s purpose is to steal and kill and destroy. My purpose is to give life in all its fullness.” Satan is the thief and robber. Satan is all about taking the joy from you. Satan wants to keep the joy out of your life. Have you experienced Satan trying to rob you of joy this past week? Jesus said he came to give you joy and an abundant life.
Satan is the thief. He works at stealing words of encouragement from your heart and leaving blame, condemnation, and suspicion in their place. Satan is there in the background whispering:
“You don’t belong…” “If you were more like _______, you’d be more successful.” “That co-worker is out to get you.” “Nobody appreciates you…”
Remember Jesus came to give you life and it more abundantly. Look up “abundant” in a thesaurus and you find: “rich, lavish, generous, plentiful, bountiful, overflowing and large.” Jesus didn’t come to take away from you he came to give you more.
The kind of life Jesus wants to give you is described in John 7:37-38, “If you are thirsty, come to me! If you believe in me, come and drink! For the Scriptures declare that rivers of living water will flow out from within.” Jesus wants your life to overflow in demonstrating love and acts of kindness to others.
Does Jesus make a difference in your life? Yes he does. The song we sing describes the difference: “Since Jesus Came into My Heart.”
What a wonderful change in my life has been wrought; Since Jesus came into my heart! I have light in my soul for which long I have sought. Since Jesus came into my heart.
In the story of the healing of the widow of Nain’s son, there was a Time of Sorrow, a Time of Compassion and also
III. A Time of Celebration
Luke 7:16-17, “They were all filled with awe and praised God. ‘A great prophet has appeared among us,’ they said. ‘God has come to help his people.’ This news about Jesus spread throughout Judea and the surrounding country.”
Jesus turns funeral services into times of celebration. A mother got her dead son back. It was a time of joy and celebration. This widow got back her most valuable possession, her son. When faced with making a choice of having life or possessions most people choose life.
The families that recently lost their homes in various fires in California has testified that even through they lost their homes they were thankful the lives of their family were safe.
It interesting the values people put on stuff. It’s amazing what sells on E-bay. A Brazilian manufacturer put a UFO detector with AA batteries included on E-bay. The detector could detect fluctuations in the earth’s magnetic field caused by visitations from alien spacecraft. The final selling price was $135.03.
A grilled cheese sandwich said to bear the image of the Virgin Mary sold for $28,000. A “haunted” walking cane went for $65,000. One buyer paid $263 for Britney Spear’s chewing gum, and a potato chip shaped like a cowboy went for $1,000.
You can’t put a price tag on the joy that Jesus brings to a person’s heart. From a dark prison cell the Apostle Paul wrote, Philippians 4:4, “Rejoice in the Lord and I say it again, rejoice.” The builder of the walls of Jerusalem when under criticism and pressure from his enemies said – “The Joy of the Lord is my strength.”
There’s something about the joy of the Lord that is contagious.
Diane Komp is a pediatric oncologist. She treats children who have cancer. A highly trained physician, she used to be an agnostic. That was before Anna died. Anna was a little girl who had leukemia, in the days when recovery was rare. As death came close, her parents, the hospital chaplain, and Dr. Komp gathered at her bedside.
“Before she died,” Dr. Komp writes, “Anna mustered the final energy to sit up in her hospital bed and say, ‘The angels--they’re so beautiful, Mommy, can you see them? Do you hear them singing? They’re so beautiful, Mommy.’ And then she lay back on her pillow and died.”
The chaplain, who was uncomfortable with all this, left quickly, leaving the agnostic Dr. Komp to help these grieving Christian parents. What she remembers is that Anna’s parents were deeply comforted by what had happened, “as if they had been given the most precious gift in the world . . . Together we contemplated a spiritual mystery,” says Diane Komp, “that transcended our understanding and experience.” Diane Komp was an agnostic no more.
When Jesus met the Samaritan woman by Jacob’s well in the city of Sychar in Samaria he told her He would give her “Living Water.” (John 4:10) When Jesus went to the temple in Jerusalem he stood up and proclaimed: “If you are thirsty, come to me! If you believe in me, come and drink! For the Scriptures declare that rivers of living water will flow out from within.” (John 7:38)
Jesus is all about filling empty lives so they overflow. When you invite Jesus into your heart and life he comes in and fills you with his love and joy. Jesus wants you to overflow from your life to your family and friends and to the your neighbors and community and then to the world – just like an overflowing fountain.
When Jesus is the source of your life you overflow not in your strength but in the power of the Holy Spirit.
For you to keep the water of life to yourself is to become stale and spiritually dry. The Dead Sea is dead because water flows in form the Sea of Galilee down the Jordan River but does not flow out of the Dead Sea.
By an act of your will you can block the flow of joy and love at the top tear of the fountain of your life. You block the flows when you expect everything to flow to you and you refuse to overflow.
Self becomes the center and acts like a vacuum and sucks everything in like a black hole and nothing flows out. Having forsaken God’s spring of living water to overflow you beg, steal and borrow from others and the result is a dried up, self focused life.
If I told you that I had $5,000 to give someone who really needed it, whose name first popped up in your mind. Was it you?
The self-focused life says: “Serve me, Listen to me, share with me, love me.”
The key to breaking the self-focused life is to allow Jesus to transform your self-focused life into an outward focus.
The Apostle Paul describes how you like can be like a fountain that overflows: Ephesians 3:16-20 Message – “I (Paul) ask him to strengthen you by his Spirit – not a brute strength but a glorious inner strength – that Christ will live in you as you open the door to invite him in. And I ask him that with both feet planted firmly on love, you’ll be able to take in with all Christians the extravagant dimension of Christ’s love. Reach out and experience the breadth! Test its length! Plumb the depths! Rise to the heights! Live full lives, full in the fullness of God.”
“God can do anything, you know – far more than you could ever imagine or guess or request in your wildest dreams! He does it not by pushing us around but by working within us, his Spirit deeply and gently within us.”
When Jesus interrupted the funeral procession for the dead son of the Widow of Nain. By His healing touch he transformed sorrow into a celebration of joy. The joy overflowed to the Widow’s friends and neighbors and throughout the village of Nain.
You have the promise that when Jesus is the source of your life you will overflow in joy and love to others.
Acts 1:8, “But when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, you will receive power and will tell people about me everywhere – in Jerusalem (your family) throughout Judea (your relatives) in Samaria, (your neighbors and friends) and to the ends of the earth (your community and world.)
This morning is Jesus the source of your life fountain? Are you overflowing? You have the opportunity to share the joy of the Lord with someone this afternoon or evening. We have a balloon for you with an invitation to “Come to the Party” next Sunday. Next Sunday we are having a cook out and picnic plus games for all. Come next Sunday and let’s have a great celebration in the Lord.
