FIVE GREAT POWERS OF LIFE
Luke 7:11-17
11 Soon afterward, Jesus went to a town called Nain, and his disciples and a large crowd went along with him.
12 As he approached the town gate, a dead person was being carried out-- the only son of his mother, and she was a widow. And a large crowd from the town was with her.
13 When the Lord saw her, his heart went out to her and he said, "Don’t cry."
14 Then he went up and touched the coffin, and those carrying it stood still. He said, "Young man, I say to you, get up!"
15 The dead man sat up and began to talk, and Jesus gave him back to his mother.
16 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."
17 This news about Jesus spread throughout Judea and the surrounding country.
Early in Dwight L. Moody’s ministry, he was called upon to conduct his first funeral. Mr. Moody, desiring to do things correctly, went to the Bible to consider how Jesus would have done it. He found an amazing truth. Jesus didn’t hold any funeral services!
In fact, the New Testament tells us that whenever Jesus came into contact with those who were dead He gave them life! He raised three people from the dead: Lazarus, Jairus’ daughter, and the widow’s son.
Look at the scene before us. Jesus was on his way to the city of Nain when He came upon a very sad procession. Sickness had visited a widow’s home and her only son had died.. Now they’re on their way to the cemetery. The poor mother had looked for the last time into the face of her son.
But look at the reaction of Jesus in verse 13. When anyone suffered, He suffered with them! He still does! He couldn’t stand in the presence of sorrow without being touched in His spirit. So He went up to the woman and said, “Don’t cry.” But why shouldn’t she cry? Her only son is gone. Part of her heart has been taken away.
Jesus stopped the procession and said to the dead son, “Get up young man.” And he got up and began to talk. What do you suppose he said? How happy his mother must have been. I’m sure she tanked Jesus, the Lord of Life with all of her heart.
In this miracle I see five great powers of life.
1. THE POWER OF DEATH
1. It’s a universal power–everyone is going to die. The Bible says, “It is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment” (Heb.9:27). Death is no respecter of persons. High or low, rich or poor, young or old. Death comes to us all.
2. It is a power against which we are helpless. We can’t stop it once the die is cast. We can’t buy our way out of it. We may stave it off for a while through medicine, the best doctors, the best treatments, and even a healthy life style, but sooner or later, the grim reaper will come calling.
3. It is a mysterious power. It strikes when and where we least expect it. I have sat in the waiting rooms with families when the doctors have told them that death was imminent, only to see that individual raised up and sent home. I have also comforted those families whose loved one was suddenly taken. We should recognize the power of death and prepare for it!
2. THE POWER OF LOVE
There is no doubt in my mind that love is the greatest power on earth.
• The widow wept because of her love for her son.
• It was love that brought God’s Son to die for us.
• We have the technology to destroy cities and perhaps even nations, but we cannot destroy love.
• Love can transform the meanest and most vile of all sinners, a truth to which many of us can testify.
• Love of country and freedom will cause people to fight and die.
• Love for a woman will cause a man to do just about anything. So will love for a man by a woman. Aleida Huissen, 78 of Rotterdam, Netherlands, had been smoking for 50 years. And for all that time she had been trying to give up the habit. But something happened that changed all that. She has now given up cigarettes, cigars, and pipes. The secret? Leo Jansen, 79, proposed to her, but refused to go through with the wedding until she gave up smoking. So what will power could not accomplish, love did.
• Love will even cause one to do what is distasteful. Case in point: Francis of Assisi. He was terrified of leprosy. And one day, as he was traveling down a path he came upon a leper. Instantly he was repulsed at the sight and looked away as he passed. Then he became ashamed at his attitude. He hurried to the man, through his arms around him and kissed him, then passed on. A moment later he looked back and there was no one there. All his days thereafter he was sure it was no leper, but Christ Himself whom he had met.
Love lightens the burdens of life. The husband and father at work doesn’t mind the drudgery of that work if he knows that those at home love and appreciate him for what he is doing. The same is true for the wife and mother at home.
Love is an undying power (I Cor.13). It survives faith and hope for all eternity.
3.THE POWER OF TEARS
Tears move us to compassion.
• They moved Jesus to the side of this dead boy.
• They moved Him to weep at the grave of Lazarus.
• They moved Him to weep over the city of Jerusalem.
Tears have power in soul-winning
• If we go to people in a cold, mechanical manner, we’ll never win them to Christ. Somehow they must know that we care for their soul.
• Ps 126:5-6: “Those who sow in tears will reap with songs of joy. He who goes out weeping, carrying seed to sow, will return with songs of joy, carrying sheaves with him.”
• We must have compassion for the lost and dying world around us.
We must weep
• Tears are the relief valve of the soul as our hearts break with sorrow.
• “Jesus wept” is not only the shortest verse in the Bible, it is also one of the most powerful.
• In Acts 20:31, we are told that Paul wept day and night for the Ephesians Christians.
• The Prophet Samuel spent the entire night in tears over King Saul’s disobedience.
• Robert Murray McCheyne, the great Scottish preacher, died at the age of 30. When a man visited the church he had pastored to inquire as to the cource of such great power in such a young man he was told, “When he came to the pulpit, the first thing he did was to put his head down on it and weep; then he stood to preach and won thousands to Christ.”
• We must learn the power of tears!
4. THE POWER OF PRAYER
Surely this widow had prayed for her son, but the answer was delayed. Then God answered her prayers in the best way. There is great power in prayer—it changes things and people!
Illus.: “Let’s Kiss”
There was a pastor who had a parrot. All the parrot would say was, “Let’s pray, let’s pray.” The pastor tried to teach him to say other things but to no avail. He learned that one of his deacons had a parrot. Thet parrot would only say, “Let’s kiss. Let’s kiss.” So the pastor decided to invite the deacon and his parrot over to his house. When the deacon arrived they put the parrots into the same cage to see what would happen. The deacon’s parrot said, “Let’s kiss, let’s kiss.” The pastor’s parrot said, “Thank you, Lord. My prayers have been answered.”
There’s great power in prayer.
J
eremiah 33:3: “Call unto me and I will answer you, and show you great and mighty things which you do not know.”
Dr. Will Mayo: “I have seen patients that were dead by all standards. We knew they could not live. But I have seen a minister come to the bedside and do something for them that I could not do.”
5. THE POWER OF CHRIST
Jesus had compassion on the young man’s mother, so He stopped the procession and commanded the young man to rise. Immediately he came back to life and began to speak, and was restored to his mother. This showed the power of Christ is several ways:
• There was great power in His presence–when He would appear, demons would flee before Him
• There was great power in His voice. After all, He spoke the world into existence. He calmed the raging sea. There is still great power in His Word.
• There was great power in His touch. He touched the coffin of this young man. He touched broken bodies and restored them.
• Perhaps the greatest power of Christ is in His blood to atone for sin. Through repentance and faith in His blood sacrifice, the foulest sinner can be cleansed. Isaiah siad it well, “Though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool” (Isa.1:18)
What a powerful passage of Scripture! Christian, do you know the power of love today? Are you motivated by His love for you? Are you moved with compassion because of you love for those without Christ? Have you lost the power of tears? Do you weep? God, give us hearts of compassion.
There is an old story of a man who had been seriously ill, far from home. When he felt that he was able to make the trip, he wired his family that he would be home on a certain train and asked for them to meet him. But it was snowing and the wires were down and the message never got through. When he arrived it was like a blizzard. He staggered through the snow and soon his strength gave out. He finally fell in the snow and died right there of exposure. The nest morning they found his body in sight of his house. He was almost home.
I hope you have made it all the way to the Father. Because if you haven’t, you will die in your sin. He’s calling for you today. He loves you. He wants you to be His and to know the forgiveness of all your sin and have the hope of heaven.
