Sermon Tone Analysis

*Intro* – As a young pastor in CA I lived close to Forest Lawn which would occasionally call me to do a funeral for someone who did not have a pastor.

One involved the death of a middle-aged wife.

A meeting with the family confirmed that none knew Christ.

So, I did what I normally did on those occasions – tried to honor the memory of the person while sharing the gospel as compassionately as I know how.

But the hopelessness of life and death without Christ was very evident that day.

At the graveside, the husband flung himself onto the coffin, crying bitterly.

It was well over 30 mins before he left.

Now, the greatest certainty of every life here today is, we will die.

No one has gotten out alive yet, and we will not be the first.

The issue is to be ready.

I’ve shared before William Saroyan’s, comment as he faced his own imminent death: “Everybody has got to die, but I have always believed an exception would be made in my case.

Now what?”

It is out there for all of us and for our loved ones.

Our private room labeled physical life gets a little smaller every day until it closes completely.

Now what?

We must know Jesus Christ for who He really is.

Wrong ideas about Jesus abound.

Islam views him as simply a prophet, who did not, in fact, die on the cross; in the Mormon pantheon Jesus is a created being, the spirit brother of Satan; to the Jehovah's Witnesses He is Michael the Archangel incarnate; rock musicians portray him as a countercultural hero, but just a man; pseudo-scholars of the emergent church reinvent Him as a social activist and martyr by throwing out large sections of the Bible.

The list goes on ad infinitum, ad nauseam.

But the one correct view is revealed in Scripture.

Peter articulated it, "You are the Christ, the Son of the living God" (Matthew 16:16).

Thomas affirmed it when he exclaimed, "My Lord and my God!" (John 20:28).

And Luke affirms it here.

Notice in v. 13, “And when the Lord saw her”.

Not when Jesus saw her or Christ saw her, but when the Lord saw her.

This is the first time Luke uses the OT name for God (Yahweh) to speak of Jesus.

Only Luke among the gospel writers ever uses that word prior to the resurrection of Christ.

By doing so, Luke is cluing us that the deity of Christ is on full display here.

He’s shown power over disease, and power over the most impressive of demons, but now He’ll show His power over man’s ultimate enemy – death.

There is an interesting phrase in v. 16.

The people say, “God has visited his people!” “Visited” is a verb form of the NT word “bishop” or “overseer” -- used interchangeably for pastor.

This passage shows us God as Pastor through Jesus.

We all need a pastor when it comes to death and that pastor needs to be Jesus Christ.

Who else has proven power over death?

The only way to avoid the despair of death is by meeting it with Him.

He said, “I am the way, the truth and the life; no one comes to the Father except through me.”

This week and next – four things that happen when His life meets death.

*I.

Pointlessness is Met With Purpose*

11 Soon afterward he went to a town called Nain, and his disciples and a great crowd went with him.

12 As he drew near to the gate of the town, behold, a man who had died was being carried out.”

Sounds coincidental, does it not?

Jesus goes to Nain, a nothing little village 6 miles SE of Nazareth (25 mi sw of Capernaum).

And by chance -- just when the Lord of glory comes in for the one and only time in history, a dead man is being carried out.

His short life is over before its time.

A pointless existence – a death that emphasizes the meaninglessness of it all.

But even if he had lived to be 80, so he was born, lived and died – to what end?

And Jesus just happens to arrive as he is being carried out.

From man’s point of view, a meaningless coincidence.

But, Beloved, in God’s universe, nothing is ever by chance.

One day we’ll see that all reflects His glory.

Here, death meets life to dramatically illustrate God’s power over man’s greatest enemy.

God always works His purposes.

Isa 46: 10) says God declares “the end from the beginning and from ancient times things not yet done, saying, ‘My counsel shall stand, and I will accomplish all my purpose.’”

No random acts.

Nothing left to chance.

No coincidences.

When God made the bizarre request to Abraham that he sacrifice his son, a test of faith, just as Abraham was about to plunge the knife, anticipating, as we are told in Hebrews, that God would resurrect him, God stopped his hand.

Gen 22:13 tells us, “And Abraham lifted up his eyes and looked, and behold, behind him was a ram, caught in a thicket by his horns.”

Coincidence?

No, God’s providence.

When the widow Ruth came to Canaan with her widowed mother-in-law, Naomi – neither with any means of support, Ruth did what she could.

She went to the fields and glean the left-overs of the harvest as provided by the law.

Ruth 2:3, “and she happened to come to the part of the field belonging to Boaz, who was of the clan of Elimelech.”

Of course, Boaz just happens to be single.

And they just happen for fall in love.

And he just happens to be a kinsman of Naomi who could redeem her dead husband’s property.

There is a closer kinsman, but he just happens to lack interest.

So they marry, and have a son, Obed, who fathers Jesse, who fathers David, who generations later has a son Jesus.

Coincidence?

No. God’s providence.

God says in Prov 16:9, “The heart of man plans his way, but the LORD establishes his steps.”

There is always a complex dance between man’s free will and God’s providence that we will never understand in this life.

But thru it all God’s works His purposes.

That doesn’t mean it always comes out rosy.

In the early days of the church, the deacon Stephen was stoned to death for his faith.

Shortly after that the apostle James, whom Jesus had invested 3 years in training, was abruptly executed by Herod.

Failure of God’s providence?

Not at all.

It was God’s means of getting the early believers to disperse and get obedient to His command to take the gospel worldwide!

The universe is not meaningless.

History is not senseless and our lives are not a random collection of atoms acting in some predetermined but pointless fashion terminating in death.

But we need to get on the right side of providence by knowing Jesus.

Providence holds no promises for unbelievers; but for believers, providence guarantees meaning and purpose and a way to glorify God.

The Samaritan woman in John 4 had been married 5 times when she went at noon to get water.

She met Jesus, got saved and evangelized the whole town.

Remember?

She thought she was just going out to collect water for the day – like she’d done hundreds of time before.

But that day, she got living water.

Prov 16: 33) The lot is cast into the lap, but its every decision is from the LORD.”

Her decision was God’s decision and there is a telling phrase in John 4:3-4 introducing this: “3)he left Judea and departed again for Galilee. 4 And he had to pass through Samaria.”

Had to?

Really?

Most Jews refused to go thru Samaria to get from Judea to Galilee.

They went around to avoid the hated Samaritans.

But Jesus had to go to Samaria.

The Greek phrase is δει – it was necessary.

Why? God’s providence.

He had a divine appointment.

And he had a divine appointment in Nain to show us how to escape our greatest enemy.