Stop

Ron Tharpe

Walk in it • Sermon • Submitted 2 years ago

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Intro:

The last two years have seemingly been a train wreck of division, death, and destruction. Many people are so divided that we cannot even carry on a normal conversation. Love seems to be lost, and compassion is nowhere to be found. We are more concerned about rights as in the constitution rather than what’s right according to the Word of God. We have to be careful to understand that just because it’s legal or gets exonerated in an American court room does not mean it is Right according to God’s word. We have been separated by politics, socio-economics, gender, religion, and racism. I can only imagine spiritually that Jesus has to be saying Stop. Funeral after funeral, hospitalization after hospitalization have become so rampant that we start to see this as normal. So much so that we are starting to normalize abnormalities. It is not normal for over 5 million people worldwide to die due to a deadly disease and not war. It is not normal for almost 800 thousand people to be laid to rest due to complications of Covid-19 in the United States alone. It is not normal for us to hate each other to the point we don’t speak to people we grew up with. It is not normal that racism is the norm and not the exception. It is not normal that police officers are ok with killing unarmed black men. It is not normal that young black men are ok with killing other young black men over gang affiliations, money, and pride. I don’t know about you but I am read for some things STOP! I am ready for the dying to stop. I am ready for the pain to stop. I am ready for the pandemic to stop!

Text Work:

As we look at our text today Jesus is traveling. Jesus had already stirred up a racket in Galilee. He said he was the Lord of the Sabbath in chapter 6. He healed a man on the Sabbath which made all the religious folks angry, because he violated what they thought was the law and holy. Healed a multitude or crowd just by them listening to his teachings and sermons, Then he healed the Centurion soldier’s servant in the beginning of chapter 7 which made matters worse because Roman soldiers were their enemies. So after all that the bible says Jesus went to a city called Nain. Nain was a historical city even biblically, because historically this was near the city of Shunem and Zaraphath where Elijah had performed miracles before. He had many of his disciples with him and a large crowd followed due to his previous actions. As they were entering the city a funeral procession was leaving out of the city. A man had died and they were on they way to bury him. The Bible also denotes that the funeral procession was a large crowd. So here we have two crowds. One crowd is being proceeded by life and light and the other being proceeded by death. So at the gate of this city we have two crowds following two different things. Can I pause here for a moment. Church you need to always make sure you have a good understanding of who your crowd is following. Some folks are looking for death and dead situations, but I want to be around people who are looking for the light! Don’t get lost in the crowd.

Text Work:

The Bible dictates according to Lucan theological reference that the man who had died was an only son to a widow. So let me deal with this for a moment. This particular funeral was very sad, because it had so many things tied to it. Let me talk about what was in that coffin. It was not just a widow’s son, but her way of survival. In a patriarchal society like 1st century Palestine men carried on the family name and the wealth. So when the father died the land, money, and assets went to the eldest son. The eldest son had to take care of and/or provide for his mother. If that son died and he was the only son then the mother could be homeless in that it would go to the eldest first cousin or a sibling of the Father. So in other words not only was this widow dealing with the difficulty of burying a child which is hard enough in itself, she is also worried about where her next meal is going to come from. See just because she’s in a crowd does not mean they will take care of her. So I can see it in my spiritual mind this was a very sad sad funeral procession. Her hope was in that casket. Her livelihood was in that casket. Her baby was in that casket. Some of us have had some things to die on us. Our dreams of owning a business. Our hope of becoming doctor. Our zeal to be a judge, a CEO, a Lawyer, a Preacher, a Leader, or anything else has died because life has happened. If we will be honest some of us have been on our way these last two years getting ready to bury some things. We have already picked the casket out, and we are on our way to bury it. The hope of marriage. The hope of getting out of poverty. The hope of racism ending. The hope of family members reconciliation. The hope of churches getting back to being church. The hope of divine healing and being filled with the Holy Ghost. The hope of people being united and not divided. I don’t need a shout on this one. I just need someone to be honest and admit I was on my way to bury some things that I know God told me he would take care of!

Closing:

Thank God that Jesus shows up. Who would have thought that crowd following death would run into a crowd being led by the light? The Bible says that Jesus saw her and the pain she had, the doubts she had, the concerns she had, the grieving she was experiencing, and he had compassion on her. Which in the Greek means he was deeply moved, because we have to remember that we serve a savior who have felt our pains and bore our burdens. He knows what we are dealing with. He said do not weep or please don’t cry. Not because Jesus is insensitive to her situation, but because he knew what was about to happen. Sometimes church God will say something to you in the middle of your storm, in the middle of your pain, in the middle of your bankruptcy, in the middle of your separation, in the middle of you of losing your job, in the middle of your trouble that doesn’t seem to make any sense at all! The reason is because Jesus is not just dealing with what’s going on right now, but he is speaking about what is about to happen.

The Bible says that Jesus walked over to the open coffin touched it and told the paulbearers to stop. Now if you have ever been a paulbearer one of the most difficult things to do is stop. So I know they were looking at Jesus like ok bro we are stopping, but you need to be doing something! Once they stood still Jesus told the young man to arise! The young man who was dead as a cold biscuit sat up! Jesus presented him to his mother, and great fear fell on all of them and they glorified God. I just want to tell a few folks in here that although we have given up and although we have already dug the grave for it, and although we have lost all hope seemingly Jesus is still able to stop the funeral. Jesus can take a sad hopeless funeral and turn it into a praise celebration! I am praying that Jesus stop these funerals. Stop those caskets full of dreams, expectations, and fullness of life. Just because things look dead doesn’t mean that Jesus cannot raise it back to life.

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