Luke 7:1–17
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I'm sure many of you back from your school days, maybe however long ago that was for you, are familiar with King Henry VIII of England and his six ill-fated wives. There's an old poem that kids used to say, Divorced, beheaded, died. Divorced, beheaded, survived. That's what happened to Henry's wives, one after the other. And it's amusing, right? It all rhymes. It all kind of fits together and helps you remember what happened to Anne Boleyn and Catherine Park.
You know, you remember all these people. But in actuality, you know, outside the realm of poetry and in the realm of history, it was actually a terrible time when Henry was reigning on the throne of England and really exercising a kind of tyranny over those around him in the court. One man named Thomas Wyatt witnessed the execution of Anne Boleyn and her family. He himself was waiting on his execution by Henry's executioners. He was in the Tower of London, and through a small slit in his prison cell, he could look down to the courtyard, and he saw Anne Boleyn and her family all beheaded, one right after the other.
It was a bloody time. Sometime afterward, he wrote a poem about what he witnessed. I'm not going to read the whole poem to you, but the refrain of the poem that came up again and again and again as he lamented the deaths of these friends of his was a Latin phrase, circa regna tonat, circa regna tonat. Around the throne the thunder rolls. What he meant was that around Henry's throne, among those who were closest to him, who were part of his court, or much less his family, there was only danger. People who put themselves close to Henry VIII found themselves subject almost immediately to a wild temper and an absolute authority, even over life and death.
that could be wielded with just a flick of his finger or a quick whisper from his lips. See, that's what absolute power looks like when it is not paired with goodness. Henry just needed to speak a word and heads rolled off the platform. Around his throne, the only sound was ominous, menacing thunder. But what if, what if there was a king whose authority over life and death and everything else was just as absolute, or even more so, but whose heart was not moved by cruelty, but by compassion and love? What if that were the case? Well, that's what we're going to talk about today as we continue our study through the gospel of Luke. Over the last several weeks, Luke, and we've done six chapters of it so far, he's been building this really compelling case, I think, for his friend Theophilus, maybe that's a category of people. Theophilus is one who loves God. So it could be one person, it could be a category of people. But at any rate, Luke has been building this really compelling
case that Jesus is, in fact, the promised Messiah, the King of Israel. And ultimately, he's God himself come in the flesh. That's kind of what Luke's been working on for the last couple of chapters. Alongside that, though, we've seen the standard that Jesus demands of his people as the King. It's a standard that reflects the very character of God, and no one can meet that standard on their own. So last time that we were together, last week in the Sermon on the Plain, Jesus laid out this impossible ethic for his people and drove us to the realization that we need him to save us because we're not going to be able to meet that ethic on our own. That's what we talked about last week. Well, today, in the text we're going to be looking at, Luke 7, 1 through 17, Jesus comes down from that sermon. He's been on a plane. He'd been up in the mountains a little bit earlier, so he comes down from that sermon and he does something in the city of Capernaum that is extraordinary. He's claimed all this authority for himself. He's claimed to be God who can forgive sins. He's claimed to be the rock on which we're to build our lives. He's claimed to be all these
things. And today he's going to show us the authority that he's just claimed being acted out. More than that, he shows us also what kind of heart lies behind that authority. What does he show us? Is it like a vengeful, revenge-seeking, selfish heart like Henry VIII seems to have been? No, it was something completely different. It's not a heart of vengefulness. It's not a heart of apathy toward his people.
It's a heart of compassion and goodness. That's what he shows us in these two stories we're going to read today. These two encounters with two people who really could not be more different from each other. They're just utterly different people. And yet both of these stories are kind of making the same thundering point about who this man Jesus really is and why you should stake your life on him. So let's read it together. Luke chapter 7, starting in verse 1. If you're going to use one of these red pew Bibles like the one I've got, that starts on page 863.
And we're just going to kind of camp out here for the whole of our time today. So Luke chapter 7, starting in verse 1. After he had finished all his sayings and the hearing of the people, he entered Capernaum. Now, a centurion had a servant who was sick and at the point of death, who was highly valued by him. When the centurion heard about Jesus, he sent to him elders of the Jews, asking him to come and heal his servant. And when they came to Jesus, they pleaded with him earnestly, saying, He is worthy to have you do this for him, for he loves our nation, and he is the one who built us our synagogue.
And Jesus went with them. When he was not far from the house, the centurion sent friends, saying to him, Lord, do not trouble yourself, for I am not worthy to have you come under my roof. Therefore, I did not presume to come to you, but say the word and let my servant be healed. For I too am a man set under authority, with soldiers under me. And I say to one, go, and he goes, and to another, come, and he comes. And to my servant, do this, and he does it. When Jesus heard these things, he marveled at him. And turning to the crowd that followed him, said, I tell you, not even in Israel have I found such faith. And when those who had been sent returned to the house, they found the servant well.
Soon afterward, he went to a town called Nain, and his disciples and a great crowd went with him. And 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. When the Lord saw her, he had compassion on her and said to her, do not weep. Then he came up and touched the beer, and the bearer stood still, and he said, young man, I say to you, rise. And the dead man sat up and began to speak, and Jesus gave him to his mother. Fear seized 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 through the whole of Judea and all the surrounding country. All right, so looking at this text, structure-wise, it's really, really easy. You basically just have two narratives that are together, and they're both kind of leading up, as a couple chapters have, to this moment when John the Baptist is going to come in our sermon next week, God willing, and ask Jesus, are you the one that we should be expecting? Are you the Messiah? Well, these two stories are
providing more evidence, more fodder for John the Baptist and all of those who are around Jesus to think about who he is. In terms of what you've got here, of course, you've got the centurion story, and then you've got the widow story. What's remarkable, though, is that the contrast between these two people is deliberate and really, really powerful. So in the first, you've got this extremely influential Roman centurion. He's the leader of a particular portion of Caesar's army.
He's probably wealthy. He's extremely powerful, and he sins for Jesus and displays a faith that's so extraordinary that it leaves Jesus himself marveling. In the second story, you have something almost exactly the opposite. You've got this destitute, broken-hearted widow who, if you look at the story, says nothing and does nothing, and yet Jesus comes to her anyway. And I think together, these two stories show us everything we need to know about who Jesus is. So the main idea of this portion of the text is this, this man Jesus is somebody you can trust because his authority is absolute and his mercy is astonishing. This man Jesus is somebody you can trust because his authority is absolute and his mercy is astonishing. That's what we're going to unpack today. I want to do it in two points, two things that this text shows us that are true of Jesus, two things that he's got that you need. Number one, Jesus has an authority you can trust. An absolute authority
that you can trust. And then number two, he offers a mercy that you cannot earn. He offers a mercy that you cannot earn. So let's look at it together. Point number one, Jesus has an authority that you can trust. We're going to be looking at the story of the centurion here. So once Jesus finishes the sermon on the plain, he heads down into this town called Capernaum. It's become kind of a home base for his Galilean ministry. So the ministry of Jesus takes place in two different sort of phases. You've got the northern Galilean ministry where Jesus is probably staying in the house of Peter, one of his disciples who owned a house.
He was a fisherman. He was a pretty wealthy guy probably, you know, because he owned his own business. That was not a common thing in those days. And he would go out and make these missionary trips, come back to Galilee, come back to Capernaum, right? That's kind of what he's doing for the first phase of his ministry. Eventually the whole thing moves down into Jerusalem and that's where the second phase of his ministry is and he stays at the house it seems of Lazarus and his family out in Bethany and so he would go into the city preach come back again and again again right so that's that's kind of what Jesus was doing here Galilee Capernaum becomes a kind of home base for his ministry so he goes into the city and as he's going into the city he meets the representatives of a Roman centurion now you can think about it and get pretty quickly what the word centurion means, right? It's century, which means for us a hundred years, right? So a centurion is somebody who has authority over a hundred, but it's not talking about years, it's talking about soldiers. So this is a kind of mid-level dude in Caesar's army, right? So you would have
had commanders of tens, then you would have had commanders of hundreds, those are the centurions, then you would have had what were called killiarchs, which would have been commanders of a thousand, than you would have had on up to Caesar himself, who dominates the whole thing. So this guy's like a middle manager in Caesar's army. And he's got a servant who he apparently values very highly, and that servant is sick and about to die when these representatives come to Jesus. Now, before we go any further, looking at the details, the first thing I want you to notice is Luke's particular way of telling this story.
Because this story is told also in Matthew, and Matthew tells the story differently. See, in Matthew, the centurion is said to come to Jesus himself. Luke says, that's not how he puts it. He puts it that the representatives of the centurion come to Jesus. Now, why is that discrepancy there? Some people look at that and they say, well, that's just, you know, they'll either say, well, there must have been two centurions, or the same thing happened to him twice, or the Bible is just in hopeless contradiction with itself, right? One story says this, the other story says that, and there's just no way to get through that. But it's not a contradiction, and I don't think there were two centurions either. I think what's going on is that the actions of a representative can very well be said to be the actions of the person himself. That's just the way the ancient world worked. And sometimes, you know, we might quibble with that. I actually don't think we would in normal conversation. But the way it worked is that the actions of a representative could very
well be said to be the actions of the person himself. And so Matthew just gets rid of the middlemen, right? He just says, the centurion said, and Jesus replied. And so he gets rid of the middlemen because he doesn't need them in order to make his point. Luke, on the other hand, tells the fuller story because he has a reason he's trying to show you something about this man and the representatives who were actually there this is the way it actually went down right this is the more detailed account there's nothing wrong with the way Matthew did it this is the more detailed account and Luke includes them because they're making a point and what's the point? Well, Luke wants to draw attention particularly to this guy's humility, and what these guys actually say to Jesus about him helps make that point. So what do they say? Well, look at the very first thing the Jewish elders say when they come to Jesus. Verse 4, when they came to
Jesus they pleaded with him earnestly saying he is worthy to have you do this for him for he loves our nation and he is the one who built us our synagogue now think about that the Jewish leaders the Jewish elders come to Jesus and they plead with him to help this centurion and their argument is he is worthy for you to do this for him because he loves our nation and he built our synagogue now Now, how does that argument strike you now that you've got the words of the sermon on the plain that Jesus just finished preaching ringing in your ears?
How is an argument of he is worthy going to play in the king's ears? Not very well. I mean, you think about what Jesus had even said in that sermon. Even sinners love those who love them. Even sinners do good to those who do good to them. So the elders are basically using this very low-level argument that Jesus had just dismantled to get him to act for their friend. He did nice things for us, Lord, so he deserves yourself.
He has loved this nation. You should love him. He's done good to us. You should do good to him. Even sinners do good to those who do good to them. They're making an argument based entirely on merit. He deserves you, Jesus. When that's exactly the kind of thinking that Jesus has been demolishing for the last chapter. But what's so extraordinary about this, and the way Luke sets it up this way, is because the centurion himself seems to be operating on a completely different level than that.
So Jesus gets closer to his house and he sends friends out with a message. And look what the centurion says. Jesus went with him. When he was not far from the house, the centurion sent friends saying, Lord, do not trouble yourself, for I am not worthy to have you come under my roof. Therefore, I didn't presume to come to you, but say the word and let my servant be healed. It's quite a contrast that Luke draws there, right? The elders get in Jesus' ear and they say, Lord, he is worthy of your help. The centurion, when it comes to him, says, Lord, no, I am not worthy.
Now, which of those two, the elders with their argument from merit, or the centurion himself with his argument from spiritual bankruptcy, which of those two sounds more like a citizen of the kingdom that Jesus just described? Which one sounds more like an argument from poverty and bankruptcy of spirit? And which sounds more like trying to find something in your pocket to show to God? Yeah, it's the one who knows he's got nothing to offer. It's someone who knows he's not worthy to have Jesus come under his roof.
And yet he comes to him in faith. Anyway, that's the centurion. But here then is where it gets really remarkable. And this is what leaves Jesus marveling at what the centurion says. Look at his reasoning in verses 7 and 8. He says, therefore I didn't presume to come to you, but say the word and let my servant be healed. And then you've got in verse 8, the word for there means because. so he said the thing he wants to happen all you need to do you don't even need to come to my servant's bed you don't need to see him you don't need to touch him I know this all you have to do is say the word and it will be done now what makes him say that well he's about to tell you what makes him say that in verse 8 I say this he says because for I too am a man set under authority with soldiers under me I say to one go and he goes to another come and he comes and to my servant do this, and he does it. And that sentence leaves Jesus marveling. Why? I mean, what's so good about
what that guy is saying? Well, let's think about it a little bit. Because the guy's not just being humble. He's not just being humble. He's actually thought and thought. He's heard of Jesus. He's seen Jesus's claims. He's thought about it, and he's actually come to a profound theological insight about who Jesus really is. Look what he says there. You just say the word. You just say the word, Jesus, and my servant will be healed. And then he gives his reasons. For I too am a man under authority.
Okay, now that's, as I read it, that is not what I would have expected him to say. How about you? Lord, you say the word and it will be done. And what I would have expected the centurion to say is, and i too lord am a man with authority i have soldiers under me i tell them to go and they go i tell them to come and they come i say do this and they do it because i am a man like you with authority that's what you'd have expected that is not what he says he says i'm a man under authority and therefore all of this stuff happens when i say the word what does he mean see in in the roman military i'll tell you what he means in the roman military all authority flowed down from the emperor so authority didn't inherit in a centurion or even in achille arc or even in a in a general they weren't speaking when they spoke to their soldiers with their own authority in their own voice authority flowed from the emperor and so whether
you were the you know runtiest runt of a grunt soldier in caesar's army or you were the highest general under Caesar, when you spoke, when you heard the word of your commanding officer, you didn't just hear Centurion Flavius talking to you, you heard Emperor Augustus, because all authority flowed down. So when the Centurion speaks, because he is a man under the authority of the emperor, authority flows from the emperor, from Tiberius Caesar at the time, it comes out his mouth, and the soldier hears Tiberius speaking to him.
Okay, now, the centurion takes that understanding of the Roman military hierarchy and he applies it as well as he can here. He takes that understanding of authority and he says to Jesus, listen, I know how authority works. And I can see from the things I've known about you and heard about you, I can see that when you speak, something way bigger than just the Roman emperor is speaking. you don't need to come to my house you don't need to touch my servant you don't need to perform a ritual you don't need to perform a spell none of that you just speak because I know that when you speak the God who made the universe is speaking and sickness will obey you as quickly as my soldiers obey me you see what he's saying you see what he's figured out he's figured out that Jesus speaks with the voice of the God of the universe, with the authority of God himself.
So it's no wonder that Jesus looks at that and goes, wow, nobody even among my own people has figured that out yet. And yet here you are, this Roman pagan dude, and you've figured it out. You've figured out something of who I am. Many of you can see that in verse 9. When Jesus heard this, he marveled at him. And turning to the crowd that followed him, he said, I tell you, not even in Israel have I found such faith. And there's a little bit of sting in that, isn't there?
Right there? I mean, if the elders of the Jews were still standing around when all of this was happening, there's a little bit of sting because probably what Jesus said is, Oh my goodness, not even among these guys right here have I found that kind of faith. You would have stung a little bit. You've got this pagan, Roman, outsider, soldier. And he's understood something about Jesus and his relationship to the Father that the whole nation of Israel, with all their scriptures and all their history, hadn't even grasped yet.
I wonder if you've ever noticed that kind of thing happen. Even sometimes around here at 3rd Avenue. I wonder if you noticed that. It's just an observation. Sometimes the people who have the best, grittiest understanding of the gospel and of who Jesus is and what he's done often are not those who grew up in a Christian home. And I'm, you know, if you grew up in a Christian home, I get that, I imagine that's a lot of you given the membership interviews that I do week in and week out. I'm with you in that. I grew up in one too. I'm grateful to God for letting me grow up in a Christian home.
But what I have seen over the course of doing hundreds of membership interviews is that the people who have, sometimes I would say, often, The grittiest, most heartfelt understanding of the gospel are those whom Jesus saved out of catastrophe. And they know it. That's different for those of us who grew up under the preaching of the gospel. We grew up kind of always hearing it. I mean, it kind of feels like we slid downhill into the kingdom of heaven sometimes.
I think that can lead to, and it can happen to anybody really as time kind of goes on, is that you just kind of start to yawn at the truths of the gospel. You just kind of say, well, of course. I mean, of course Jesus died on the cross to save me from my sins. What's so big about that? I've heard it all my life. Over time, we can start to think that all of this stuff we talk about is just a bunch of ho-hum that we've heard a thousand times before. But here's the thing. What I've noticed is that to people who've been snatched out of the fire, to people who saw themselves dangling over the edge of hell and felt Jesus grab them by the back of the neck can pull them out. The truths of the gospel are like straight up life and triumph. I have been saved from my sin. Friends, whatever your testimony is, whatever your testimony is, never, ever, ever allow the gospel and its truths to become ho-hum to you. Do a kind of self-diagnostic. Have I gotten bored with the truths of the gospel? And if so, then friend, that's like a five alarm fire.
Pray that the Lord would ignite your heart again to be in awe at the truths of the gospel like the centurion was. Stare at the gospel some more. Read about it. Let your love for Jesus and your gratitude for what he's done for you fire up again. Well, in verse 10, you get the punchline in that verse that you've seen coming for a mile. I mean, there's been no doubt about how this thing was going to end. The friends go back to the house, and the servant is well. So there's no visit.
Jesus doesn't go there. There's no touch. There's no fanfare. There's no spell. There's no ritual. Nothing. It's just a word, because the word of the king is enough. Now, let's think about this a little bit more, and particularly what it means for us. When we talk about trusting Jesus, when we Christians talk about having faith, trusting Jesus, this is what we mean right here. We're not talking about a vague, sentimental feeling that everything is going to be okay. Now, sometimes we talk about it like that as Christians, and we shouldn't.
It's not trust, faith. It's not just a vague, sentimental feeling that everything is going to be all right. What we mean when we talk about faith in Jesus is the settled conviction that this man speaks with absolute authority. And that, therefore, his word is absolutely reliable. His promises don't need to be propped up by our circumstances or by our feelings. Our faith and trust in his promises shouldn't wax and wane, waver back and forth depending on what's happening to us. I know that happens, but it shouldn't.
His promises are secure. His word created the universe. His word now holds it together. And friend, his word is going to hold you together too if you're a believer in him. I know it may seem sometimes like life is coming apart at the seams. Everything is unraveling and it's totally out of control. It is not. If you're a believer in Christ, you will bounce into heaven finally. Maybe with the seat of your pants on fire, but you'll make it if you're a believer in him.
Because his promises are secure. They don't have fine print. There's no hidden part of the contract. Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. And no one, Jesus said, no one will snatch them out of my hand. Listen to me. You're going to go through seasons of life, even as a Christian. You're going to go through seasons of life when everything about your circumstances screams that God has forgotten you.
You're going to get the diagnosis. You're going to experience the betrayal. You're going to get the phone call at 2 a.m. that changes everything. and at those moments you're going to need something more than just sentiment you're going to need something more than just a moment where I feel very close to God you know what you're going to need you're going to need a settled confidence right down at the bottom of your soul that the word of this king is immovable that's what you're going to need the centurion had that he had that kind of confidence in the word of the king he couldn't see jesus he couldn't touch him he wasn't even in the same room as jesus all he had was the word and he knew that the word of the king was enough friend do you do you have that kind of faith in the word of the king that just just by the way, this is why you as a Christian need a big theology. This is why you don't need
to have somebody standing in a pulpit like this and just telling you week in and week out how to manage your money and how to manage your friends and how to have a better Tuesday. You don't need that. You'll manage that stuff fine by yourself. What you need is a big theology for when everything falls apart, and it will. I mean, you want to know why I stand up here and teach you all these big themes from the Bible? You want to know why I teach you all this hard theology? I teach you all this hard, deep theology from this pulpit, so you will have it ready to use at the hospital bed or at the grave. I don't want to have to teach you. As your pastor, when I come to the funeral where you're weeping or the hospital bed where you're praying your heart out, I don't want to have to teach you the hard theology in the worst moment of your life. I want you to know the theology before we get to
that point. So I can just come in and put my arm around you and say, you remember all that stuff we've talked about? You remember the sovereignty of God? You remember that he's working all things together for the good of those who love him? Do you remember his great mercy? Do you remember his great power let's just go down into the cellar of your heart and bring up what's already there because you don't need a bible study right now that's why we preach the hard theology here so you can bring up the treasures when they're needed you see that the centurion he didn't come up with this theology of jesus's authority on the spot it didn't it didn't just erupt into his his mind he'd been thinking about it he's he'd been reasoning through it and knowledge it like why does sickness respond to this man why does it obey him like a soldier obeys me well it's because do you see what he had been doing he'd been analogizing the whole thing to his own situation he built a framework for understanding who Jesus was and then when the crisis came when his servant was dying well then he had something to lean on not feelings not wishful
thinking not a burning in his bosom or anything like that he just had a settled conviction about who Jesus is and what his word can do. And that was enough for him. If you're here this morning and you're not a Christian, I want you to notice something else about this centurion. He was a man of enormous power. He had military rank. He had financial resources. He had political influence. He had everything. And not one single bit of it could save his servant when the chips went down.
None of it. He'd worked his entire life to get himself to where he was and all of it was useless when the rubber hit the road. There's going to come a point for you because there comes a point for every single one of us when our need outstrips our resources. When we come to the end of ourselves and realize that everything we've built up can't do one single thing to help us. the centurion got there right at this moment and he had the humility to look beyond himself to Jesus and say, you are the one I need and I can trust your word.
I wonder if that's where you are. And I kind of hope it is. I kind of hope you're at the point of desperation where you say, you know, I understand what eternity is. And I understand that all these resources that I have, all this influence that I have, this company I've built or this money that I have, whatever it is, none of it's going to help me on the last day none of it my need on the last day has outstripped my resources by like infinity but i know that jesus says he will save everyone who comes to him in faith and so i'm bowing my knee to him and proclaiming him to be my king and i'm following him with my whole life some of you need to do that today just like this centurion did what's it going to take what's it going to take for you to do that you're going to hear his word and respond to him understand the truth or is Jesus going to have to strip it all away before you see that you're at the end of yourself come to him in faith
now not later some of Jesus' authority is absolute but what does he do with that authority how does he exercise that authority what kind of heart lays behind it well that's the second point number two a mercy you didn't earn we're going to look at verses 11 through 17 story of this widow so what happens next here starting in verse 11 is i think one of the most quietly wonderful stories in the gospels it doesn't get the play it doesn't get the kind of marquee attention that the raising of Lazarus does. And it's probably something to do with the length of it. There's not as much detail and conversation and all the rest of it. But it's just a wonderful story. Look what Luke tells us. Soon afterward, this is a very common thing in Luke's thing, he's not specifying exactly when this happened. It may have been a year later. It may have been a week later. He just doesn't tell us. He just says, soon afterward, he went to a town called Nine, and his disciples and
a great crowd went with him, and 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 following her. Now, I want you to look at the words of that, and just see how Luke is describing this situation, because he's painted this picture very, very carefully to push on you the truth about this widow that's the first thing you need to know about her she is a widow in other words her husband is already dead and now the son that she is burying is not just her son but her only son which meant in first century palestine that what she's experiencing here is not just grief as she walks out toward the graveyard it's basically a death sentence she's got no husband and she's got no son, which means she has no income.
She's got no legal protection. She has no social standing. She has no future. This woman is not just mourning. She's staring into an abyss of hopelessness. Everything she had in all of her life was dead on that stretcher. I also want you to see here the contrast with the centurion. Because it's enormous, right? And it's not accidental. Luke does this on purpose. The centurion was a man of power. He had everything that he needed to make life work. He had Jewish elders that were willing to vouch for him. He had friends that he could send out to Jesus as messengers. He had a home where his servant could lie in his sickbed. He had the theological clarity and the wherewithal to reason his way to this really profound understanding of who Jesus was. He even had the confidence to say, Jesus, just say the word and my servant will be healed.
This was a big man in every way. This widow of nine has none of that. She didn't have a home. She doesn't have messengers to send. She doesn't make a theological argument. She doesn't even ask Jesus for anything. For all we know, she doesn't know who Jesus is. As far as she knows, he's just maybe another man in the crowd. Off she goes, walking past him toward the grave to put all of her hopes and dreams in the tomb. Friend, if you're here this morning and you're somebody who doesn't know Jesus, I'm super glad you're here.
There's a reason that the Lord worked everything out in your life and our lives to get you here on this particular day. And I want you to see something because I think God's brought you here for a reason. I want you to see something in this text. If you've ever read much about Jesus, then you know that the way he handles this widow is how he handles people again and again and again in the Gospels. Jesus is drawn to the helpless. Over and over, he's drawn to the helpless.
He goes to the people who have nothing left. He goes to people who've come to the end of themselves. Maybe that's you. I mean, maybe you're sitting there this morning and listening to all this and you feel like you've got nothing to offer God. I have no impressive faith. I have no theological credentials. I have no spiritual resume. All I've got, Lord, is a life that I have made a total wreck of. That's what I've got to offer you. If so, if that's where you are, if you're at the end of your rope staring into the abyss, this is for you.
This story is for you. Because notice what he does. Jesus doesn't wait for this woman to get herself together and cook him dinner. He goes to her, and he'll come to you too. On the other hand, maybe that's not you at all. Maybe you're not staring into an abyss. Maybe you're staring at a palace, man. Maybe you've got everything you ever wanted. You've accomplished it all. Maybe you're comfortable.
Doing just fine, right? good career good family good life have a place to have some fun sometimes if that's where you are then then honestly if that's making you say i don't need jesus then my advice to you would be to back up a chapter and read what jesus said that we looked at last week because in his sermon on the plane he basically dismantled every shred of human self-sufficiency he showed us that what god requires is way more than what you have to offer. You're not going to be able to stand before him on the last day. When your soul has left your body and all the houses and the cars and whatever else are not with you anymore, you're not going to be able to stand in front of the throne of God and say, but God look at the house I provided for my grandchildren. I worked hard for that Lord and it was out of love, that argument's not gonna fly. No, what you're gonna do is stand in front of the
Lord with all the trappings of wealth and success and influence fallen off your back, and you're gonna be bankrupt. And friend, until you see that, until you feel the weight of your own helplessness before God to save yourself from your own sin, you're never gonna understand why this widow story matters because you're gonna look at her and you're gonna despise her for being helpless she should have made better decisions no helplessness is what Jesus is drawn to it's when people come to the end of themselves that's when he shows up well look at what happens next verse 13 when the Lord saw her he had compassion on her and said to her do not weep and then he came up and touched to a beer and the bearers 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. Three things happen here and I want
you to look at all three of them. First of all, notice that Luke says there in 13 that Jesus saw her. She didn't seek him out. She didn't come to him. She didn't see him over in the crowd and run over to him recognizing for who recognizing him for who he was he saw her in her need and he went to her second he had compassion on her he had compassion on her now that that word in English does not have the strength and the sort of stickiness that the word in Greek does in Greek that's the strongest word for compassion that exists in the language it means that his guts twisted for her it's a word it sounds something I don't know that this is exactly right but I think it's something like splankomai. I mean, it's an ugly word because his guts twisted inside him for her. So this wasn't just a cool, detached decision to help her. This was the creator of the universe looking at a broken woman and being moved to the core of his being to use omnipotent
power to help her. Third, he says, do not weep. Now, under normal circumstances, that would be almost a cruel thing to say to a woman burying her only son, right? You don't walk up to a woman who's lost her son in the funeral home and say, don't cry. It's just a cruel thing to say to her because crying is right. But Jesus is not saying that in the same way that you or I might say it at a funeral home he's saying it because he knows he's about to do something about what she's crying about and then he does it he walks up touches the beer that's the stretcher that they're that they're carrying the body on and the bearers stop I mean this doesn't happen no one touches a funeral cart right you're you become ritually unclean if you touch it so just Jesus reaching out and touching that thing says there is a weird thing happening here so the bearers you know naturally stop and they're they're trying to figure out what's what's going on he looks at the young man and he says young man i say to you arise and the dead man set up and
began to speak and jesus gave him to his mother just like that i mean just just that fast there's no ceremony no ritual no spell no process nothing i mean look look at this jesus doesn't even pray here. Do you notice that? He doesn't even pray. He just speaks and death lets go. When you look at the next couple of verses, fear seized them all and they glorified God saying, a great prophet has arisen. Why do they say that? Why do they call him a great prophet?
Well, it's because Elijah had done something very similar in a very similar situation, right back in first kings or second kings i think it is so the widow's son with whom he had been friends dies and he goes in and he prays and cries out to god over and over again even stretches out his body over the the body of the the dead son and he cries out to god over and over oh lord save him save him and eventually through his crying out to god the kid comes back to life and so the people see this and they say oh this looks just like elijah bringing that kid to life but it doesn't look like Elijah, does it? Elijah had to spend hours in there praying and begging God to act.
Jesus just says, get up. And the boy gets up. Absolute and total authority used for other people's good. See, I told you last time that the standard Jesus demands reflects the character of God. Well, this is kind of the other side of it. The standard Jesus demands reflects the character of God for us, right? Well, this is the other side. The authority that Jesus wields reflects the power and love of God. He speaks to a corpse, and the corpse obeys. Death bows to the king, and the widow rejoices. I want to talk to you about a couple of things, applications from this, And I want you to listen carefully to both of them, and then we'll be done.
First, if you're a believer this morning, and you struggle with whether your faith is strong enough, whether you've believed well enough, whether you're really saved, whether your faith is really of the character that God wants faith to be, I want you to look at this widow. I want you to look at this widow. The centurion had great, solid, incisive faith. And yeah, Jesus praised him for it. But this widow, she's a picture of utter and complete helplessness.
She doesn't go looking for Jesus. She doesn't send messengers. She doesn't make a theological argument. She doesn't have the spiritual confidence to say, Lord, just say the word. She doesn't have anything to offer. And yet Jesus came to her anyway. He saw her. His guts twisted for her because he saw her inner plight and he acted on her behalf before she ever opened her mouth. That's the Jesus that you belong to if you are a Christian.
Charles Spurgeon once wrote this. He said, there's a day coming when all of Christ's sheep shall pass again under the hand of him that saved them. and in that day not one of the whole redeemed flock shall be missing as the long role of god's ransomed family is called one at a time it shall be asked is little faith here and he'll answer to his name not at all in a trembling way in which he used to speak when he was upon earth when it is asked is miss much afraid here she will reply in jubilant tones glory be to god i am here no matter how weak and feeble you may be if you are a child of god you shall certainly be there and the inheritance shall be yours and what a beautiful thought right on on that day on that day jesus the king himself is going to be looking out for mr little faith he's going to be looking for him where is mr little faith he struggled so much in this life where is he and praise god
Mr. Little Faith is going to be there. He's going to call out to make sure Miss Much Afraid is there. Now she wrestled with so much in this life. And out of the middle of the crowd, she's going to go, Lord, I'm here. I'm here. It's not going to be because their faith is so impressive. It's going to be because the one who called them is utterly and completely faithful. Christian, your salvation is never, it's never about the strength of your grip on Jesus.
It's about the strength of his grip on you. Another thing I want you to see here, even deeper, because I think in a kind of shadowy way, Luke is showing us something about how salvation itself works. He's showing us a little bit of the machinery of salvation. So for those of you who study theology, this is just Luke giving us a little bit, I think, of the ordo salutis, the order of salvation, like how things fit together. So think about this. Who is the main beneficiary of Jesus' mercy in this story?
Is it the mom? The widow? I mean, sure, in part, she receives Jesus' mercy and gets her son back. But it's the son, right? That's the main beneficiary. He's the one who goes from being dead to being alive. And here's the thing about the son. He's dead. Not only does he not ask for any help, he cannot ask for any help. He can't do anything. He's a corpse on a stretcher. And Jesus speaks life into him.
Now you realize, don't you, right, that that's a precise picture. It's a very careful picture of what God does for every sinner he saves. And Paul says it plainly in the Ephesians 2. You were not just sick, not just sad, you were dead in your trespasses and sins. But God, being rich in mercy because of his great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our sins, made us alive together with Christ. You see the order? It's just like this kid that gets raised from the dead. We were dead and God made us alive.
The life comes before the response, not after it. And Jesus doesn't speak to the dead boy and say, if you will just believe in me, you'll be alive. You see that, right? He doesn't say that. He just says, live, and the boy breathes. That's how it works for you, too. I mean, another example. Think about Lazarus in John 11. Jesus stands outside the tomb, and he says, Lazarus, come out. And then Lazarus does. But you notice what happens first. Life is given, and then action happens.
the call of Jesus creates the life, and the life produces the response. That's what theologians call, the big 50-cent theological word, regeneration, rebirth, coming to life from the dead again. It's this sovereign act of the Holy Spirit in which he gives spiritual life to a person who is spiritually dead, and that moment of spiritual life comes before your faith, not because of it. Your faith is like the first gasp of a man who's just been brought to life from the dead.
It's not the thing that earned the resurrection. Jesus calls out, Lazarus, come forth. Lazarus comes alive, and then he breathes. That's what faith is. Your spirit comes alive and you see the beauty of Christ and you trust in him. You know why that matters? You know why that matters? It matters because your salvation doesn't depend on the strength of your faith. and your first breath may be gasping and halting you may have something stuck in your spiritual throat i don't know or it may be a big lung-filling draft of wind that fills you up what matters is that you're already alive depends on the power of the one who called you if the boy's coming back to life this this widow's son if his coming back to life depended on his own ability to get up off that stretcher or to believe or to think correctly or anything else you could say then he is still dead but it didn't depend on him it depended entirely on the word of jesus
and in the same way if your salvation depended on the quality of your faith you'd be sunk but praise god it doesn't depend on you it depends on the god who while you were still dead because of the great love with which he loved you spoke life into your soul that's what paul means when he says by grace you have been saved through faith and even that faith itself is not your own doing, it is the gift of God. Well, if you're not a Christian and you've been thinking, look, I don't know enough. I don't believe enough. I'm not ready. Look, the fact is you're never, ever going to be ready. You're never, ever going to work yourself into a place where you are ready for the salvation of God. No, what happens is that at a moment just like this, at a moment, just this is how people get converted all the time. At a moment just like this, the Holy Spirit brings someone's soul to life and they feel it right it's just it's just sort of wow I'm I'm what this guy's saying what the bible is saying is is true I think it's true I think Jesus got up from the dead I think he was
crucified for for my sins I think he can do what he says he can do in saving sinners and so I'm just going to trust him now right dead man comes to life and then he breathes I mean maybe you can feel that this morning maybe you can just kind of feel your heart toppling over in trust of Jesus yeah I just believe this I don't know what happened I didn't believe it when I came in or or at least I didn't care. Now I believe it. Maybe that's where you are. Friend, don't ignore that. It might very well be that the Holy Spirit has brought your soul to life. Put your faith in Christ.
See, around Henry VIII's throne, the thunder rolled, and the people trembled because his power might have been absolute, but it had no mercy. It wasn't combined with goodness. But around this king's throne, the sick are healed, and the dead are raised, and the helpless are shown compassion. This king, yeah, he's got absolute authority. And he is astonishingly merciful to those who know they need him.
Look, the question is not any longer, is this king trustworthy? He is. The question is for you, will you trust him? Let's pray. Our Lord, we thank you that over the centuries and over the millennia, you have proven yourself to be completely and utterly trustworthy.
That when you speak, there is absolute divine authority behind your promises and that you never once dropped the ball. You never once turn your back on a promise. And Lord, you have promised that everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. So Father, we pray that there wouldn't be a single person in here today, in this room, who would walk away from this place not knowing you. Lord, bring life where there has been only spiritual death. And cause people to turn and put their faith in you for salvation and for eternity. We pray all of this in Jesus' name.
Amen.