What On Earth Are We Here For?

What on earth are we here for?

I shared the past few weeks, that in light of the opportunity that we have to come together, I would be stepping away from the teaching and preaching that we have been doing since last August in Ephesians so we can “hang out” in the gospels for a season. And although I intend to spend most of the message times focused on the Books of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, we may also step into some other areas of Scripture because it is all sound for teaching and correcting and edifying.

And what I want to do is to begin a series that answers a very necessary and essential question that we all face together as the Pleasant Hill Church, and the question is “What on earth are we (the church) here for?”

So open your Bibles if you will to Luke chapter 7 and let’s see if we can’t learn from an event in the life of Jesus, a broken woman, and a dead man, what in the world we are here for.

(Read )

Joseph Parker, the Nineteenth century British preacher once said, “Preach to the suffering, and you will never lack a congregation. There is a broken heart in every pew.”

So, for the broken hearted I want to begin in verse 11, and I want to show you the timing of this event that is before us.

The NIV says “Soon afterward” – and other translations say, “On the next day”. So, the question is soon after what?

Well if you explore verses 1 thru 10 you will remember that there is the event of Jesus healing the servant of the Roman Centurion. The Roman has heard that Jesus is in Capernaum, and so he sends a delegation of Jews to come and ask Jesus if He will heal the servant who he admires. And as Jesus is on His way to the house, the centurion sends a few of his friends, and he says = you don’t need to trouble yourself coming all the way to my home – I realize that you have the power and authority to exercise what you do – simply by speaking. So, if you will only speak the healing then I know that it will be – and the centurion illustrates how he understands this power to work with a military picture. And – Jesus does what is asked, and all those who came to address Jesus return home to find that the servant is well.

POINT 1 – Jesus always is filled with power.

And here we have a word for the broken hearted. The Bible tells us that on the very next day – or rather “soon after” Jesus goes to Nain. And here lies the first thing the broken-hearted needs to understand. Jesus has power that is eternal and always on full.

Jesus didn’t need to take a weeks’ vacation to rest up to enter into the arena to battle with the enemy.

Jesus doesn’t need to go to a seminar or a conference to get more good stuff so He could feel prepared and refreshed. Jesus is always and abundantly filled with power. Jesus is the creator of all things and He has the power to do what He does – always. This is good news to the weak and weary. This is good news to the broken hearted.

Point 2 – Jesus goes to the least of places and to the least of men.

Secondly, the broken hearted can be relieved because of where Jesus is. – We see that Jesus is arriving in the village of Nain – today it is a little place where about 200 people live. This isn’t The Temple. This isn’t Jerusalem. This isn’t Rome. This is Nain. A little hole in the wall place that doesn’t even show up on the map. It is where average Joes live and carry out life – and some of them may have never gone more than a few miles away. But this is good news for the broken hearted because Jesus comes to any town – no matter how big or how small. Where you find men, and pain, and hurt – there you will find Jesus.

Look with me at verse 12 for our third point.

READ V 12

POINT 3 – Providence of Jesus. Jesus is always on time.

Here we have our third point for the broken hearted. Do you see where Jesus is at the moment the dead man is being carried out?

He is at the town gate! This is amazing. This should bring joy into our hearts! Of all the places on earth that Jesus could be at that moment – He is where the funeral procession is making its way out of town.

A minute earlier and He may have been in the boy’s room at the local gas station when the dead man was carried by – a minute later and He could have not arrived until the dirt had been thrown over the dead mans body. But look! Jesus arrives at the exact moment that the man is being carried out.

This is the providence of Jesus for a hurt and dying world. It is when He is needed, that He arrives. He waited four days to go to the tomb of Lazarus – and yet we see that for the Glory of God He was on time and He did the impossible – when it was impossible.

Now consider this – Nain is a twenty mile walk from where Jesus was in Capernaum. This is a ten hour trip – possibly 12. And Jesus meets the funeral procession at the main gate of the city. Do you know that this means that Jesus quiet possibly left Capernaum even before this man had died? Back then they didn’t wait three days to bury the dead – the corpse was not embalmed – and it was necessary to carry out the funeral as soon as possible for many different reasons.

So let me ask you who are broken hearted and you who are struggling with a heart issue in your life – do you know that Jesus’ timing is perfect in its providence?

POINT 4– Jesus always operates in Grace.

He comes in hopeless times to those who have nothing to offer.

As we continue in verse 12 we see two points that are necessary for our understanding of the hopelessness of the situation that Jesus steps into. The first is that the dead man is being carried out, and the second is that the mother is now a widow – who has no son.

In this day of the event – this tells us that the woman is now in a hopeless condition. She has no man to provide for her – to protect her - and to meet her needs. There is no social security – and AARP benefits.

To be an old woman and to have no man means that she will spend the rest of her life depending on other people. And this also shows us her hopeless estate because we know that this isn’t the first funeral that she has had to attend! Her husband is dead.

This woman woke up this morning and all was well. Her son was going off to work and she knew that she could depend on him for the basic necessities of life. But now, she is walking down the street – headed for the grave yard, leading her hopes to a hole in the ground.

And we see the son. He is dead. His life is over and he is being carried by others who are walking with the mother. Sin has done what sin does best. It has destroyed a relationship and taken the life of the man and the comfort of the mother.

This is a great word of encouragement to those who live in this world in grief – Jesus has come to the people who have absolutely nothing to offer Him!

There Jesus is, and His hope is coming to the hopeless. The woman is in mourning and she may not even have a place to call home tonight because the judge may take a bribe and throw her out of her home so he can make a buck from his wealthy friend who wants it for a small business he wants to open!

She has nothing and no one to provide for her – and her voice is small in the time and day she lives – because she has no man to represent her case – but Jesus is coming, and He has a voice for her. He knows what she needs – even before she does.

The man is dead, and He has nothing to offer, but Jesus has something for the man anyway! The gift of life isn’t for those who have something to offer – or those who have influence! The gift is for the lifeless and the dead. I submit to you that the dead man may look fine and not yet become pale – and he may have on the best clothes he ever had – but the truth of the matter is – the man is dead – and here – in a no name town – at exactly the right moment – Jesus has come.

This is a word for the broken hearted.

And now we see the next point in verse 13

POINT 5 – Jesus has compassion on the broken hearted.

(Read v 13)

Jesus has compassion on her. This word compassion is a word that is related to the bowels and there is no stronger word in the Greek language for sympathy. It is a word that describes a deep seated hurt and pain. Warren Wiersbe speaks of this compassion and he says it is defined as “your pain in my heart.”

We need to understand what the Greeks thought about this idea of compassion if we are to fully grasp the power of this truth about the Lord.

To the Stoics, the primary characteristic of God, as they saw him, was that he was a God of apathy, that is, he was incapable of feelings. And this was their argument. If someone can make another sad or sorry, glad or joyful, it means that, at least for the moment, he can influence that other person. If he can influence him it means that, at least for the moment, he is greater than the other person. Now, no one can be greater than God; therefore, no one can influence God; therefore, in the nature of things, God must be incapable of feeling. (Barclay)

But it is Good News to the broken hearted that the Lord Jesus sees us in our distress, and He carries our burdens, and our broken heart, become His broken heart!

And this we need to see clearly.

What is it that keeps men from exercising compassion on others? Is it not self? Is it not the case that our own selfish endeavors and motives prevent us from exercising greater actions of compassion and pity on others?

We see something we want, and we go and get it while others have no ability to the things they need. We see value in things that are temporal – and we pursue then with time and money and thereby we have little of either for those who have nothing.

We value self above others and we determine to make our own lives to be comfortable – and in the making of such a self-satisfactory estate – others go without – and often times they are even unnoticed.

I say all that to say this – because this is good news for the broken hearted.

Jesus was selfless. He thought of others more highly than He thought of Himself. His whole purpose was to pour out what He as and who He was so that the world might know that there is hope to be had, and love to be grasped. And because Jesus was self-less – the compassion of Christ was deeper from Him than from anyone else – ever. That is the good news for the broken hearted. When Jesus says to the woman “don’t cry” – He says so because He has the power to meet her greatest need.

It was out of this selfless act of giving His life on the cross that we can live with the hope that He took all of our infirmities and bore all our sickness.

We see here, and again and again, in event after event, that Jesus has compassion. Listen to the greatness of this compassion that we hear when the Lord says to us – “God so loved the world . . .”

That is compassion. That is Good News for the broken hearted.

And this deep compassion came with great power.

See the next point in v 14 and 15

POINT 6 – With His compassion is great power.

Read v 14 and 15

See first the selfless act because of His broken heart for the broken mother.

Jesus walks up and touches the coffin.

If you go back and read the Book of Numbers – chapter 19 – you will see that to touch a dead body – or anything that it laid upon was to make a man unclean, and this means that you would have to go through an intensive bunch of rituals to remove the uncleanness. But Jesus breaks all the rules and He does the unimaginable. He touches the bed the dead man is laying on – He puts Himself out there - and He says “Young man get up!”

And here is good news for the broken hearted.

The Word of God has the power of life!

And the Power is not some distant unknown. The power is not some future experiment. The power is the Word of Christ Jesus!

POINT 7 – The Word is power.

There is great power in Gods Word. It is by His word that he spoke the universe into creation. The centurion said to Jesus “Just say the word, and my servant will be healed.” We have in the Scriptures the same powerful Word that is living and active and sharper than a double edged sword and piercing as far as division of soul and spirit, of both joints and marrow. And it is the word that is able to judge thoughts and intentions of the heart. The prophet Isaiah delivers a promise from God and says “for as the rain and the snow came down from heaven, and do not return without watering the earth, and making it bear and sprout, and furnishing seed to the sower and bread to the eater, so shall My Word be which goes forth from my mouth; it shall not return to me empty, without accomplishing what I desire, and without succeeding in the manner for which I sent it.”

This is the good news for the broken hearted.

The power of Gods word gives us hope because it is able to change hopeless situations. The Word can give us new hearts that will be imperishable, and it gives us a strength that we can not create in our own doing. It is the Word that enlivens the Spirit within us and gives us a clearer vision as it transforms our minds and gives us the ability to see the darkness broken!

A little boy in England set at his bedroom window watching a man light the lampposts along the brick street in front of his house, and his mother walked in and asked him what he was doing? And the boy answered - and he said – mommy – I am watching a man cut hole in the darkness.

That is what the word of God does! It over powers the darkness in our lives – it brightens our walk – the Psalmist said “The Word is a lamp unto my feet” and we can see the power of living life in light of the good news – and that good news wasn’t for a man who cleaned himself up and made himself presentable.

NO – that good news went to a man who was dead – carried on the shoulders of his friends and now a great burden to them – and he was a heartbreak to his mother.

He was the man we studied in great detail in Ephesians chapter 2 – dead – unworthy – lost and defiled and seeking nothing but his own interests.

And his mother – she needed her son to get a word from the Lord – and she had nothing to offer – but here we see the grace of God show up in a middle of nowhere town – at just the right moment. And he took her broken heart into his own chest and he was so moved by the pitiful state before Him, that He delivered His life – His Word – to the most unexpecting person in all the village.

And Jesus – because He loved her, and He loved those walking with Him and those walking with the dead – He gave the boy back to His mother. Alive and sitting up and speaking.

What did the boy say? – we don’t know – and I tend to agree with one author who said – we are not told what the man said because the focus isn’t on the man – the focus is on Jesus!

This is all about Jesus! And we need to see what happens when the broken-hearted witness such a work of Grace given to hurting people.

READ V. 16 and 17

Point 8 – Gods work fills man with Awe (fear).

The Bible says they were all filled with Awe – or they were filled with a reverent fear.

See the two groups have one reaction. We know that the one crowd was walking away from the village and they were mourning and crying and weeping and they were in the company of death.

The other crowd had come with Jesus. They had seen and heard great things that He had done, and they wanted to see what was next. They took a vacation from their work and they called in sick and they so much did not want to miss seeing what would happen next – and now they see this broken mother restored to a living relationship with her once dead son.

And they were all filled with awe – they were overjoyed at what they had seen. They rejoiced in the work of Jesus, and we are told in verse 17 that the news, or the report of Jesus spread throughout the country.

Do you hear the hope for the broken hearted?

There is a word that there is healing, and there is power, and there is One who can fix what has been broken.

For those who mourn the dead – those who are slaves to sin – there is a reason to not give up! There is One who can – with a Word – bring your dead son – your dead wife – your dead husband to life and make them new.

So what can we, who live in such a heart breaking time, take from this passage for ourselves today?

1) Weep for the dead.

Let your broken heart be seen by Jesus! Do not pretend that the lost in your home, or your church, or your workplace is a trivial thing. Your child that is lost and running from the Lord, and is bent on serving the prince of the air – it is your own child and you should weep and cry out to the Lord for their salvation!

Beg God – continuously to do a work in the heart of your lost loved one. Beg of the Lord – with such a great commotion that you dare to weary Him with your heart ache! Do not hide from Him the pain – He is compassionate and there is no greater act of faith than to tell God that you can do nothing apart from Him and He alone doing it for you!

2) Learn to stand still

We are told that Jesus looks at the mother of the dead and says to her –“ Don’t weep, stop crying” – and then He walks over and touches the bier. Do you see how unusual this is?

There are those who were carrying the bier and they had to be thinking – Fella – I don’t know who you are and I don’t know what you think you are doing – but if you touch my dead friend after the way you spoke to his mother – I am going to have a go at you!

Isn’t that the way we react very often when things are happening that don’t make sense?

God is doing something in our midst, and we are to busy carrying the load we have – and we are so sure that it is our job to carry the load – that we miss out on what He is doing.

Look at what the Bible teaches us. Jesus never says a word to the men carrying the load – but in the presence of Jesus – they know something is different – they realize something is happening – and they simply stand still.

And you see what happens next – their load is lightened. There is no more of a burden to carry – only a moment to celebrate.

3) Deliver a FULL testimony!

And finally, I want you to see the power of a testimony. The Bible says “it went throughout all the country” – but I see a problem that exists. It is good that the news went everywhere – and the problem in the church today is that we almost never share what God has done – and so those we meet who have no hope – they continue without hope.

But look here – the testimony – the witness was incomplete. I show you this two ways.

First – the next thing we see is that when the news gets out – John the Baptist’s disciples tell John, who is sitting in prison, and John sends men to Jesus to ask – are you the One, or is there someone else to come.

Didn’t the people just send out a report that God had done a work in their neighborhood? Didn’t they say – God has helped His people!?

Yes – but they didn’t give God the credit due Him. They kept the most important of the message out of the conversation. They missed the point of what had just happened!

In verse 16 they say “a Great prophet has appeared among us!”

Jesus – a mere prophet. Do you know that that would be the greatest of honors to be called a prophet? In fact, when Jesus asked the disciples in , “Who do you say I am?” they said - “Some say you are John the Baptist – some say you are Elijah and others say you are Jeremiah or one of the prophets.”

But those answers get no response from Jesus – He asks again – Who do YOU say that I am?

And Peter says – “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God!”

This my friends is the right report! This is the Word, the message that will save sinners and give hope to the hopeless, and life to the dead!

Are we guilty of walking out into the dark of the world and speaking as if Jesus was a really nice guy – or Jesus was a Good Teacher and thereby not confessing the fullness of the One who came to give life through His own sacrifice?

This is why we are here on earth – to proclaim the good news – the gospel to the hurt and dying, that God Himself has come to this earth and out of a great pity for you and me and every other messed up man and woman who has nothing to offer – He has come to a middle of the nowhere place to give life by His word – because of His death, burial, and resurrection!

That is why we are here on earth– and if we are ever to see the lost found we must weep with a broken heart – we must stand still and know that He is God - and we must send out not just a good report – but a personal testimony to the work God, as you see the life He has given to dead sinners like Joel and Susan Mason – and share the testimony of what He did for you when all else was lost!

I close with this point before us.

Jesus has made it clear that if we are to live the life that He has given us, then we must pick up our cross daily and follow Him. We must surrender all of me to all of Him. This life I now live is His – I am not my own – HE paid the price for the freedom that I now have.

And we find in todays passage that a great crowd has followed Him on a twenty-mile hike.

But where are these people who have spread the good report about Him as the days go by?

The Bible tells us two things:

First – They did not follow Him much farther – or for much longer because they did not see Him as He was. Lord and Savior. Healer and Redeemer.

In – Jesus weeps over some of the same people who followed Him this day and He says – You will be devastated. You will be afflicted with great pain, because “You did not recognize the time of Gods coming to you.”

They missed the fact that God was among them – they missed the heart of the Father and what He was doing for them. And In john 6:66 we see that many of Jesus’ followers turned back and no longer followed Him.”

So let me ask – Who have you met and who do you profess as you share your testimony often about the life you have received?

Is He a nice guy and a good teacher? Or is He the savior and the Lord of your soul and you live to live for Him and what He has to offer?

We are here to share a testimony that is full of Grace and full of Truth to a world that is dying from a broken heart.

And the more we know Jesus the more we will weep for sin and for sinners. The more we know Jesus the more we will look for the unexpected and quit trying to carry the burdens on our shoulders.

The more we know Jesus – the more we will know that God has come – and He has done what we could not do for ourselves. Please – tell the world that there us hope as you tell people about the day He walked up and touched you.

The broken-hearted are waiting desperately to hear the words – “Get up.”

This is why we are here.