Sermon Tone Analysis

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.