Sermon Tone Analysis

“Help for Broken Hearts”

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When our hearts are broken over our own loss, or over the loss of the people we love; we wonder what comfort God has for grieving, brokenhearted people, and what hope we have for life after death.

Luke answers these questions by telling us what Jesus did for a mother who suffered the tragic loss of her only son.

In this story we see the love of Jesus, the power of Jesus, and the future Jesus has for those who know him.

We are told the day after Jesus had healed the centurion’s servant in Capernaum, Jesus and his disciples travel some 25 miles south to the small town of Nain.

This is a small town off the beaten path, at the end of a dead-end road.

When Tess and I went to Israel; we drove by the road that leads to the city of Nain; and the tour guide simply pointed down the road, and said; that is the road to the city of Nain, we didn’t even bother to stop there.

But that’s not what Jesus did; Jesus traveled a day’s journey to the city of Nain, because he had an appointment at the gate of that city.

As Jesus was going into the city; he met a sad procession coming out of the city, it was a funeral.

According to the custom of that time, the dead were buried outside the city, usually at twilight on the same day they died.

Archaeologists have discovered, many tombs in the rocks along the road leading to Nain.

There were on the way to those tombs to bury this young man.

We’re told that there were a lot of people with this mother as she made her way to bury her son.

Get the picture in your mind; there would be musicians playing a mournful dirge on their flutes.

There would be professional mourners, women who weep and wailed as a public expression of grief.

Many of the town’s people were there to pay their last respects.

As we picture the scene, we are reminded of the tragedy of the human condition.

We ourselves have gone out to bury our loved ones; not walking out of the city; but driving in a long line of cars behind the hearse.

This is a sorrow that we will all experience; and it is all because of sin!

God gave us life, but we chose to sin, and in choosing sin, we have come under judgment.

If there had never been sin, then there would have never been death, or funerals, or tears, or broken hearts.

But because of sin, we have death!

-“Wherefore as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned”.

This is the source of all of our sorrow and broken hearts.

Martin Luther said, ”When you hear of death, you must not only think of the grave, and the horrible manner in which life is separated from the body, and how the body is destroyed, but you must think of the cause by which man is brought to death… Namely sin and the wrath of God on account of sin”

As Jesus watch this sad procession, he was witnessing the consequences of man’s sin, which is death, and the sorrow it brings with it.

As Jesus made his way into the town here is what he would see: This sad funeral procession, walking out in front by herself would be this widow woman who had just lost her son; because in those days it was customary for the family to proceed the deceased, and in this case, she was the only one left.

Behind her would be her dead son wrapped in a burial shroud and lying on a flat open stretcher, with sides on it, being carried on the shoulders of his friends.

This is the saddest funeral that anyone could ever imagine!

This woman was a widow; she had been down this road before to bury her husband.

Now she is grieving again, with the death of her son, she has no one to protect her or to provide for her.

In that culture it meant that she would have to survive off of the charity of others, or die.

The death of this young man, and the sorrow of this grieving mother, would have been just another sad, forgotten tragedy, if it were not for one great fact: when the widow was going out of the city to bury her son; she met Jesus on the way into the city, and that meeting changed everything!

What can we learn from this encounter with Jesus and this grieving widow?

There are three great assurances found in this story for us when we are broken hearted.

When your heart is broken; number one be assured of:

1.

The Great Love of Jesus!

V:13-“And when the Lord saw her, he had compassion on her, and said unto her, weep not”.

When the Lord Jesus saw her situation, his heart went out to her; Luke uses the strongest word possible to describe Jesus compassion for her.

Jesus loved her with all his heart.

Jesus was sensitive to this woman’s sorrow; he knew that she was alone in the world, with no husband and no children.

She was losing her only son, and she was now in a helpless condition.

Why did Jesus go to the city of Nain anyway?

Because he loved that lady, and was there to show his love to her, and do a miracle for her.

Does the timing of Jesus ever amaze you?

Think about it, if Jesus had arrived two minutes earlier, he would have passed through the gate of the city and missed the funeral procession.

If he arrived two minutes later, the funeral would have already gone through the gate to the tomb.

Was this just a coincidence?

Or did Jesus deliberately plan to meet this funeral procession at the gate of that city?

I want you to know that Jesus is always on time!

Jesus operated on a divine timetable; many times Jesus revealed he knew the future.

· I must needs go through Samaria.

· My time has not yet come.

· He knew Lazarus would die, and he would raise him from the dead.

· I must go up to Jerusalem; it cannot be that prophet would perish outside of Jerusalem.

This exposes the false teaching of open theism; that says God does not infallibly know nor sovereignly plan the future.

That is heresy; Jesus as God, knew the future, and acted in such a way that God’s plan was always accomplished.

Jesus traveled 25 miles from Capernaum and showed up at the gate of the city of Nain at the exact moment that the funeral procession was passing through the gate.

If you feel like Jesus is late in meeting you at your point of need; I want to remind you that Jesus is never late!

The great love of the Lord Jesus for this poor widow woman brought him there.

V:13-“When the Lord saw her, he had compassion on her, and said under her, weep not”.

This is how Jesus always response to people with broken hearts!

· Mary and Martha at the tomb of Lazarus.

· The people of Jerusalem.

· His mother at the cross.

Jesus cares for you the same way; if you feel like no one knows what you’re going through, and no one really cares about you.

I want you to know this morning that Jesus knows all about your situation; and Jesus sees you, and Jesus loves you!

And this story is in this gospel that you might know the compassion of Jesus when your heart is broken.

The same Lord Jesus who reached out to the widow of Nain, reaches out to us when we feel helpless in the face of death.

Think about it, the God of the universe; our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, has deep compassion and love for people in pain.

He remembers our losses, he knows our suffering, and he hears our cries of anguish.

I want you to know we have a merciful and faithful high priest in heaven-JESUS; who is touched by what touches us, and he is praying for us.

The love and compassion of Jesus Christ for you is a real!

-“His compassions fail not, they are new every morning, great is your faithfulness”

We can go to the Lord Jesus with our troubles and sorrows and know that He loves us!

And when we experience the compassion and love of Jesus for ourselves, we are called to share it with others.

-“God comforts us in all our affliction, so that we may be able to comfort those who are in affliction…

The comfort we receive is a comfort we are called to give, and in giving comfort we are following the example of Jesus.

This means noticing people in pain, grieving parents, lonely widows, the chronically ill, and anyone else who is suffering.

What a difference it makes when people who are suffering meet Jesus on the way!

We can be used by Jesus to meet people who are suffering and hurting and show them the Savior who died for them, who lives for them and loves them.

Jesus walked up to this widow and said to her, V:13-”weep not”

We are not told what this woman thought when Jesus said that to her.

She may have thought, who are you, and why shouldn’t I cry, my only son has died.

Jesus didn’t just tell her not to weep, he’s going to give her reason not to weep.

People who are broken hearted, who have something to cry about should go ahead and cry.

When your heart is broken, you can be assured #1 of the great love of Jesus for you!

When your heart is broken; #2 be assured of:

2. The Divine Power of Jesus!

V:14-15.

After Jesus speaks to this mother, he does the unspeakable; he goes over and touches the bier that the young man is laying on.

And were told that those who were carrying the young man’s body stood still; you better believe they stood still.

The people were shocked by what Jesus did, because according to the Law of Moses, touching the place of the dead made him unclean.

But Jesus is the Lord of life, and cannot be corrupted or contaminated by death.

On the contrary, Jesus has a divine power to keep death in its place!

What you have taken place here in the gate of this city, is not only two crowds meeting, and two only sons meeting; you have two enemies meeting.

Jesus the Lord of life, faces death the last enemy; who will win?

When there’s a collision between life and death, who walks away?

When the funeral procession met Jesus, Jesus had the power to stop death in his tracks.

Jesus put his hand on this coffin, as if to say, death, you have come this far, but you will go no further.