Model the hearts of Jesus

Intro

Good morning, brothers and sisters, You know I was walking by Eastwood the other day after a dinner to this Hong Kong dessert store. And suddenly I saw this big paper person. I was a bit shocked. Why is this person in this little shop. Then I realize it’s Keung to. Even my mum knows him so he must be pretty famous. Yes he is one of the most famous singer in the boy band group “Mirror”. But what happen in one of their concert was a tratedy. Think about it , you are probably having the best day of your life, you find a ticket to their concert! But what happen, in all the singing, in all the dancing, suddenly the huge monitor fell down and hit a few people right in their body. Tragedy strikes in celebration. Some people are screaming, some people shocked, some people confused.

Today we see a similar story, Jesus, his disciples and a great crowd are all celebrating, he just heal a servant of a military officer. They are riding on high, they are celebrating, but while he cross by a little town, a little town called Nain, it is three miles west of Endor, twenty miles southwest of Campernaum. trategy hits, a funeral is happening. The whole town gathered for this funeral, a widow who has lost both his husband and son walked by. But in this crossroad, in a crossroad between celebration and tragedy, miracle happen. God’s presence happen. Healing happen. And so let’s look deeper in this story. Let’s pray:

Background

This month crossing across the street, is an invitation to compassion and action. To have the heart of Jesus to reach out with God’s gospel, crossing barriers, across age, across scoeitic economic , across culture. In short we need to see, feel, act. This passage here a story of Jesus’s heart, God’s love for the world. This little a story is a group of story lukes-acts. Lukes reminded talks and acts of God’s mission to the world. IN luke 4 lays out his ministry plan, “The spirit of the Lord is upon me,to bring tood news to the poor.” Luke 5, “calling of his disciples, they left everything and followed him. Luke 6 teaches sermon on the mount. This is the missional DNA that gives to his church. “Love your enemeis, do good, lend expecting nothing in return . Be merficul” with all that how to participate God’s love in this world. How to see, how to move. By the power of spirit, his followers are still showing us around West Ryde, but also in the future 7.

Like mix, celebration and greiving. Dying of a child is probably the most hardest to bear. Children were made for fun and laughter, for sunshine, not for pain. In a way that is different from all human relationship, a child is bone of his parent’s bone, flesh of their flesh. When a child dies, part of the parents is burided. In those days, there is no time for greiving before the unferal, the dead body needs to send straight or it would start to decompose. This widows, Depended security, entirely alone, desperate to poverty. What did Jesus see.

See

Luke 7:11-13 “Soon afterward he went to a town called Nain, and his disciples and a great crowd went with him. 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. And when the Lord saw her...

When tratdgy strikes, Right away Jesus in this two crowds, his eyes focus on the widow, to push margins in the community. Jesus sees people otheres ignore. Jesus really sess,her vunerable, the focus of attention is on her; she was a widows, the crowd was with her, Jesuss saw haer, had compassion on her, spoke to her, gave back the son her. She who is husbandless and sonless and in mourning, she who epitomizes the “poor”, “sad” to whom Jesus has come bo bring good news, is the real recipient of Jesus’ compassionate ministry. In fact, it is not too much to say this whole miracle, aolthough entails miraculous raising this young man from the de3ad, should be intepreted as the restoration of this woman within her communty.

Jesus sees the brokeness, the despeerate need of all of us. See anoither example from JOhn 5:2-9 “Now there is in Jerusalem by the Sheep Gate a pool, in Aramaic called Bethesda, which has five roofed colonnades. In these lay a multitude of invalids—blind, lame, and paralyzed. One man was there who had been an invalid for thirty-eight years. When Jesus saw him lying there and knew that he had already been there a long time, he said to him, “Do you want to be healed?” The sick man answered him, “Sir, I have no one to put me into the pool when the water is stirred up, and while I am going another steps down before me.” Jesus said to him, “Get up, take up your bed, and walk.” And at once the man was healed, and he took up his bed and walked. Now that day was the Sabbath.”

He sees me, he sees you. He knows our heart The plans for ambitionm and dreams, but also brokeness and what we are. To model Jesus heart is first to model him seeing.

Illustrate:

Overseas: North Korean Calvin and Joyce

Part of this month is to mobilize us to cross our streets ourselves, but also support those who have cross many miles to model Jesus’s love. One of those missionaries that feels are Calvin and Joyce. Recently I love reading different biography, to listen to people’s different story. Still one that really opened my eye is Yeonmi Park In order to live, many stories talk about how successful people are, but this talks about how just to survive. It is a story of extreme hardship and persecution, but also extreme courage and heartbreak. One of the chosan heritance country is one of the poorest countries of the world, a most enclosed political in the world. Few ways ago, two missionaries we support C and J was sharing about this country again. And they see, they see under the covid where we critize our government for their fault, this country use herbal medicine and acalims to have no covid-case until recently a large number. They are sending people to this country with education, for transport. Because they see. They see the world, the most persecuted Christian in the whole world in this country, and they see the repressed, poverty, desperate situation they are in. And they entered in, no matter how hard it is. We continue pray for this team, as they have been out of the mission field as it becomes too dangerous. We pray we too, not focus on ourselves when we see.

Apply: Where am I looking in my neighbourhood? Where are my blind spot?

But seeing is not enough, the prhasies sees the person and walked by. But secondly, Jesus feels.

Feel

Jesus moves toward other. Jesus challneged

Luke 7:13 “And when the Lord saw her, he had compassion on her and said to her, “Do not weep.””

He sees, and he feels. Jesus heart went out to her ini unmitigated compassion. Luke uses the strongest word possible here to describe Jesus pity. The root word from which it comes refers to what is inside, the hearts, the liver, the lungs. It describes an emotion that has a physical effect. Jesus felt for her. We should note this is typical of Jesus. Later, JEsus observed Mary and Martha weeping for lazarus, “he was deeply moved in his spirit and greatly troubled. Compassion is literally suffer with. not feeling suffering, whole body respond, greive you share with another. JEsus’s exotrdinary compassion was grounded in his sinlessness and selflessness. Wheras our sin and self-focus inhibit our ability to care, Jesus’ sinless self-forgetfulness allow him the fully exercise of his sympathy and pity. And so our lord God who is not distance, breaks into the world. When the lord saw, Jesus has a heart big enough for our sorrows. His compassion his empathy is real, Lamentations 3:22-23 “The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases; his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.” You may have such an immense hurt that you cannot even voice it. Perhaps your truma has left you inarticulate. But he understand completely and sympatheically.

Illustrate:

One of those missionaries who feel is Hoi Yan. Not the poorest country, but one of the richest country. A country we all want to go travel with. But under all the prosperity, under all the politiness, well-grommed, hard-wroking images, she sees the Japnese people inside, she feels their pain. If you remember, she share with us the story of a single mother, “

Apply:

Today we also have to ask ourselves: Where do I feel moved with compassion?

Maybe it’s your family, your relatives, your friends, but also could be your colleages, your neighbours. And for us church, we would love to move our compassion towards our mutlicultural communities, and probably Cantonese multicultural migrants.

It’s important to see, important to feel, but this story would have no singificant if Jesus didn’t act at the end. Let’s look at the last three verses.

Act

Luke 7:14-17 “Then he came up and touched the bier, 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. 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.”

After he felt about this widow, he acted, by first approach her, and said “do not weep”. You usually don’t say it to people in greive, becasue they should be able to express it. But what Jesus is saying is no, you should stop weeping, because something is happening here. Then he go right into the coffin, touching a coffin meant sure pollution according to the ceremonial laws of the Old testaemnt, but JEsus knew that Law required mercy above sacrifice. His silent touch stopped everything, forving a revieting silence. Life and death stood face-to-face. The sielnce was broken by Jesus’s simple command , “Young man, I say you, arise”. When it comes to this resurrection, he used only his words, indicating everyone to see the resurrection power rests in him. The young man, this cold corpse seemed to heard the voice of Christ and obeyed. The dead man sat up and began to speak. The grey, cold clay of his face flushed with color, his fixed, dilated eyes tiwtcehd and focused on the blue sky, he blinked, he sat up in his shroud - and he began to talk. Perhaps words were mundane - “Mother, you sure look tired. What happend I’m hungry. Or perhaps it was glriously exalted.

At any rate, the crowd fell back, and some began to shriek. TH ere was a universal rush of adrenaline. Here and there incredulous voices began to praise GOd. And his mother? Probably still tears, but wet eyes radiated heavenly light and overwhelming joy as she embraced her only son. As heart -stopping as the resurrection of the widow’s only son was, there was a further revelation in this event for Jesus audience. ONly five hundred years earlier the prophet Elijha had gone to another small time, just as JEsus went to Nain. There he met a widow at the gate of the town, just as Jesus did at Nain. The widow had an only son who became illa nd died, just as happend in Naian. The highlight of the story goes like this:

1 Kings 17:19-24 “And he said to her, “Give me your son.” And he took him from her arms and carried him up into the upper chamber where he lodged, and laid him on his own bed. And he cried to the Lord, “O Lord my God, have you brought calamity even upon the widow with whom I sojourn, by killing her son?” Then he stretched himself upon the child three times and cried to the Lord, “O Lord my God, let this child’s life come into him again.” And the Lord listened to the voice of Elijah. And the life of the child came into him again, and he revived. And Elijah took the child and brought him down from the upper chamber into the house and delivered him to his mother. And Elijah said, “See, your son lives.” And the woman said to Elijah, “Now I know that you are a man of God, and that the word of the Lord in your mouth is truth.””

JEsus, at the father’s direction, soverignly performed a miracle that nearly duplicate ELijah’s. Both ended with them delivered the kid back to mother. Both concluded there is a great prophet has risen among us. But as the story continues to unfold. We know that Jesus was much more than a great prophet. But ascribing such a title to him was the best the townspeople could .Few verse later, John the Baptist asked is he the Messiah. It was a spontaenous chorus of realization that messianic times had fallen on them. Their chrous that “God has visited his people” is similar to what Zechariah had sung in the birth narratives Luke 1:68 ““Blessed be the Lord God of Israel, for he has visited and redeemed his people” Not long from then, Jesus would have to rise another person. And it is himself, but the singificance is much bigger. No, right from the beginning of creation, the start of sin. God is seeing, God is seeing how sin has broken his his relationship with his beloved creation, including each and one. His compassion has never left us through Israel history, he was looking all this time when they were in Egypt under slave, under the constant threat of other countries, and when even their countries is destoryed. And he doesn’t not only have compassion. He acted, he loved, John 3:16 ““For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.” He loved out some much that he did the greatest miracle of the world, a God died on the cross, so that he rise again, and everybody who beleives in him, would follow his resurrection. Praise God.

But we know that Luke story doesn’t end there, but continues in Acts, continues that us, our lives, every believe who follows him. While the kingdom is now, it is also not yet. Not until Jesus returns. Horrors of war, poverty of the world, needs in community. Homeless, poverty, racisim, hatred around the world. Suffering and brokeness across. We are called to model JEsus hearts, to cross the street each and every day. And as we serve others, we’re modeling the heart of Jesus.

Apply: Actually this is the last week we are here in WRH. WE thank Lord for this time here. But as you see, seats are getting tight, upstairs even mores so with the kids, still quite a number of people online. Other congregations are saying, why Joshua you are here for so long? God has called C11 to move 10 minutes down the road, to the Meadowbank education precient, to Marsden High again. We go there not only because space is tight, but we are to see even more, feel even more and act even more. Over there, we will be able to serve more people who are new migrants or Cantonese speaker, more kids who come to know Christ. But let’s not forget the community there. We see located is a area with a primary schoo, secondary school and TAFE. We could serve all these people, and also the many newly developed units in Sheperd Bay. Let’s feel for them and act also for them. As we moved out next week, let’s come with a heart that models Jesus, let’s see, let’s feel, let’s serve.

Let’s pray: