Would you turn in your Bibles
to the book of Luke? The book of Luke. I wanna take you to Luke chapter
seven. We're gonna read from verse 11
of Luke chapter seven. I've entitled this message, Weep
Not. Weep Not. And we want to read
from verse 11 through verse 17 of Luke chapter 7. It came to pass the day after,
the day after Jesus had healed the son of, Jairus' son, in the
previous miracle recorded in the book of Luke. It says, it came to pass the
day after that he went into a city called Nain and many of his disciples
went with him. So there's a large number of
disciples following Jesus and much people, so a crowd also. Now when he came nigh or near
to the gate of the city, where you enter the city, Behold, there
was a dead man carried out, the only son of his mother. And she
was a widow. So she had already lost her husband.
She had one son, and he had died. And now they're carrying him
out. And much people of the city was with her. So there was a
large crowd with her mourning. And when the Lord saw her, he
had compassion on her. And he said to her, weep not. And he came and touched the bier,
or the coffin. And they that bear him stood
still. And he said, young man, I say
unto thee, arise. And he that was dead sat up and
began to speak. And he, Jesus, delivered him
to his mother. And there came a fear on all,
and they glorified God, saying, that a prophet is risen up among
us, and that God hath visited his people. And this rumor of
him went forth throughout all Judea and throughout all the
region round about." So you can see here why I've entitled this
message Weep Not. Here in this text of scripture,
we see the compassion of the Lord Jesus Christ. And we see
that compassion joined with his word, and with his word, power. And that's the reason that when
he says, weep not, we have good cause not to weep, don't we?
A crowd was following Jesus. and his disciples, many of them,
it says. Now remember, think about it,
Jesus is the master and all of these people are following him.
He's the central figure here. And imagine what it would be
like if you were there and you were following Jesus. that would
make you a disciple. If you were just following behind
him, walking, then you wouldn't be his disciple, you'd be part
of the crowd, but there were those there who were his followers,
people who listened to his word, and they wanted to understand
him, and they wanted to follow him. But there was a problem. When people came to Jesus and
wanted to gain something by following him, that is to gain something,
some recognition by him or some prophet in this life, he discouraged
them. He would tell them foxes have
holes, birds of the air have nests, but the son of man has
nowhere to lay his head. And a scribe said he would, one
of the scribes said he would follow Jesus. And Jesus said
that If any man come after me, he has to take up his cross daily
and follow me. So in that sense, the Lord would
discourage people by putting a barrier between them and following
him. It seemed like there was no one
who could actually follow him because the requirement was so
high. And so what were these people
doing then? Well, this woman's son had died
and Jesus came to her. So here we're about to see why
anyone would follow Christ. It's because of his great compassion. It's because of his word and
because of his power to heal, even raise the dead. When we think about wanting to
follow Jesus, because I do want to follow the Lord Jesus Christ,
and I think about the fact that he came to this woman who was
sorrowing over her only son's death, sorrowing for her son,
and you can imagine she was at the end of despondency. She had reached the low point
in her entire life, hadn't she? And when he came to her, she
wasn't looking for his compassion, but this crowd came. There were
mourners, but she received little comfort from the mourners. We
receive some strength when people sympathize with us, don't we?
It's comforting to know when others understand our sorrow. It is very comforting. But really,
what can someone do when a friend is dying or when someone we love
has died? What can another person do except
to go as far as to express their sympathy for us? But here's a
woman in her utter sorrow. In that lowest point, perhaps,
of her entire life, and the one that men followed, or wanted
to follow, he came to her, and he saw her in her sorrow, and
he had compassion on her. What a word that is from scripture. Jesus Christ, the Son of God,
the perfect man, the one mediator between God and men, looked upon
this woman in her sorrow, because of her loss of her son, her only
son, and having already lost her husband. And he has compassion
on her. You would think that there were
more urgent matters in the universe to deal with than for the son
of God to take time to come to the funeral of a widow, wouldn't
you? Doesn't he have more important
matters to attend to? No, you see, this is the very
heart of God. God is a God of compassion and
mercy. Casting all your cares upon Him,
Scripture says in 1 Peter 5, 7, for He careth for you. He
careth for you. We don't have a high priest who
is detached, who cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities,
but was in all points tempted like as we are and yet without
sin. Therefore, let us come boldly
to the throne of grace where he sits and reigns because he
himself was touched with the feeling of our infirmities and
he had compassion because he knows what it is. He knows all
of our infirmities. So the crowd followed Him. I
want to follow Him. I want to follow Jesus. I want
to hear His words. I want Him to have compassion
on me. We just sang a song. While millions join the theme,
I will sing. Millions. Does the Lord need
another one? No. But He wants that other one. Moses told Pharaoh, when Pharaoh
said, you can go out, you can go out and worship the Lord,
but take the men and the women, but leave your flocks behind.
And Moses said, no, there shall not a hoof be left behind, not
one hoof. Not the weak, not the strong,
not the shriveled, not the scabby, not the spotted, not the speckled,
not one of Christ's sheep for whom he died will be left behind.
The Lord will bring all, and all of them will pass under his
rod, and he will count them, and he will rejoice over each
one of them as if it were the only one. The voice of every
one of those redeemed by the blood of the Lamb was redeemed
by the blood of the Lamb. It cost His blood to redeem each
one of them. And every one of them has the
same song to sing, that He has redeemed us, He's washed us,
He loved us and washed us from our sins in His own blood. That's
the song of the redeemed. Not one of those voices will
be left out. Every one of them is required
by God. Every one of them was purchased by Christ. And yet,
here we have this crowd. And you think, as you're pouring
out your heart to the Lord in prayer, Lord, make me one of
those disciples. Have compassion on me. Even in
your prayer, don't you recognize complicity of your sin with your
prayer, so that there's a mixture, even in your prayer of salvation,
of ill motive, and need that you cannot overcome. And that's
the whole point here. The Lord Jesus Christ had compassion
on this woman who could do nothing for her son. It was too late
for him. for any human hand to reach.
No one could reach him but Christ. And so there's this crowd there,
the mourners expressing sympathy, and it was well that they did,
and yet the comfort she needed came from only one, the Lord
Jesus Christ. Christ is all that we need. Don't you know? The thief on
the cross, hung on the cross, the believing thief, And you
know that all he needed was to hear the Lord Jesus Christ tell
him, I will remember you. I will remember you. That's all
we need, isn't it? If the Lord knows our need, if
he sees our need, if he remembers us, what else is needed? Nothing,
because the Lord will see to it. I was out mowing the lawn. the other day and I noticed there
was a bird that had fallen from the tree and was lying on the
grass, dead. And so I carefully scooped it
up and put it away. And I thought the words of Christ
came again to my memory that there's not a sparrow that falls
without your father. And are not you worth much more
than many sparrows? That's compassion, isn't it?
The God of glory, the Lord of all, looks upon our need and
he sees and he has compassion. Who was it that saw her? Notice
it says here in Luke chapter seven and in verse 12, Actually, it's in verse 13. It
says, and when the Lord saw her. It wasn't merely a man. It was the Lord who saw her.
And that reminds me of when Abraham, when Isaac asked his father Abraham,
my father, here is the wood for the sacrifice and the fire, but
where is the lamb? And Abraham said, my son, God
will provide himself a lamb for the burnt offering. And later
in that same chapter of Genesis 22, he says in verse 14 that
Abraham called the name of that place Jehovah-Jireh, which means
God will see to it. Because where the Lord sees,
he sees to it. He will provide. And when he
provides, he will receive what he provided. And then he will
tell us that he received what he provided because he saw to
it. The Lord, Jehovah, Jehovah-Jireh,
the Lord will provide, he will see to it, and he will be seen
in that, that he saw to it. And so here the Lord Jesus sees
her. He's going to see to it. He saw
her. He saw himself as her need, and
he's going to make himself known to her as the one who would comfort
her in her sorrow. He says in the same verse, verse
13, when the Lord saw her, the Lord saw her. Like I said, we
can have compassion on our fellow brothers and sisters. We can
have sympathy because we have felt sorrow to some extent. We're
always wishing that we could actually enter more into their
sorrow. Someone has suffered for years.
We've never experienced that kind of suffering. We wish that
we could really feel their suffering and provide them the comfort
of someone who has felt it. But more than that, we would
really like to fix the problem. We would like to relieve their
problem. And so, We only go so far. We might provide food. We might
provide help in some form. We might be there when they cry
and weep when they weep. And we might rejoice when they
rejoice. But we cannot do more for them than a man. But when
the Lord saw her, the Lord saw her, then his pity was joined
with power. Notice what he says. And he had
compassion on her. This is the Lord Jesus Christ.
He had compassion. In Isaiah 63, in verse 9, it
says, in all their affliction, he was afflicted. He was afflicted. In all of the affliction that
he brought on his people because of their sin and unbelief and
rebellion, he was afflicted. That's from Isaiah 63. That's
astute, isn't it? That's compassion. And in Lamentations,
that's the compassion of the Lord Jesus Christ. But even in
Lamentation, God the Father is spoken of here as having compassion.
It says in Lamentation chapter three, it is of the Lord's mercies
that we are not consumed. We should be, but we're not,
why? Because of his mercies, because his compassions fail
not. They are new every morning. Great
is thy faithfulness." His faithfulness to be compassionate. God is a
God who delights in mercy, says in Micah 7, verse 19. He delights in mercy. He will
have compassion on us. He will turn again. and he will
cast our sins into the depths of the sea. That's compassion,
isn't it? The Lord Jesus Christ saw her
and he had compassion on her. And then he spoke. It says in
Luke 7, 13, and he said to her, this is the word of the word
of the Lord. This is the Lord. And he speaks,
so therefore it's the word of the Lord. And the word is the
Lord Jesus Christ. He's the eternal word. He's the
one whose own person, in his own person is the very word of
God, the mind of God. This is the way, this is what
God thinks. He thinks of his son. The expression of his thoughts
is his son. All of God's counsel is tied
up in his son, the word of God. And when the word of God speaks,
the nothingness of creation obeys him. The spiritual death that
we find ourselves in because of our sin is brought to an end. Life is given. The word of the
Lord has power. Where the word of the Lord is,
there is power. Where the word of the King is,
there is power. And he said to her, weep not. Now, as you remember, when Lazarus
in John chapter 11 fell sick and Mary and Martha sent to Jesus,
Jesus did not immediately jump up and run to where Lazarus was
sick and heal him of his sickness, did he? He waited. And then Lazarus
died. And then Jesus left where he
was, and he came to where Lazarus had died, to where Mary and Martha,
his sisters, were. And they came to him. And Martha
said, Lord, if you had been here, he had not died. Remember? And even before Jesus went to
that place to raise Lazarus from the dead, because he knew what
he would do, before he went there, He said to his disciples, this
sickness is not unto death, but for the glory of God. The purpose of his sickness was
not just his death, but it was for God's glory. And so he waited
until the situation was utterly impossible for men. for Lazarus,
for Martha, for Mary, for all the mourners, for his disciples.
It was impossible for everyone but God himself. Because unto
the Lord our God belong the issues of death, the issues from death. And unto the Lord our God is
salvation. That's what it says in Psalm
68 verse 20. Unto the Lord our God belong
the issues from death. He is the God of our salvation.
And so when Jesus delayed and then came after Lazarus had died,
it was for that explicit purpose, to bring glory to God in the
resurrection of Lazarus. And so it is with this woman's
son. The lowest point, I would imagine,
in her life, when her husband had died, now her only son. The
only, the offspring that was the result of their marriage.
My entire life and my husband's life are going to end with the
death of my son. There's no more inheritance,
no more legacy. Our life is over. What good can
my life come to? My son is dead. My husband is
gone. So it was at this very lowest
point where it was utterly impossible and she felt the greatest sorrow
in all of her life that Jesus said to her, weep not. Nothing
had happened. He hadn't done anything. There
was no evidence for comfort. The son lay in the coffin. The
mourners are still crying. And she herself has the weight
of the sorrow on her heart. And Jesus says, weep not. To
her. When I want to comfort somebody,
I usually try to reassure them that things will be okay. All
you can do is point someone to God's word. And that's not all
you can do. That's the great thing. And you can pray that
God would comfort them. But here the Lord says to her,
weep not. And when God speaks, We know
that his word has power. Jesus said, heaven and earth,
heaven and earth will pass away, but my words shall not pass away. Until heaven and earth pass away,
not one jot or one tittle of the law shall pass away until
it's all fulfilled. So God's word cannot fail. The
word of the Lord, he says to her, weep not. Like he had spoken
to the father of the son. He says, fear not, believe only. And he said, Lord, I believe,
help my unbelief. Here's this woman, she hears
him say, weep not. And yet there was no evidence
for the comfort. But that's because that's the way God speaks. Faith
is the evidence of things not seen. It's the substance of things
hoped for. If God has spoken, it's done.
It's done. Have I spoken and shall I not
do it? Isaiah 46 verse 10. So where
the word of the Lord is, the king, there is power. And so
he says, weep not. And there's comfort. He had compassion. How did he express that compassion?
Weep not. He gave her his word. Is that
what we have? Do we have more than that? When
we look upon a loved one in their decline, and it might be a long
decline, or we look at them after they've died, it's evident that
there's no hope. It's beyond all human hope except
for our hope in God and in his word. If God had not spoken concerning
the resurrection of the dead, we would have no hope. but because
he has spoken, whose word cannot fail, then we have all reason
for hope. Weep not. And so then, it says
in verse 14, and he came and he touched the coffin, or the
beer, and they that bear him stood still. And notice what
Jesus said now. And he said, he speaks now to
this dead man, this young man who was dead, I say unto thee,
arise. What did Jesus tell Martha in
John chapter 11? She said, Lord, I know that my
brother will rise again on the last day. And he said to her,
I am the resurrection and the life. The Lord Jesus Christ himself
is the propitiation for our sins. He is the resurrection. He is
the life. So here we're seeing now something
very important to understand, which is the gospel. How is it
that Jesus could say to this young man, young man, I say to
thee arise? How is it that he could say to
this woman, this weeping widow whose son had died, weep not? How is it? Only this, not because
he was God and can do whatever he wanted to do. Yes, God can
do anything. But even God does only what is
right and holy and just. And so for the Lord Jesus Christ
to do away with the consequences of sin, he has to deal with the
root of it. He deals with the root of our
sorrow. That's why in 1 Corinthians 15,
56, it says, the sting of death is sin. So when the Lord Jesus
Christ says, young man, I say unto thee arise, the one who
is the resurrection and the life is the resurrection and the life,
not only because life is in him, but because he took our sins. and bore them as his own, and
therefore felt the pain and plague of them, and the guilt and grief
for them, and the sorrows, he took our grief, he took our sorrows,
because he took our sin, and he bore the sickness and the
death for that. The reason his word has power
as the son of man is because as son of man and son of God,
he took our sins in himself and bore them as his own, and now
we, In his death, being dead to sins, live unto righteousness. By his stripes we're healed.
He took the beating, we receive the healing. He died the death,
our sins were put to death in his death. It's substitution. He was wounded for our transgressions. He was bruised for our iniquities. And the chastisement of our peace
was upon him. And by his stripes we were healed.
It was for the transgression of my people that he was stricken,
the Lord says in Isaiah 53. And let me read to you from Matthew
chapter eight. just to confirm these things,
while he was healing others. And this is the way Jesus did
while he was on this earth. He healed many. It says in verse
16 of Matthew 8, when the evening was come, they brought to him
many that were possessed with devils. He cast out all the spirits
with his word, and he healed all that were sick. that it might
be fulfilled, this is the fulfillment of the prophecy, that was spoken
by Isaiah the prophet, saying, Himself took our infirmities
and bare our sicknesses. And that's where in Isaiah chapter
53 that we know that the way he took our griefs, our sorrows,
our infirmities, was by bearing our sins as his own. I'm reading
this now from Isaiah 53 verse 4. Surely he had borne our griefs
and carried our sorrows. He was a man of sorrows. And
yet he was bearing our griefs and our sorrows. That's why he
could speak to this woman, weep not. I'm taking the sin and bearing
the sorrow. I'm taking the sickness and the
grief, and I'm dying, bearing that chastisement for your sins. Therefore, when he speaks, weep
not. And then to her son, young man, I say unto thee, arise.
He was fulfilling, He was speaking a word based on His sin-atoning
death. All of our comfort, and I want
to underscore this, all of our comfort in this life comes to
us only because the Lord Jesus Christ has borne our sin and
taken it away. and therefore every consequence
of sin was taken away in his sin-atoning death. That's why
it says, he who his own self bear our sins in his own body
on the tree that we being dead to sins. He died and we're dead
to sins, a substitution because he died in substitution. He took
the place of his people, therefore we stand before God with no sin,
and therefore we're no longer under the condemnation of death. Let me read this to you in Romans
chapter eight, and actually I'll read Romans chapter five first.
Romans chapter five, he says this in verse 19. He says, as
by one man's disobedience many were made sinners, that one man
being Adam, by that one sin of that one man, all born to that
man, were made sinners in that one act of his. We did it. We
became disobedient in that one disobedience of Adam. We became
sinners. So, even so, in the same way,
by the obedience of one. shall many be made righteous.
That one is Jesus Christ. That obedience is his suffering
in death that fulfilled the law of God. When he gave himself
for our sins, he offered himself to God in sacrifice for our sins.
He shed his blood. He did everything God required,
not only to answer justice for our sins, but to fulfill all
righteousness because the law is fulfilled by love. And what
love could there be higher than that a man would give himself
for his enemies to save them from their sins. This is what
he did. We made ourselves his enemies.
We were, in our minds, enemies. And he took pity. He took compassion. He had mercy upon us when we
had no, there was no need, I mean, no reason in us for compassion.
It came, it sprang from him alone, called grace. So in Luke chapter
7 again, he touched the coffin. They that bear him stood still.
Jesus said, young man, I say unto thee, arise. And then it
says, and he that was dead sat up and began to speak. Now this
is the Lord Jesus Christ interrupting a funeral procession where a
dead man is being taken to the cemetery. And he says to him,
young man, I say to thee, arise. What is this? This is what God
does in salvation. We, as dead in sins, are headed
to our own eternal death, and the Lord interposes himself in
our course, and he says to us, I say to thee, arise. That is
power. You see, when the Lord Jesus
Christ was, he says, delivered for our offenses, and then he
was raised again for our justification. Our sins were put away. That's
the reason life was given, because righteousness was established.
And so when we were made righteous by his obedience, therefore,
The reign of death is broken, the reign of grace and righteousness
now are carried out towards us by God so that we are raised
to life. We are given life under the hearing
of the gospel of what Christ had done. And that's what's happening
here. On our course to the grave, God
interferes with our funeral procession, and he preaches the gospel by
the Lord Jesus Christ, by his own word from heaven. The king
on his throne says, young man, I say to thee, arise, through
the preaching of the gospel. And what happens? We're spiritually
raised. We're given life. Christ lives
in us. We're created a new creature
in Christ Jesus. We're born of God. where we receive
the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Ghost, and
we speak concerning Christ. I was a great sinner under the
condemnation of death for my sins, under the darkness and
dominion of the kingdom of Satan. And Christ spoke, and he brought
light and life to me through the gospel. But here he says,
and then he delivered him to his mother. What a comfort that
must have been. But notice, and there came fear
on all, and they glorified God, saying that a great prophet is
risen up among us, and that God has visited his people. And the
rumor of him went forth throughout all Judea and throughout all
the region round about. What was the result of this miracle? The fame of the Lord Jesus spread
everywhere. What was it that they talked
about? Well, they would have first talked
about his compassion, wouldn't they? And then they would have
talked about how he spoke to this woman. Weep not. And then
they would have said, and then he spoke to the dead man and
said, young man, I say to thee, arise. And that young man who
had died rose up and spoke. That's what they, they would
talk about the compassion and the power of his word to raise
the dead and to give the dead the ability to speak again and
the comfort it brought to his mother. What comfort is it to
a mother to hear the result of Christ's work in her son? What
greater comfort? What more could a mother want
in her entire life on this earth than to hear her own children
speak of Christ's mercy in raising them from the dead? What greater
glory does it bring to God in heaven than that the Lord Jesus
Christ would take our sins to himself and bury them and put
them away so that like Rommel read from Jeremiah 31, I will
remember them no more. I have blotted out your transgressions
and I will remember them no more. Put me in remembrance. Bring
it to my remembrance. Speak of Christ and Him crucified.
That's all of our hope, isn't it? That's all we need is the
Lord Jesus Christ to see us in our utter impossible condition
and to speak life to us because He bore our sins and He is our
life and our resurrection now. When we look upon a loved one
who has died, there's no evidence. There is no evidence that God's
word concerning the resurrection is true. We see nothing there. What do we have? We just have
the spoken word of Christ. I imagine this woman had lived
all the time after her husband's death in great sorrow, hoping
that her son would go on and bear children, have a family
and bear children, and then it would go on and her family would
increase by the Lord's mercies. And then it was cut short. The
long time that she experienced and the deep sorrow that she
knew, It all came to an end when the
Lord Jesus Christ spoke. All she had was his word, and
then he acted, and so it is with us. We look upon our loved ones
in the long years of their sickness or after their death, and we
see no evidence of the resurrection. But what? Do we give up there? Do we say, well, there's no evidence
to human eyes or ears, so it can't be true? Not at all. God has, by his grace, convinced
us and persuaded us that he who promised is able to do all that
he promised, and he will do it. We believe on the Lord Jesus
Christ, the one whose word cannot fail. And that's why we rejoice
together at the thought, when we see a loved one who has died,
and we even see them after they have died, we can think on God's
word and say, I know that my Redeemer liveth. Because my Redeemer
liveth, Jesus said, because I live, you shall live also. That's our
hope. God, look upon us and receive us for Christ's sake. God, forgive
us for Jesus' sake. It was his blood that did everything
for us, and now we trust him. The one who reigns on heaven's
throne is our sanctuary. Let's pray. Father, thank you
for your great mercy to us. Your compassions fail not. Your
mercy is great. Your faithfulness is great. The
Lord Jesus Christ himself interposed himself in order to show us mercy,
and then he sent the great Comforter, the Spirit of God, to teach us
what he's done, to show us it was by the will of God, by the
word of God, and by the power of God that he raised up all
of his people when he raised up the Lord Jesus Christ, what
almighty power this is, what justice has been served, what
righteousness has been magnified and fulfilled in his obedience
unto death, and how we long to hear his word. This word of compassion. We want to be his disciples,
but we see in ourselves as total inability. We need to be raised
up. We need to be given life. We
need to be brought and kept and perfected. And we need to see
the Lord Jesus Christ in his glory. This is all of our hope.
This is what we long for. And Lord, we pray that according
to your word and power, according to your compassion, according
to your own faithfulness, for the sake of the Lord Jesus Christ
and his precious blood, save us for your mercy's sake. In
his name we pray, amen.