JESUS RAISES A WIDOW'S SON
Luke's View Jesus As God in the flesh
LUKE 7:11-17 #81 and 82
Charles e. Whisnant, Teacher, Expositor and sometime Pastor
Why is it important that we know that Jesus Christ was God in the flesh?In John 1:18 we read "No man has seen God at any time."
What man has seen is the only begotten God. that is God the Son, which is He who is in the bosom of the Father. True so one has seen God at any time. But the best view ever is the view of God brought to us by the only begotten Son of God, the One who is literally intimate with God, in the bosom of God, That is the One who is the same essence as God, He has declared Him or explained Him.
Jesus "exegesis" God, i.e. Jesus explains God. Jesus unfolds God. Jesus reveals God. So when we look at Jesus, you're seeing God. So that is what Jesus Himself said , "If you have seen Me, you have seen the Father." John 14:9
So the best, clearest view of God that any man has ever had, will ever have is in Jesus Christ, here on earth or in Heaven. Jesus Christ has made known God to the world. Jesus has exegete God. He is, in fact, God in human flesh.
And it happened, that he went into a city
Point One: Divine Purpose vs. 11
God never acts without a fixed goal and a fixed purpose. God never acts whimsically. There are no unexpected coincidences. There are no unplanned-for problems, contingencies. There are not plan Bs. Everything within the plan of God is fixed, settled, unchanging and brought to pass.
He is sovereign. He has perfect intentions for everything He thinks, everything He says and every act. His mission is clear, His objective is clear, His strategy is clear, His plan, His purpose will come to pass. God has a sovereign-bent for sure. (He was pre Calvinist before John Calvin)
Jeremiah 29:11; Isaiah 55:11, Isaiah 49:9-11
Every thought God has, every word God says, every act God does operates perfectly on divinely established purpose. And that is the way it is with Jesus. John 4:4; Luke 9:51; Luke 13:33
and many of His disciples went with Him, and a large crowd.
The Sovereign Knowledge of Jesus Christ: God knows the beginning and the end. Jesus Christ Himself as well, He is the Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last, the Beginning and the End. So here is Jesus with intentionality, moving in a direction toward an obscure little town that would never be known to us biblically if it weren't for this one incident.
Secondly, divine purpose then divine providence. vs 12
Well, that's divine providence. That's a great word. "Providence" refers to God's superintending control over all human actions and events to effect His predetermined purpose. Proverbs 16:9; Proverbs 16:33 and Amos 3:6
Perfect timing:
Luke 7 12, "Now as He approached the gate of the city..."
And so, perfect timing; He approaches the gate of the city. Nobody knows why He's going there, yet He does. It's all planned. "And behold a dead man was being carried out." Exact split second, providential timing; all the control factors belong to God. The man dies at the right moment
behold, or by chance dead man was being carried out
Well it's a startling thing. "Behold," is the word in verse 12, "Whoa," from a human viewpoint, this is a surprising event. From the viewpoint of Jesus, this is exactly on schedule. From the human side, it's a startling coincidence. There is no such thing as a coincidence in God's perspective. The Lord is just gracefully, purposefully taking a step at a time, arriving at exactly the moment when that procession comes out of town. Biblical history is filled with that kind of scheduling.
And by chance] Indeed by the providence of God overruling the matter, as it doth in things that to us are merely casual and contingent.
to happen; and so we may render the words, by divine Providence.
Luke 7:12c , a dead man was being carried out, the only son of his mother; and she was a widow. And a large crowd from the city was with her.
"Luckily, Jesus showed up." No. Luckily doesn't work. So we...we read here that He approaches and out comes this funeral procession and this is a shock. Out comes this wailing, noisy crowd and this dead man was being carried out, it says in verse 12. The funeral was over. People were carrying the corpse that had been sprinkled on the outside, dusted with some powder and some herbs and things like that and then wrapped and laid on a flat bier, b-i-e-r, stretcher.
And then, Third divine purpose and divine providence blends into divine compassion. vs. 13
13 When the Lord saw her, He had compassion on her and said to her, "Do not weep."
The Lord saw her (ιδων αυτην ο κυριος — idōn autēn ho kurios). The Lord of Life confronts death (Plummer) and Luke may use Κυριος — Kurios here purposely.
Had compassion (εσπλαγχτη — esplagchthē). First aorist (ingressive) passive indicative of σπλαγχνιζομαι — splagchnizomai Often love and pity are mentioned as the motives for Christ‘s miracles (Matthew 14:14; Matthew 15:32, etc.). It is confined to the Synoptics in the N.T. and about Christ save in the parables by Christ. Judges 10:16; Psalms 103:8-14; Lamentations 3:22, Matthew 9:36; Mark 1:21; Mark 8:2. He Judges 10:16; Psalms 86:5,15; 103:13; Isaiah 63:9; Jeremiah 31:20; Lamentations 3:32,33; Mark 8:2; John 11:33-35; Hebrews 2:17; 4:15
Weep not (μη κλαιε — mē klaie). Present imperative in a prohibition. Cease weeping.
And you see something in Jesus that is true of God, verse 13, "When Jesus the Lord saw her, He felt compassion for her." That's just amazing. The verb is splagchnizomai. It's a funny word. It has to do with feeling something in your gut, you know, you feel emotion and it churns your stomach. It makes your heart beat rapidly. It makes your heart stop sometimes, if you feel something strongly enough, some kind of fear. Weep not Luke 8:52; Jeremiah 31:15,16; John 20:13,15; 1 Corinthians 7:30; 1 Thessalonians 4:13
#4 call it divine Authority vs. 14-15
14 Then He came and touched the open coffin, and those who carried him stood still. And He said, "Young man, I say to you, arise
Touched the bier . or bed.. Thus, Jesus defied the ceremonial defilement forbidding such a thing; because the dead could not defile him, but conversely he raised the dead! Number 19:11-22, Hebrews 7:26
To this Christ came near and touched: not that by his touching of that, the dead should be raised; but this he did as a signal, that the bearers should stop. The JewsF4 say, one of the charges that Jacob gave to his sons before his death, was, to:
"take care (says he) that no uncircumcised person, במטתי יגע, touch my bed, or "bier", lest the Shekinah remove from me; but, according to this order, do unto me, carry me, three on the north, three on the south, three on the east, and three on the west, &c.'
There's another element of the divine authority
Luke 7:14 and the bearers came to a halt.
There was a divine authority about Him. It says, "The bearers came to a halt." They just stopped.
Jesus was, no doubt, known to many in Nain, and it is no wonder that those who bore the bier stood still when he touched it. Though we cannot say that he had raised the dead prior to this, we can say that he had healed every kind of disease known among the people, and therefore his act would beget a reasonable expectancy that he might do something even here.
What was it about His person that just stopped everything? You just didn't do this. This is just outrageous behavior, outrageous. Tell a woman not to cry, touch a casket, if you will, stop a procession, you just don't do that.
And He said, "Young man, I say to you, arise!"
"He said, 'Young man, I say to you, Arise.'" Now that... That also would be the words of a fool, or a sick joke if He was not God. He said...He didn't have to do anything, Psalms 33:6, 9, John 1:3, John 5:25-29
There wasn't any request. It wasn't like the centurion who sent somebody to ask Him to heal his slave. Furthermore, nobody seems to have any faith here. The centurion had faith. It wasn't the centurion's faith that caused Jesus to be able to heal his slave. Mark that: Will you? Very important point: Faith never, never is to be considered necessary for divine power to work. This is the lie of many faith healers is that the reason people don't get healed is that they don't have enough faith. God is not impotent and your faith omnipotent. Jesus heals here.
Oh, verse 15, "The dead man sat up." and began to speak. And He presented him to his mother.
That will break up a funeral. Wow! And He did that at every funeral He attended.
Well that takes us to the response, and this is where we bring it to its end. Verse 16: "Fear gripped them all." Sure, holy terror, phobos from which we get phobia.
Why were they afraid? Why did they have this holy terror, this trauma?
"And this report," what report? The report that God was visiting them, and that a man had been raised from the dead through the power of Jesus,
