Harbor Church - Mid City

Investigating Jesus—On Restoration

Lk. 7: 11-17; I Kings 17: 17-24 Mid-City 6/27/10

We’re in a series in the gospel of Luke where we are investigating Jesus and each week we’re looking at one of the central things he did or taught. This week we’re going to look at how Jesus brings restoration to the world through the story of a resurrection. Now if you haven’t read the entire Bible, you may think that resurrections happen on every other page. Not true. In fact, there are only 6 in the whole Bible + that of Jesus. So they are not all that common, but in each story you see how the resurrection functions as a picture of how Jesus is restoring all things. This morning we’re going to look at the restoration that flows out of the resurrection from 3 angles: (1) recipients, (2) rationale (3) results of restoration, 3 Rs, 3 Pts, look out—this might even be a real sermon this week.

(1) Recipients: Let’s dive into the story and look at the recipients of restoration in our text. V11 “Soon afterward, Jesus went to a town called Nain As he approached the town gate, a dead person was being carried out—the only son of his mother, and she was a widow.

So, in both cases—here in Lk. 7 and in I Kings 17, you have the restoration of widows. They are the most obvious recipients. Here you have 2 women, both widows. That means that both of them have lost the love of their lives.

Think about how painful this moment is in the lives of these widows. I want you to connect with this emotionally so let me drag this story into our world. Recently, there was a horrible tragedy among one of my friends growing up. His family lives next door to my parents in Mtg. He was a very successful attorney at one of the best firms in the state. He was bright, beautiful wife and kids, and one day he went up into the attic to work on the electrical wiring with a fan in the attic. The wires got crossed and he was electrocuted and died in the attic. His wife downstairs with the kids, distraught, now left alone without her companion to raise the kids. Devastating. You can imagine how hard that was and is for her right now.

Take that level of suffering and then multiply it for the widows in our text it b/c then, on top of the almost impossible loss of your spouse, the widows in our text then lose their sons. You can imagine how much deeper their bond became with their only remaining family member. In many ways, he became like a surrogate spouse. And now he is gone.

And see as individualistic Americans we can’t envision just how bad this would have been for a widow in the Ancient Near East in a traditional culture. Here is why. There was no social security back then. Her husband didn’t have a life insurance policy. See the son was her life insurance. He would be her income source. Very different from America where we’re taught to be all that we can be independent of the family. No—in a traditional culture you seek the prosperity of the family, not just yourself. And now he is gone. She is financially ruined.

See the unescapable conclusion of this story in the Gospel of Luke, and the whole Bible (which our I Kings story helps us see as well) is that Jesus brings restoration to those who are absolutely ruined. To the disenfranchised, to the most marginalized in society, to the powerless. Without question, they are the primary recipients of Jesus’ restoration.

I’ll let you in on a little secret. This is why, my friends, we chose to locate this church in City Heights. Because we knew Jesus would be here in the inner-city bringing restoration and we wanted to join him in that.

Now, does that mean Jesus shows up only in the inner-city? No. Remember last week’s text. Lk. 7: 1-10, which is right before our passage, shows how the restorative power of Jesus touched a very wealthy and influential Roman centurion. See these two passages—Jesus restoring a wealthy Roman centurion and also a poor widow’s son—really give credence to the model of our church, that of a bridge. That the resurrection power of Jesus that brings restoration to Jesus heals both rich and poor alike. But we should note this.

The Roman Centurion is the exception in the gospels in general, but particularly in Luke. Sociology proves this. Without question, the overwhelming majority of people that Jesus goes to and that respond to Jesus are poor and marginalized. Why is that? Well, I could give you Marx’s theory or other philosophers as to why this is sociologically true, but let me explain why this is so based on two conversations. One conversation is one that I have had with middle to upper class people so many times that I can’t even count. This conversation typically happens after middle to upper class Americans go on missions trip to places of extreme poverty & they invariably come back and say something like this, “I was amazed. They lived in mud huts & had nothing but Jesus, but you wouldn’t believe how much joy they had.”

Now I don’t mention this to condemn those of you who have said that b/c I have said that, but rather I want you to see something. As the most prosperous nation on planet earth, we swim in the waters of American prosperity (even those of us at the bottom rungs of American prosperity) and we are all shaped by the water we swim in. We breathe it in through our gills. And we begin to believe joy comes from having an influential job, a family, a house. Why? B/c that is what our culture tells us. And before we know it, we’re sounding and thinking like the rich young ruler, and we buy into the American gospel. Money, power, influence, who we know, performance….these are the currency of our world. And we slowly begin to trust in those things rather than Jesus.

This became really clear to me when I talked to Gerald. Some of you may remember him. He came to sing with the Ugandan choir here not too long ago. In his first week here, we spoke and he said, “Pastor Steve, I am so amazed to meet a follower of Jesus here.” Gerald, what do you mean, “We were told that Americans had lost their way. Much to my surprise, it seems that you really love and trust Jesus.”

See he wouldn’t have said this b/c he is too nice, but here is what he meant, “In our country, we know that Americans have been seduced by the illusion of worldly power. You think you will find joy in things—we know that things cannot bring us joy. We know that joy is a fruit of the Spirit of Jesus, and we trust in Him, not money.” Surprise, surprise—the resurrection power of Jesus is on the move in Africa, among the marginalized, among the widows, among those who feel ruined and at the end of their ropes, huddled in orphanages. Jesus is on the move there in unbelievable ways.

Really, this is. I Cor. 1:27, “God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong.” Until you realize that you are foolish—you have trusted in the wrong things to bring joy and fulfillment. That is offensive to most Americans who consider themselves wise, educated. Until you realize that you are not only weak like the widow, but are ruined morally & spiritually—that you have no hope other than Jesus, then you will never know the restoration of Jesus. That is offensive to one of the most religious nations in the world.

TRANS:--the recipients of Jesus’ restoration have always been throughout history those who, like the widow, know they are ruined, and, historically, this has predominately been those are at the margins of life.

(2) Rationale

Now, we have looked at the recipients. Now let’s consider the rationale for Jesus’ restoration. Look at v13, “When the Lord saw her, his heart went out to her and he said, “Don’t cry.” This, my friends, is the rationale for why Jesus brings his restoration to us: compassion. His heart goes out to ruined people not b/c of what they have done, but b/c of who He is.

See this weeks story is a great balance to last weeks message, which is why Luke puts them back-to-back. Last week, in Lk. 7:1-10 we saw Jesus heal a Roman’s centurion’s servant because of his amazing faith and you could be tempted to think that is why Jesus chose to heal him b/c he knew this was a man of extraordinary faith; this week, however, we see that faith isn’t involved at all. This boy is graveyard dead. And there is no mention of the widow’s faith. Jesus doesn’t even know her, and she hasn’t done anything to warrant his attention, but his heart goes out to her. He restores her and his resurrection power comes into her life out of sheer grace and the deep compassion of his heart for ruined people.

Now let me talk to those of you who are here who are not yet Christians and let’s discuss what this means for you. See it can feel very safe to be skeptical and intellectually curious, but not committed to Jesus. I am just here checking things out to see if there is any legitimacy to this, I can bolt at any minute and all of this religious stuff will be gone like a bad dream. But I need to let you in on a secret. Once Jesus sets his compassion on you, it is over. There is no escape hatch.

Here is what it is like. Do you remember that old game Galaga? That was my favorite game growing up. Do you remember when you wanted to get another man to have two fighters down at the bottom. You had to make a tactical decision—I would like two fighters. Once you committed, you had to let you man be sucked up into that little blue beam. Once you were in that blue beam, there was no turning back. It sucked you in and you couldn’t get out, even if you wanted to. Oh, no, dumb decision—come back—no, too late. Such is it with Jesus—he is more powerful than you. And He is good—there is no danger of being blown up. And when he sets his heart and compassion on you, it’s over. He is going to draw you in and there is nothing you can do about it.

See theologians call this the ordo salutis, which is latin for the order of salvation. And here is what is interesting about the order of salvation. Regeneration—being brought to life spiritually by the resurrection power of Jesus—precedes faith. That is why none of us can really say the exact moment we “became a Christian.” I know—we ask that question and talk like that, but when you put your faith in Jesus, what you are doing is simply marking outwardly what has already happened inwardly even though you were unaware of it. See dead people can’t respond in faith, and that is what Paul says we all are in Eph. 2.

TRANS: Jesus restores dead, ruined people b/c he loves them

(3) Results

That leads us to the 3^rd point: the results. (1) Economic Restoration: Jesus isn’t just saving her soul, but he is restoring the widow’s economic hope by bringing back her son. Now we won’t go into this in great detail here b/c we have really already talked about this, but without question here you see that Jesus is bringing financial restoration. Now, in applying this to our world today, this doesn’t mean Jesus is going to always give you the mansion on the hill you want. Name, claim it, and Jesus will restore it to you…for 3 monthly installments made payable to Harbor Mid-City. No. But what I can tell you is that Jesus will make a way b/c He is the way, the truth, and the life. You may not like the way he makes, but remember, his heart goes out to those who are ruined

V16, “They were all filled with awe and praised God.” That is the response to the resurrection power of Jesus being unleashed. It fills you with awe and wonder and praise. Worship happens. The boy, the mother, all those around. The restoration of Jesus brings new spiritual life. You stop trusting in whatever you were trusting in before and put your hope and trust in Jesus and new spiritual life explodes.

But let me ask you this? Do you think the boy, or the mother, or anyone who witnessed this, ever struggled again. Even though they witnessed the resurrection power restoring and giving life, days and months passed and their life was still hard, trying to make it as a widow and a young boy still presented challenges, and they often went back to their old ways. See they weren’t home yet.

And until we’re home, all of us who are followers of Jesus will go back and forth between wonder and worship and awe of the resurrection power of Jesus and darkness and pain and the struggle of life in a broken world. What we will do is crawl back into the coffin.

I saw this really clearly in my home this week. I got an email that sent me for an absolute loop this week. I don’t know about the rest of you, but checking email is one of the most spiritually difficult things that I do each week, which may be one of the reasons that I stay so far behind on email. I just keep pushing it off. See people will say things behind the protection of a computer screen that they would never say in person. The send button is like an upper-cut.

But,as much as I wish it were true, the problem isn’t other people and the content of their emails. The problem is my heart. See Rms. 6:11 describes my problem. It says, “Count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus. Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its evil desires.” See if I am letting sin reign in my body and putting my trust in anything other than Jesus, then I can take anything that is said as a threat to my power or influence or success or control or any of the other masters that I am serving besides Jesus. And when I do that, a spiritual deadness comes over me and I crawl back into the coffin and put on the old self as Paul calls it in Eph. 4, and the resurrection power of Jesus seems but a distant memory.

So, this week, I crept through my email, full of fear. Then I had a few meetings on that day that went fine, but, again if you aren’t really at home in Jesus, then you can take just about anything that is said and make it a problem. So here is what I did—I extracted a few things people said in meetings and cast them in their worst possible light, added a heaping dose of fear, and played them all out to their worst possible extreme. And by the end of the day, in my mind, this church no longer existed, our kids were getting unanimous awards at their preschool for most likely to be a criminal when they grow up, and we were going to be evicted from our home shortly.

Aren’t you glad you have a pastor who is so full of faith? Well, it wasn’t quite that bad, but be glad that your pastor has a wife who speaks the gospel into his life because that night I began confessing the state of my heart to my wife and she looked at me and said, “Nothing you are saying is true. And she whipped out her Bible, and I knew I was in trouble. She turned to Isaiah 30: 15, 18, “"In repentance and rest is your salvation.” You, Stephen, need to do both of those—repent for your failure to trust Jesus and rest in Him, who is your salvation, not all of these things you are talking about. She went on, “In quietness and trust is your strength, but you would have none of it.” But you would have none of it—see the waters of America were getting to me. I wasn’t resting in Jesus; there wasn’t a quietness and trust in my life. I wanted to be in control. And I kept working faster and louder and a little harder to figure out a way to be in control. And she said, “In repentance and rest, Stephen, is your salvation. You need to repent of trying to take control and rest in the one who will touch the coffin of your heart and revive those dead places that are reigning in your mortal body right now.

And then, gently and tenderly, she spoke the words of Jesus to me through v18, “Yet the Lord longs to be gracious to you; he rises to show you compassion.” She took me back to the character of Jesus. That he longs to be gracious to me. His heart goes out to ruined people and he comes over and he touches the coffin of ruined families lives and restores them. He did that for me, and the following day I was like a whole new, resurrected person. I continually had a sense of King Jesus, sitting on his throne, and rising up to come over to me out of his deep compassion for me to touch my heart and restore it. Emails, meetings—they mattered, but they didn’t, if you know what I mean, b/c I was at home, and I was alive in Jesus.

Here is the question? How can King Jesus rise to show compassion to someone sinful and fearful like me? You see the answer in v14 of our text where it says, “Then he went up and touched the coffin, and those carrying it stood still.” Think about this. The procession stops. No one is to touch the coffin because that would make you ceremonially unclean. But he is much more than a great prophet. See unlike Elijah, he doesn’t have to cry out to God to heal the son. Elijah cries out, he prays, he stretches himself out—Jesus speaks on His own authority. B/c he wasn’t just a great prophet. He was God incarnate.

See, on the cross, Jesus didn’t just touch the coffin of our lives, but he got in it on our behalf. But the coffin couldn’t contain him. And then, 3 days later, he began touching people with his resurrection presence and restoring all things.

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