Luke 7:11-17

When it’s dark, we have a hunger for the morning sun. God gives us a new day, not just to get through but to lean upon Him. If difficulties arise, laying them down before the Lord becomes our hope.

Father, we ask you Lord that you would bless the going forth of your word to our hearts today.
And Lord, it would be so great.
It would be so wonderful if you might, Lord just lavish upon us the ability in these next few moments to all as it were put on the sights and sounds of when your son walked through that little village of name and saw what he saw, said what he said, did what he did.
That faith might be bolstered, that faith might be born.
That what we learned this morning, Lord would reach our hearts today.
2000 years removed from the moment that we read about, but your word is eternal.
2000 years removed from what’s recorded. But the need is still the same.
And maybe this morning in our hearts here, those that have gathered or those that are listening in.
We’ve lost someone, we’ve lost someone, Lord to suffering pain and death.
We ask you Lord that you would encourage us today and God that you would also challenge us, that whatever has gone on in our lives, whatever has happened, that we would never be shy again about speaking to anyone about the one in whom we profess to love that Jesus is the one who can raise the dead.
It’s Jesus who gives life. And even Jesus who said, if a man dies believing in Him, yet shall he live?
So, Lord God, we pray that you would fill us now with the power of your holy spirit.
And lord that out of your word, we might behold wonderful things for, we pray this in Jesus name and all God’s people said, amen, grab your Bibles in and turn if you would to Luke’s Gospel this morning chapter seven, Luke chapter seven, and we are in verses 11 to 17 in our study together.
And we are learning so much about Jesus and so much about his nature and what we’re looking at today.
And the title of the message today is what faith has to do, what faith has to do.
Last time when we were in our study together, we looked at what faith has to say.
We heard statements of faith and we heard professions of faith.
We talked about that Centurion and his servant that had become sick and was even near to death.
And when we looked at that, we looked at some very important things and it’s important since it’s been some time since we’ve been together that we remember in verses 1 to 5 of Luke chapter seven, that faith says to think outside the box that God is greater than our ability to describe God and to categorize him.
And we learned that faith works and moves outside the box because faith calls for help.
Faith is not proud, it reaches out to God.
And we saw that when the Centurion cried out regarding his servant.
And then we also saw that faith knows to go to Jesus.
Uh we might have faith in so many other things in this life and in this world.
And, and I believe that God will strip away things. I don’t care what it is.
I don’t care how cute it is, how big it is, how, how green it is or how, how gold it is.
I believe that if God loves us and He does, if anything is an idol in our lives, God will strip it away so that we might go to Jesus with our needs and He’s very faithful to do that.
We saw that faith cries out to God that there’s no one else to cry out to because that Centurion sent that Jewish leadership to beg Jesus to come and heal that servant of his.
And then secondly, we saw that faith has to say this, that we’re not worthy.
Faith says in the light of our unworthiness that we can’t see God being part of our lives.
It’s a natural tendency for us to realize that when we consider God that we almost run into the shadows, we, we withdraw and we say, oh God who am I?
And what am I that you would love me, that you would even care for me.
But faith, even though we are overwhelmed with a sense of unworthiness, faith announces to us that God wants to be part of our lives.
That Centurion said, Lord do not trouble yourself for. I am not worthy for you to come under my roof.
And yet Jesus had a plan to bless that man.
We also realize that faith invites the presence of God into our lives. We don’t warrant that either.
And yet God wants to live with us.
God wants to dwell with us and be with us, the presence of God.
We also learned that faith and this is amazing.
Faith cries out and announces that God wants to change things in our lives. Church.
Listen, I have got to tell you that and it’s, and part of it is maybe, maybe the reason why God has called me to be a pastor.
I, I, I, I came from Russia and flew from Russia to Copenhagen to Seattle, stepped off the plane and went to a went into a three day teaching conference of pastors from all over the north west, from the tip of the Ale Islands of Alaska as far south as Utah, all the way up into Canada and had a chance to speak to hundreds 600 pastors and so many of them struggling with their calling.
Should they be in the ministry? Or not.
And I’ve got to tell you that that uh my heart went out to them because I don’t struggle with that.
I heard God speak to me. I don’t doubt that.
And uh, and that’s my, that’s my joy and, and, and that’s my power knowing that the Lord has called me to do what I’m doing.
But the amazing thing is that because of that being true.
I listen, I love to see change happen in my life and because that’s true, you know, God is always moving.
He’s the same yesterday today and forever. He never changes.
And the reason why He says that is because everything around Him changes, including you and I, if God is at work, you’re gonna be changed.
Oh pastor, I don’t want to be changed, you need to be changed like a baby.
You know, babies are cute but sometimes babies need changing because they begin to stink a little bit.
God changes our lives. If evolution were ever true, it’s true.
Only in the life of a Christian, we are changed.
The Bible says from glory to glory by the power of God.
You see, I’m not, I’m not worthy to be changed. I’ve been this way. I’ve been that way.
I’m unworthy. I agree with you. I’m unworthy, but God loves change and He changes us. Isn’t it great?
He doesn’t leave us where we’re found. He converts and changes and molds and shapes.
And thirdly last time what faith had to say to us was that faith says anything is possible with God.
And we saw three things about that. We saw that the Lord takes notice.
That one verse tells us there in verses 9 to 10, that when Jesus heard that man’s faith, he marveled at him and turned and he said, we studied in depth that Jesus took notice because he was impressed with the Centurion’s faith.
And also this uh it’s important to us because the Lord is looking for the opportunity of what’s impossible to work and to move in our life.
We’re going to hear a little bit more about what’s impossible to us.
Jesus said, I have not found such great faith. No, not even in Israel.
And then we ended our time together last time that what faith has to say is anything is possible because the Lord is the one who gets the glory, the people returned to the house and they found the servant.
Well, just as Jesus had spoken. And so that’s a wonderful thing.
So we pick it up where we left off last time. Now. It is this what faith has to do.
It’s not only what it has to say.
Let’s look at what faith has to do, jot it down in your notes. This is what that title means.
What faith has to do is in relation to you.
And I this is what we must do now in light of what we’re going to learn today. OK.
So beginning at verse 11, now it happened the day after that, he went into a city village really called and many of his disciples went with him in a large crowd.
And when he came near the gate of the city, behold, a dead man was being carried out.
The only son of his mother for she was a widow and a large crowd from the city was with her.
And when the Lord saw her, he had compassion on her and he said to her, do not weep.
Then he came and touched the open coffin and those who carried him stood still.
And he said, young man, I say to you a rise.
And so he who was dead sat up and began to speak and he presented him to his mother.
Then fear came upon all and they glorified God, a great prophet has risen up among us and God has visited his people.
And the report of this about him went throughout all Judea and the surrounding regions.
Let’s get the technical part out of the way and get into the heart of the matter.
The village of Na na, the village is named after another Middle Eastern area more towards or east of this location.
Uh In antiquity, na was a small village. It was a quaint little place.
It was nothing that you would want to go visit. It was nothing that you’d vacation in.
Why would Jesus even be going through that area.
What, what’s the deal with that name for those of you who care?
And you can see the map right here. Name is approximately 10 miles southeast of Nazareth.
You might say, well, I don’t get that either.
Well, listen, it’s north of Jerusalem and you can see that on the map if that doesn’t help you.
It’s about 7000, 600 miles from Chino Hills. How’s that?
It’s a place that Jesus had to go through.
He wanted to go through. How do we know that?
Because when we look to our first point this morning, jot it down church.
If you would, what faith has to do?
Number one is this is to see in the dark faith must. Faith has to see in the dark.
If there was ever the call for night vision, it is faith. Faith has to see in the dark.
And why do we announce this in our study this morning because of the very scene that’s around us.
It’s a very sad scene. First of all, it’s one of great concern to the community.
Look with me at verse 11.
It said now it happened the day after that, he went into the city called name and many of his disciples went with him in a large crowd.
This is a sad, sad scene because number one, it concerned the entire town, the whole city is concerned.
We as good Bible students would ask the question. Why, why would an entire town be involved in a funeral?
What’s that all about? Secondly, in a moment, in one moment, this woman was no longer a mother.
This woman was no more a wife.
The Bible tells us and we’ll learn more in a moment that she’s a widow and now she’s lost, her only son, her son is dead, her husband is dead.
She’s all alone. She’s got nothing.
And you and I listen, we’ve got to break the mold of our western thinking to understand this story.
There’s no welfare fair program for her. There’s no welfare system for her.
There’s no registry that she can sign up and come under the widow’s outreach. There’s none of that.
The books of history tell us that she would have slowly whittled away into nothingness.
It’s a hard life in that time. People trying to make things work to begin with.
The Roman Empire is breathing down your neck on top of it. Taxation is high.
It’s every man for himself and there’s a widow.
She’s got no husband and now she’s got no son, she’s got no one.
And I want you to set that in your sights. Death had taken its toll upon this woman’s life.
And it’s a very sad and horrific moment, but Jesus is on his way from Capper where he had done that miracle the very day before regarding the Centurion servant.
Now, Jesus has been heading to the little village of name and he’s en route.
And all of this great lamentation is going up the the the town is there weeping.
Now, notice the flow of traffic. Jesus and the disciples are heading in. They’re approaching the city gates.
That’s where you would come in.
The entire city had called the day off because they’re heading out to the graveyard.
It’s an amazing moment.
Everyone’s crying and there’s little doubt that this woman in the love of her son and this family has somehow been well known by this town for them to react the way that they do jot this down regarding faith, having to see in the dark.
And that’s the challenge to us about our faith. Faith really works in the dark.
You won’t know that by the way until you’re in the dark. If your faith really works.
Number one is this, we need to be able to see in the dark and faith sees in the dark and when it’s dark, we can hope for a new day.
And I don’t want that to sound like some sort of a cute little statement.
Oh, just hope for a new day. Let’s just wish for a new day. Tomorrow is a new day.
This woman’s got no tomorrow, at least what tomorrow she has is very bleak, but Jesus is going to show her something about her future, something about her life that we can hope for a new day.
God church. Listen, wake up if you’re sleeping.
I know it’s early but God is committed to brand new days for us every day.
It is God who starts again over and over again.
You guys, we were on this outreach to Russia and its ministry non stop, except for about four hours a night when we would try to sleep.
This woman’s life had been shaken and I look to the people in Russia and everything is changing For those of you who have been there in the past.
It’s all different. Now. Affluence Bentley Auto Center of Saint Petersburg, Saint Petersburg portion, Audi.
They don’t want dollars anymore. No dollars. We want euros. We want rubles.
They’re growing, they’re, they’re taken off. They’re excited. How many old people did we see being left behind?
That don’t understand the change the government, the future with their hand out.
I gave in the metro.
I gave a woman a little, I don’t even know what it was.
It was like a, it was like 200 rubles, which I forget what that is.
It’s like, I don’t know what it is. I forgot. It’s like $1 to 27 rubles. Ridiculous.
And she just, she looked at that, she started crying, she kissed my hand.
I wanted to give her my clothes, but it wouldn’t look good on a woman.
Nothing. None of this matters to us. Faith doesn’t matter to us.
We don’t even care about faith, but you will when you enter into the dark when you can’t see hope.
God is into hope. And it says in verses 11, 12, 11 and 12, now it happened.
Can you sick of that word happened? We won’t spend time on it just to say this, it’s no accident.
This is a plan of God. That’s what it means. Now it happened. We read that in a story.
We’d never give it a second thought. God had an appointment.
And now it happened the day after the day after what the day after Jesus had healed the Centurion’s slave servant that he went into a city called name and many of the disciples went with him in a large crowd.
Verse 12 says, and when he came near the gate of the city, behold a dead man.
What a story, a dead man when it’s dark, when death has visited you or when you think death is coming upon you, when you’ve been announced that death could be at your door someday, could be six weeks, could be six months.
I tell you, you start searching for a new day and sometimes we do that and I’m not knocking this by no means.
I’m, in fact, I’m all for it. We search for hope.
We search for a new day by, you know, forgetting to eat that pizza and we wind up eating tomatoes and celery instead or good food.
You know, God, I know God made celery and I don’t know if God made pizza.
But this is good stuff to eat. We need to eat and it helps us.
I understand reaching out for them and you should do that.
Well, no, I’ve got cancer or I’ve got this, I’m gonna start exercising. That’s good.
Why, what, what are we doing?
We’re, we’re reaching for hope that will bring us just one more day.
The doctors told my sister you’ve got six months to live and you’re dead.
And my sister lived for seven more years.
But I gotta tell you, she loved those seven years and she loved me, by the way, she kissed me all the time and she appreciated her baby brother.
When you get a sentence like that, you appreciate.
This woman had nothing and we don’t know what that’s like.
She had nothing down deep inside you and I have a hunger for what hope can bring us.
We want to have a new day. Maybe you’re sitting here this morning.
You’re saying, man, I can’t wait for tomorrow this morning. Started off bad.
I can’t wait to just start a new day. It’s hope that makes us get up in the morning.
It’s hope that gets us going again. Maybe it’s going to be different today. This woman was losing all that.
What do we do when hopelessness arrives?
She’s hit with the news. Her son is dead, her husband’s dead.
He had been dead. She’s got nothing. It’s either God’s way of hope.
My friend or listen, you’re left alone to cope the best you can.
And that’s not good enough. I don’t know about you, but that’s not good enough. Cope.
I thank God, I, I cannot find cope in the bible.
Hope I can find but cope with ac I cannot find nowhere. Does God say just cope with it?
Do you understand? He doesn’t say that. He says hope in this.
He says hope in me.
I don’t know if you’ll have a hard time with this, if you do it tough.
I was speaking in a nightclub in Russia and there’s people there in mini skirts and clothes and smoking and you could hardly breathe.
And I had mentioned in this one message that Jesus had a woman brought to his feet who was caught in the act of adultery and who knows?
We don’t know anything about her. Maybe she was a prostitute, maybe she lived a promiscuous life.
We don’t know, but she was brought to the foot of Jesus and there was this woman standing at the rail there, right, right at the base of the stage and she had a cigarette in her mouth.
And I said, Jesus. Jesus had a woman brought to his feet caught in the act of adultery.
And where were you last night?
Jesus was with you and that cigarette fell right out of her mouth and she began to cry.
Hope in the morning.
He’s awesome when things seem the darkest and boy, that nightclub was dark.
I’ll tell you that God pierces the darkness with hope.
In Psalm five verse three, the Bible says my voice shall hear in the morning.
Oh Lord, in the morning, I will direct my prayer to you.
And I’ll look up pastor and Bible teacher Jack Hibbs here on real life radio with his message called, what faith has to do.
We’re glad you joined us today.
You know, this message is part of Pastor Jack’s new series called The Gospel of Luke A series on the book of Luke and the unveiling of Jesus Christ to this world.
And we’ll continue on the next edition of Real Life Radio.
You know, Pastor I’m looking forward to this new Year. How about you?
I gotta tell you, I um I’ve probably, no, no, it’s, it’s certain I’ve never been more excited about a year like this year to come than, than in my life, to be honest with you because of what has happened in recent years.
God has done amazing things ever since, you know, 2019 and, and, and just each year has been amazing.
So I’m looking forward to 2023. I’m expecting radical, awesome things from the Lord.
So, yeah, that would make me Happy Davy. It’s always a great, great thrill to see what God’s doing. Absolutely.
Thanks, Pastor Jack and from our team here at Real life. Happy New Year.
This program is made possible by the generous contributions of you.
Our listeners visit us at Jack Hibbs dot com. That’s Jack Hibbs dot com.
Until next time, Pastor Jack Hibbs and all of us here at Real Life Radio.
Wish for you solid and steady growth in Christ and in his word, we’ll see you next time here on Real Life Radio.