Good morning church family, hopefully everyone had a good week in the Lord. As always, it's a joy and a privilege for us to come together and to worship our God. I'd like to begin by reading Psalm 28, verses 6 and 7. Blessed be the Lord, because he has heard the voice of my supplication.

The Lord is my strength and my shield. My heart trusts in him, and I am helped. Therefore, my heart exults, and with my song, I shall thank him. Amen, so and with that, let us sing, and let us give thanks to our God. >> All right, good morning. Welcome to Brain Community Church.

Let me get to some announcements before we get started. First of all, our Intentional Sisters Fellowship, that's starting in February. Today is the last day to sign up, so if you're intending to sign up, please sign up as soon as possible today. Our outreach team is having a volleyball event, again, for the purpose of outreach.

If you are planning to come or bring somebody, today is the last day to sign up for that as well. And then this coming Saturday, we have a men's ministry fellowship, where we have our pastor, Sung Kang. He's going to be coming and addressing the issue of men's purity.

And so if you are a man in our church, and this is high school and above, this is open to you. It is $10, we have light breakfast, and then lunch fellowship afterwards. So please sign up for that, and again, this is happening this coming Saturday. There's a bunch of other stuff going on, but one other thing.

We are going to be offering a class on Old Testament survey. If you haven't taken that, I highly recommend that you take this class. Pastor Peter Chung is going to be going over Old Testament survey for six weeks, starting from March 3rd to April 14th. It's going to be from 2 to 3.30 in the sanctuary.

It will help you tremendously. If you have a very loose grasp of what's happening in the Old Testament, it will open up the Bible to you. Understanding the Old Testament will help you to open up the New Testament, because the New Testament is an extension of what God's doing in the Old Testament.

So if you feel like you don't have a good grasp of the Old Testament, the history, and how the different prophets relate to one another, and how it's connected to the fulfilled prophecies in the New Testament, this is a class that we highly, highly recommend. So if you haven't taken it, that's going to be happening starting from March 3rd for six weeks at 2 to 3.30.

All the other announcements, I'm going to refer you to our website, and more detailed stuff you can find on there. Let me pray for us, and I'll give you an opportunity to give online, and if you have a physical offering, again, we have a box in the back. All right, let's pray.

Father, we thank you for your goodness. We thank you, Lord God, for the privilege that we have to be able to come and worship you as a corporate body. Lord, help us to know the privilege that we have, the access that we have to you. Lord, what a blessing and what a gift that it is that you have given us, and help us to understand that, that our worship may be given to you as an overflow of gratitude and thanksgiving.

We pray that even in this giving that we would give joyfully, knowing, Father God, that every bit of it ultimately belongs to you, that we are stewards to use it for your glory. May it be multiplied for your use in your kingdom. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Church family, let us stand together and take a moment to greet each other before we continue our worship.

(music) (music) (music) (music) (music) (music) (music) (music) (music) (music) (music) (music) (music) (music) (music) (music) (music) (music) (music) (music) (music) (music) (music) (music) (music) (music) (music) (music) (music) (music) (music) (music) (music) (music) (music) (music) (music) (music) (music) (music) (music) >>And you may be seated. >>If you can turn your Bibles with me to Luke chapter 7, verse 11 through 17.

We're finally jumping back into the Gospel of Luke. Most of you are aware, but our youth group and our college ministry is up at a retreat and they're going to be coming down today by 1.30 or 2 o'clock, so please continue to keep them in your prayers. Luke chapter 7, verse 11 through 17.

"Soon afterwards, he went to a city called Nain, and his disciples were going along with him, accompanied by a large crowd. Now as he approached the gate of the city, a dead man was being carried out, the only son of his mother. And she was a widow, and a sizable crowd from the city was with her.

When the Lord saw her, he felt compassion for her and said to her, 'Do not weep.' And he came up and touched a coffin, and the bearers came to a halt, and he said, 'Young man, I say to you, arise.' The dead man sat up and began to speak, and Jesus gave him back to his mother.

Fear gripped them all, and they began glorifying God, saying, 'A great prophet has arisen among us, and God has visited his people.' This report concerning him went out all over Judea, and in all the surrounding district." Let's pray. Father, we pray for deeper understanding and insight. We pray that through the study that you would help us not simply to understand the word, but to know your very heart.

Help us to know you, and to see that we may see a greater glimpse of the glory of the gospel of Jesus Christ. In Jesus' name we pray, amen. Sorry, I apologize if my voice sounds twangy. Does it sound twangy? It doesn't? Okay, it sounds twangy in my own head.

So, I haven't gotten sick like this in a long time, so I was kind of bedridden this week, and recovering from India, so I feel weak. I feel good, but I feel weak, so in my head it sounds twangy. So, you sure it doesn't sound twangy? So, something's wrong with my ear then.

Okay. As you guys know, we came back from India, and our team members last week took turns sharing about what happened, but one of the things that I wanted to highlight about our trip was, as you guys know, we've been hearing about the persecution that's been increasing rapidly out in India, and this year, after talking to the pastor, they said that as hard as it's been, they see the persecution is going to become much more intense in the coming year.

In fact, right before we showed up to do our medical camp, one of the pastors in one of the villages that we went to told me after the camp that right before we showed up, there was a national day of worship that the government, the federal government, declared that every citizen in India had to worship.

And so, it's kind of like the national day of prayer, but again, obviously, in our country, it's done voluntarily, but they basically said everybody should do this, and the problem is, obviously, our pastors and a lot of the Christians in the villages did not do that, but part of the worship toward this goddess, this temple that they dedicated, is that whoever worshiped, they had to hang something outside of their house to show your neighbors that you participated in this, and so every Christian, especially our pastors who did not fly this, it was pretty obvious to their neighbors that they weren't participating, and as a result of that, the pastor told me that all their neighbors got extremely angry with them, and they were expecting some sort of attack, but because we were showing up to do the medical camp, they kind of held off, and so they were telling us that it looks like they're waiting until we're done and we're gone, that they're going to probably get attacked, so they're anticipating attack coming from their neighbors, but at the end of the camp, they said in a positive note that a lot of their neighbors who were angry showed up to the medical camp, and so they were treated, and they had glasses, and so some of their children participated in the VBS, and as a result of that, they were hoping and praying that it diffused some of their anger, and so I haven't heard anything, so hopefully that's exactly what did happen, and so again, the fact that we were able to do that for them, and hopefully that diffusion is not just temporary, but that their heart, the thankfulness that they have will kind of protect them, at least in the villages that we've been to, but along with that, they said that one of the things that they expect to happen is that when we, when I started going into India 13 years ago, we got a notification from the government for all the foreigners not to come out of our apartments because there was an election that was taking place, and the election was between the moderate conservatives with the radical Hindus, which is BJB, which is where the Prime Minister Modi came from, some of you guys who may know the politics in India, and at that time, they were afraid that if the BJB party loses, that they're going to get angry, and then they're going to focus their anger toward the foreigners, so they told us that if they see foreigners out on the street, and if they lose, you may get targeted, so they asked to stay home, and so after that happened, they ended up, actually, BJB party ended up winning by a very narrow margin.

In fact, many people were surprised that such a radical group, and this is a group that wants to outlaw meat, like they're not, to make it illegal to have meat in the country. That's how radical they are in their Hindu beliefs. At that time, they passed by a very narrow margin, but this time around, I asked the pastors, "What percentage of the political party in India now is governed by them?" and he said, "Almost 87%." They won 87% of the country's support for these radical Hindus.

As a result of that, one of the things that they said that they're going to pass this year, probably in the first half of the year, is they're going to make Hindu their national religion, and so I said, "So what does that mean?" They said, "Once it becomes a national religion of the country, they're going to make it illegal to proselytize Hindus," meaning that Christians going in and trying to share the gospel is going to be made officially illegal.

Up to this point, the anger has been coming from their neighbors, other Hindus, family members, for trying to convert them, but if they make it a national religion, basically, by law, they cannot go proselytize, and part of the reason why the Muslims don't get attacked is because they don't actively proselytize, so even though they live out their faith, they're not being targeted for that reason, but Christians, obviously, our pastors and many other pastors, like our pastors in India, where there's a greatest concentration of unreached people groups, especially in that area that we go to, they are actively bringing the gospel to hostile places, and as difficult as it's been, they all told me that they see real persecution coming in the coming years, so we need to pray for them.

The work that we're doing, every year, we're evaluating and praying. We don't want to be reckless, but at the same time, if we're able to help them and even be there to protect them, even for a short period of time, we feel that it's worthwhile to help them to share the gospel.

I know some of you guys have been praying. Many of you guys have been financially supporting, and all of this is not a penny is being wasted. It's going to a good cause where God is being glorified. The gospel is literally being taken to villages where there is no church.

Now, I say all of this not simply as an opening, not simply as an update to what happened out in India, but everything that we do, everything that we do, everything that we study in the New Testament is in the context of God pursuing sinners. You will miss a huge part of even properly understanding the Bible when we are disengaged with the Great Commission.

When we look at Scripture as a how to raise children, how to have a good church, how to build community, how to disciple people to be good Christians, and when that is disengaged with the Great Commission, it becomes self-centered. It's like the mission that God has placed the church in, not participating in that mission, and yet we still want God to walk with us and bless us.

As difficult as it is in India, what we see out in India looks a lot more like what the Bible describes a Christian life looks like. Read the Scriptures, the warnings that Jesus gave. They hated me, so they're going to hate you. Don't be surprised if they persecute you because they persecuted me.

He told us that we're not of this world. Our enemy is like a roaring lion seeking someone to devour, so what they are experiencing in India looks a lot more like what we see in Scripture than the Christian life that you and I experience here. What has become normal Christian life in our generation, we have to admit, doesn't look much like what we see in Scripture.

In fact, we have to kind of distort it. We have our own standards of what is good, what is right, what makes a church healthy or not healthy. All of that had to be tweaked and contextualized to meet an Orange County Christian middle-class life. What's strange in the Bible is not what India is experiencing.

It's what you and I are experiencing. If there's any kind of tweaking that needs to be made, it's not what's happening out in India. It's what's happening here. So, you know, sometimes experiencing what these pastors go through, at least for a short period of time, kind of recalibrates. I think every single one of us would admit who's been there, kind of recalibrates because it affects our fellowship, it affects our gathering, it affects our prayer life, it affects our devotions, it affects our work, our gifting, our sacrifice.

Ask any one of them that's been on these trips. We feel a sense of true church, like what God called us to be as a church in the context of what we do out in India. The challenge is how do we bring this home? How do we make that church that we experienced for a short period of time a church that becomes normal, that that's the standard that we are shooting for, right?

Now what we do out in India is not just a one week out of the year we sacrifice to be there and experience that and say, "Oh, that was good. We did something good." But how do we make that the normal Christian life that we are to live here?

Everything that Jesus has done, everything that we've studied up to this point, everything that we will study today, everything that we will study going forward, it's all in the context of God pursuing sinners. So if you are detached from that somehow, it's kind of like, you know, that's for the pastors and that's for the outreach team.

You are completely detached from the Christian life. And because you are detached from the Christian life, you're going to hear the sermons as a time that you put in. And once you're done with your time, it's just like, "I'm done." You know, go get some coffee, go play with your kids and, you know, do whatever you need to do.

But outside of that, it's not relevant. Because the call that God gives us is the same call that the pastors have. They don't have a separate call than we do. They've been called to live a tough life, to share the gospel to people who haven't heard. But thank God that that's not me.

Jesus, even in this story, is in the context of pursuing sinners. And let me give you the setting behind what happens. This happens in the city of Nain. Nain is in the context of Galilee, maybe about 15 miles away from the main area where Jesus has been doing ministry.

It's an obscure city, kind of like Nazareth, that is mentioned. This city is mentioned in no other place but is in this particular text in the Gospel of Luke. We would have never known anything about the city outside of the fact that this miracle takes place here. Now, it tells us that this miracle of raising this widow's son happens outside of the gate.

But what's interesting here is that there's two things that are emphasized and these two crowds coming. One, in verse 11, it says a large crowd accompanied Jesus. And then another large crowd met Jesus at the gate. So you had two clashing of these large crowds that meet. Now, the fact that our author, Luke, is telling us about these two large crowds, one, tells us two things.

One, Jesus' popularity is growing. And we're going to see this crowd growing larger and larger. Can you imagine? Every time I go to India, it reminds me, this is what it must have looked like wherever Jesus went. Because every time we go to the villages, you know, people are crowding at the door.

And so initially when we started going out to India, we didn't think we needed bodyguards and we needed doormen to stand by the door and fight off the crowd all day. But that's, you know, one of the toughest jobs is our bodyguards, you know, Ella James and Garrett, you know, they got to stand by the door and they're literally fighting off people all day until we leave.

And almost never are we done. So at the end of the day, we just have to shut the door and people are disappointed and we just have to pack up and get in our vans and we take off. And that's with a small group of people only there for a few hours.

And because they're desperate, we have doctors who are there to see them that a lot of these people don't have access to. So they know that if they don't get through the door, they're going to lose their opportunity. So because of the desperateness and the opportunity they have, they'll bang on the door, they'll try to cut in and, you know, they're always looking for favor and asking the pastors and leaders just kind of walking through and using their position in the village to kind of get an advantage.

And I can imagine all of that happening exponentially larger everywhere Jesus went. And Jesus was just one man and he was performing miracles, not just passing out medicine. So can you imagine the crowd? That's why it says in John 6 when Jesus was feeding the 5,000, the actual crowd probably over 20,000 people just wouldn't leave him alone.

I mean who can blame them? You have a child who's sick, you know, you have a twisted ankle, you have heart failure, you have disease, and you don't have money for medicine. And even if you did, they don't have enough know-how to fix anything. Then all of a sudden Jesus comes and the lame start walking, the blind begin to see.

So can you imagine the thousands and thousands and the 12 disciples constantly trying to fight off the crowd? Well, every time we go to India, we see a small glimpse of that and that's exactly what was happening. It says Jesus is walking. This is in the earlier part of his ministry.

So can you imagine as he is headed toward Jerusalem, how crazy this crowd must have looked like? It says that Jesus is going down to this small town, Nain, and a large crowd followed him. And then it says a sizeable crowd was with the widow. Not only was this crowd growing second, this miracle happened in front of a lot of people.

This wasn't hidden behind the doors. And they said, "Oh, it happened!" And he said, "Well, I didn't see it." And he said, "No, you have to believe." I don't know how much of the miracles that people proclaim are happening today, right? It happens behind closed doors. He said, "No, Jesus' miracles would happen in the opening." Because he wanted them to see.

He wanted them to see who he was. It was evidence of who Jesus was. And so, one, his popularity is growing, and second, that this miracle took place in the open. But what's interesting about these two crowds is you can't get a more of a greater contrast between these two crowds because you have this one crowd following Jesus because they see his miracles and there's an excitement that maybe he's the Messiah.

And hundreds and possibly thousands are already just constantly trying to get at him. So can you imagine the crowd, the excitement that must have been in that crowd? And then as Jesus is coming, here's another crowd coming out of the city. And this is a funeral march. And so, you know, at that particular time, if people weren't sad, they would have to hire people, you know.

And it demonstrated that professional weepers, just to show how missed this person will be. And so typically, a funeral that lasted about seven days at the beginning would start with this procession outside the gate. And people would come out weeping and showing, you know, physical signs of their mourning.

So can you imagine this two crowd? One overjoyed, excited anticipation of the Messiah. And here's this other crowd coming mourning and weeping because not only was their death, this is a death of the only son of a widow. The tragedy behind this. And the clash happens. And at the end of this clash, one crowd will succumb to the other.

And again, I don't think it's by accident that Luke mentioned this here. But what I want to focus on this morning is not simply the setting. The setting is just to help us understand what's going on. But Jesus' compassion that led him to do what he did. Now, it mentions kind of in passing, if you only look at this text.

But when you look at all the texts and the miracles and the things that Jesus did, right at the center of that, you will see often that Jesus did this because he was compassionate. In Luke 7, 10, it says, "Now, as he approached the gate in the city, a dead man was being carried out, the only son of his mother, and she was a widow." So even now in our modern generation, if a widow loses her only son, it would be tragic.

She's already felt the pain of losing her husband and then now losing her only son. Even in our modern culture, with all the technologies, with all the help, with all the hospitals, maybe even government support, it would still be tragic today. But at this particular time, a widower, a widow, without her husband would have been completely helpless.

And for that widow, who's already completely helpless, to lose her only son, she has no way to survive. Who's going to take care of her? But on top of the physical problem that she would have, she lived in a period where people automatically thought, just kind of like Job, when all these tragic things were happening, people attributed, "You must have done something wrong.

Why would God curse you in this way?" So for a lady to become a widow, and then on top of that, to lose her only son, there must have been something. You must have done something. There must have been some hidden sin in you. So you talk about sadness, it's an understatement.

In fact, the Scripture highlights the bitterness, the sorrow and pain of losing your only son. Jeremiah 6:26 says, "O daughter of my people, put on sackcloth and roll in ashes. Mourn, as for an only son, a lamentation most bitter." A lamentation most bitter. The Bible describes a pain of losing your only son.

A lamentation most bitter. Zechariah 12.10, it says, "And they will mourn for him, as one mourns for an only son. And they will weep bitterly over him, like the bitter weeping over a firstborn." The Bible emphasizes the bitterness and the sorrow, the deep sorrow, of losing your only son.

Now, we know that all of this is a foreshadow of what was coming in Christ. And so, all of this, again, which we'll bring back to later on, there's a purpose behind all of this. But one thing that I want to emphasize here is the motive behind why Jesus did what he did.

There are certain things that you can do whether you have heart or not, right? If you're an accountant, you do it. You don't say, "Oh, I love numbers," and I don't get you, right? But it's your job. You're going to get paid. So whether you have a heart for it or not, you just do it.

You know, the job needs to get done. Certain things you just can't do if you don't have a heart. You can't be a parent. You can't—it's like, "That's my job." No, they will stretch your job, right? Unless you—there are certain things that you cannot do until you have some sort of compassion or love, right?

Marriage is not a contract. It's not a contract unless there is a heart behind it. It's difficult to maintain a relationship with anybody. You know, I noticed years ago, I was helping a doctor friend move, and he happened to be in radiology—a radiologist, and he—and I remember in the conversation, he had a bunch of his other, you know, radiologists come, and I asked him, "It must be a hard job, you know, constantly telling people that they have cancer, and you know, they have so many days to live or so many months to live." And I remember one of the doctors said, "Well, you know, after a while, you become callous." And then he explained to me how there have been times when they would tell somebody that your father only has ten days to live, and they would come out and just joking around.

And they said, "I know that sounds really bad," but he says, "But that's how it becomes after a while. It just becomes your job." Now, to this day, I can't understand how you can get callous to the point where you tell somebody that they're going to die, and then you come out, like, joking around.

But I've talked to police officers. I've talked to other people in healthcare professions. I've talked to guys who came from war. If they don't harden their heart, they can't do their job. There are certain things that you just cannot do until your compassion is ignited. What Jesus does, what God has done for sinners, cannot be understood outside of his compassion.

It cannot be understood. It's not logical. It doesn't make any sense. You can't calculate and try to find a reason behind why he did until you understand that it was moved by compassion. In Luke 7:13, he said, "When the Lord saw her, he felt compassion for her and said to her, 'Do not weep.

Do not weep.'" He had compassion for that lady. In fact, in Matthew 9:36, Jesus, seeing the multitudes, he said he felt compassion for them because they were distressed and dispirited, like sheep without a shepherd. If you try to engage the Great Commission without compassion, all you become is a salesperson.

You have a product that you're trying to sell, and you don't think people can see right through that? You're not trying to convince a sinner to turn from his sins and be saved. There's tragedy waiting for them. You're presenting a bunch of information. I've done my job. I checked off the mark and it's time for you to go.

You don't think people notice that? You cannot engage in the Great Commission until there is compassion, until you see it through the lens that God gives you, and you see the tragic situation of lost sinners. Jesus says, because he had compassion, he compelled the disciples to beseech the Lord of the Harvest.

In Matthew 14, 14, when he went ashore, he saw a large crowd and felt compassion for them and healed their sick. He didn't say, "You know, I need to heal the sick because I need to show them who I am and to demonstrate my power." All of that is true, but the scripture says what moved him to action was compassion.

He saw their pain. He saw their pain and he wanted to do something about it. That's the reason it says in Mark 1, 40, why he healed the leper. That's the reason in Mark 5, 1, where he cast out the demon possessed. That's the reason why he healed the two blind men in Matthew 20, 30 to 34.

It says all motivated by compassion. In fact, when Jesus stands at the grave of Lazarus, he says he wept over. He saw the pain of the people who were crying over the death of Lazarus. As Jesus rides a donkey into Jerusalem, Jesus sees judgment coming upon them and he weeps over the nation of Israel.

What Jesus does makes no sense if we don't understand the compassion of God. So the mystery of the cross is why does he have compassion? Why? Let me illustrate this to help us understand. Because logically, you know, as I've mentioned to you many times, that there's so many things I learned trying to work with the homeless people.

After a few years of trying to help them off the street, I realized a lot of them were not interested in getting off the street. It used to really frustrate me because I have finances, I have people willing to help you, willing to house you for free, help you get a job and get back on your feet.

And after attempting this a few times, I realized these guys are not interested. And I'm not saying every single one, but a huge chunk of them. And I realized a lot of them had vices that they got themselves into. Typically alcohol or some kind of drugs. And after a while, you start to lose compassion.

You did that to yourself. And I know as many of you may look at that and say, "Don't give money. That's a waste of money." Because they did that to themselves. If you give them money, they're gonna go and buy drugs. So why? Why do we need to help?

It doesn't make any sense. You're wasting money. Until, until that's somebody you love. So that's your father or your mother or brother or sister or your son. So compassion isn't based upon do they deserve it. Compassion isn't based upon well if we do this that they're gonna clean up and there's a they're gonna become something better.

Compassion simply happens because they're in need. Because you care. God didn't look at us and say, "Well you know like something tragic happened to you and I want to help you from your difficult situation that maybe if I pour enough love into you you're gonna become this great disciple of mine and share the gospel and you can become this great light." No.

God showed compassion because you and I needed it. Period. Period. He saw us and just like we could look at homeless people who are hooked on drugs and say you did that to yourself. You did that to yourself. You don't deserve my money. You don't deserve grace. How many sinners in this room didn't do that to ourselves?

Couldn't God have easily looked at us and said, "You did that to yourself. You rebelled. You chose to go against me. You want me to pour my grace into you?" But God didn't look upon us that way. He saw us as desperate sinners. We're in need. And for whatever the reason, instead of being disgusted, He was compassionate.

Instead of turning away, He came. How easily for us, if we know some selfish person is coming into our life, we stiff arm them. If we know the stink coming, "Oh, I have a bad experience. I know this. I know what's coming next." Our natural instinct is to keep our distance from them.

Now, if God did that to us, none of us would be here. You know, even our compassion is limited by our own sin. It's limited by our own sin because we don't fully understand. We tend to have compassion from our perspective. And we tend to have compassion for people that we think are lower than us.

That's why we focus attention on the poor, but we don't have compassion for the rich. Because it's like, "Oh, they have less than I do." And then we're prejudiced. There are certain people that we can have compassion because they think, "Oh, they're lovable." So we have more compassion for orphans because they're cuter.

So even the way we practice compassion is limited by our own sinfulness. But Jesus is omniscient. He knows all things. He's all-powerful. So even His compassion is based upon full knowledge. If we knew, you know, some of the people that we feel compassion for, if we knew what they were like behind the scene, if we knew all their sins, if we knew the filth that they've been trying to hide, if they knew all the filth that you and I tried to hide, would they be so compassionate toward us?

God knew all of that. Jesus knows all of that. Their sins, past, present, and future. Omniscient God, and yet He saw the plight of man, and He had compassion. In Hebrews chapter 415, it says, "For we did not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who has been tempted in all things as we are, yet without sin." Jesus didn't just stand from a distance and was crucified.

He said He walked among us so that we may recognize Him as a sympathetic high priest, that He can relate to us, and we can relate to Him. You know, what's interesting is most biblical scholars believe that Jesus lost his earthly father, Joseph, when he was young, and that's why we don't see Joseph when he's an adult.

We see Mary all over the place, but we don't see Joseph. So they believe that Jesus experienced losing his father at an early age, and being the firstborn, that he was probably responsible for taking care of his mom and his siblings since a young age. So Jesus experienced the pain of losing the father.

Jesus experienced the pain of taking care of his widowed mother. Where we see the heart of Jesus is as Jesus is hanging on the cross in John chapter 19, 26-27. One of the last things that Jesus says on the cross is his concern for his mom. In John 19, 26-27, when Jesus then saw his mother and the disciples whom he loved standing nearby, he said to his mother, "Woman, behold your son." Then he said to the disciple, "Behold your mother." From that hour, the disciples took her into his own household.

As he's hanging on the cross, he asked John, the apostle, "Please take care of my mom." That was one of the last things that he said. Jesus knew what it was like. And he had looked at us and said, "Our sympathetic high priest has compassion for us." And that's why when he sees this lady crying, he has compassion.

He says, "Stop crying." Now that, outside of the context, is like a very insensitive thing to say. She just lost her son. They stopped crying. But obviously, Jesus is telling her to stop crying, not simply because, "Hey, suck it up. Things will get better." You know, oftentimes we try to encourage one another with words, and sometimes they're more painful.

It's better not to say anything. You know, somebody who's gone through tragedy say, "You know, God works all things together for good." And sometimes that brings more pain because it feels trivial. You don't know what's going on. You don't know the pain that that person's going through. So it's highly insensitive to tell somebody to stop crying, stop weeping.

Yet Jesus says that because he knows what's coming. When he says, "Be anxious for nothing," he's not just throwing empty words. That's a sovereign God telling us, "Be anxious for nothing because I've got the future." And he does something amazing here. He touches the coffin of the dead. Now, again, outside of the context, that may not mean a whole lot, but you have to understand the reason why this funeral procession is happening outside the gate is because they can't bury dead people in the city.

Because if you even come upon the grave of somebody dead, it would make you unclean. So you have to isolate yourself and you can't fellowship and you can't be in the community. So as soon as the person died, immediately they would wrap the body up, put him in a coffin, and have to take him out of the outside of the outside of the city walls.

And if you were rich, you found a cave and then you would bury it and you make clear signs that that's the grave so nobody runs upon it accidentally and become unclean. If you're poor, they dug a hole, put a mound on it, and put a clear sign so that anybody who is walking in this area would know to avoid this.

So if you're just coming into contact near the grave makes you unclean, can you imagine the shock when Jesus actually places his hand on the coffin of the dead man? How can he do that? And yet, not only does Jesus do that, in John chapter 6, Jesus says, "If you do not drink of my blood and eat of my flesh, I have no relationship with you." There's nothing more sacrilegious than drinking the blood of another human being.

That's what the pagans did in the worship of their demons. And yet Jesus said, "You must drink of my blood." Only the touch of Christ makes what is unclean clean. Only the touch of Christ, instead of making him unclean, he would make them clean. You and I live in a sinful society where all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.

The problem is you and I tend to sin when people sin against us. If they slander us, it triggers us to slander them. If they hit us, it triggers us to hit them. If they're selfish, it triggers us to be selfish. But that's how you and I act. If we're sinned against, we tend to sin against them.

But the problem is we're surrounded by sinners. And we are filled with sin. And so sin gets perpetuated from generation to generation, from husband to wife, from parents to children, and on and on and on. And yet Christ jumps in to this sinful generation, and he lives amongst sinful people.

And by his touch, the curse is reversed. Jesus is the only human being that walks on this earth that is able to absorb our sins. And instead of reacting and becoming unclean, he makes us clean. That's the gospel. That's Jesus' touch. What may have shocked people of what he was doing actually raises the man.

And as a result of that, can you imagine what happens? This crowd that came out mourning and weeping all of a sudden turned into rejoicing and celebration. And the crowd that followed Jesus engulfs the crowd that came out of town. And can you imagine the celebration as they walk back into town with that young man raised?

And how thankful that that widow must have been. Well, the scripture tells us, "The dead man sat up and began to speak, and Jesus gave him back to his mother. Fear gripped them all, and they began to glorify God, saying, 'A great prophet has arisen among us, and God has visited his people.'" You know what's interesting here?

Is that in the midst of this celebration, it says, "Fear gripped them." For whatever the reason, we think fear and celebration, fear and joy, they don't go together. In fact, the Bible says, "No, fear and celebration, true celebration, always is accompanied by fear of God." We have perverted the gospel to the point where we think holiness and grace somehow contradict each other.

That if we're a gracious community, that we allow some level of sin. That we should be okay with that because we're gracious, because God is loving. So somehow we perverted the gospel to accept the fact that unholiness means that God's presence is greater because his love is abounding. True revival always brings fear and awe of God.

True revival. Because the moment you are aware of God's presence, all your hidden sins, all the things that you've covered, all the things that you have swept under the rug, all of a sudden becomes filthier than you've ever known. Because you begin to see it from the lens of a holy God.

It is the grace of God that causes you to see the sinfulness of your own heart, which causes the fear and awe that leads you to repentance, which triggers his forgiveness. But for whatever the reason, our generation has passed through repentance through forgiveness. The grace of God has forgiven you.

Notice the grace of God that causes you to sin, see sin as God sees sin, then leads you to repentance, which leads you to forgiveness. They said when this happened, it wasn't just, "Oh, a great miracle happened. Thank God that this only son is raised." They said, "No, God had visited us.

God was in our midst." And how did God get glorified? He said, "In the midst of this fear, they began to glorify God." In Psalm 36 1, it says, "Transgression speaks to the ungodly within his heart. There is no fear of God before his eyes." The reason why people feel comfortable in their sin is because there's no fear of God.

They don't know God. They're not aware of the presence of God. God is just a theory. God is just a thought. God is just something that you were taught in your nominal Christian home. He's not real. But the moment you encounter God, you will never feel comfortable in your sin.

You will never feel comfortable in your sin. And that's exactly what happens. Revival breaks out. Revival breaks out because they recognize that God visited them. That's the compassion of Jesus. His compassion doesn't allow us to live in sin and continue to embrace the world. It's like, "Oh, God is compassionate.

He's loving. There's nothing we can do that can make God happier." It's because He loves us, He rebukes us. Because He loves us, He calls us out of darkness. And it is because of His compassion, it's because of His compassion, He will not allow us to chase the world.

He calls us, He calls us to bring others into the light. True life, true life can only be found at the center of the will of God. Please let that sink in. If you've been given, if you've given to think that if you can just save it, if you can just buy the house at the right time, if you can just buy the stock at the right time, if you can just marry the right person, if you can just do this and do that, if I can just have that, life will be so much better.

You've been lied to. You have embraced the deception. Even in your wildest dream, if it comes true, you will die. And everything that you have achieved in this life, you will regret. You will regret it, I guarantee you, you will regret it. Everything that you are pursuing outside of God, you will one day wake up.

If God is merciful enough to wake you up, you will live in eternity in regret of how you spent your days on this life. True life is only found in the center of the will of God. That joy you feel because you have a new car, that joy you feel because you've redecorated your house, that joy you feel because you're able to go somewhere to forget the experience, all of that one day at the end of your life, you will regret if Christ is not at the center of your life, if he's not your Lord.

You will regret every Christian game that you played, every hypocrisy that you have embraced, every fake face that you put on for other people to see, every reputation that you've gained to be righteous, knowing full well that you have sinned, that you are unrepenting in. Only at the center of the will of God will you find true life.

Psalm 30, 11-12, "You have turned for me my mourning into dancing, you have loosed my sackcloth and girded me with gladness, that my soul may sing praise to you and not be silent. Oh Lord my God, I will give thanks to you forever." Let's pray. Lord, if we have embraced the lie that because we are healthy, because our bills are paid, and our children are laughing, that all is good, help us Lord God, open our eyes to see that we are in the midst of waiting for the judgment of God to come, that we will not live like the rest of the world.

As you had compassion for us, help us to see the people who are lost in this world with compassion. As you didn't turn away from our ugliness, help us not to turn away from the ugliness of this world. That we may love them, pray for them, intercede for them, as you did for us.

Help us to fix our eyes so firmly on Christ who has come, on Christ that you have promised to be with us to the end of the age, and in the Christ that will come in full glory when it is time. Our life, our thoughts, our finances, our family, our children, that we may live our lives fully for the purpose of your glory.

In Jesus' name we pray, Amen. Let's all stand up for the closing praise. The grace of God has reached for me, and pulled me from the raging sea. And I am safe on this solid ground. The Lord is my salvation. I will not fear when darkness falls. His strength will help me still these walls.

I'll see the dawn of the rising sun. The Lord is my salvation. Who is like the Lord our God? Strong to save, faithful in love. My debt is paid, and the victory won. The Lord is my salvation. When my hope is hidden though, He has each promise of His word.

When winter fades, I know spring will come. The Lord is my salvation. Who is like the Lord our God? Strong to save, faithful in love. My debt is paid, and the victory won. The Lord is my salvation. Glory be to God the Father. Glory be to God the Son.

Glory be to God the Spirit. The Lord is my salvation. Glory be to God the Father. Glory be to God the Son. Glory be to God the Spirit. The Lord is my salvation. Who is like the Lord our God? Strong to save, faithful in love. My debt is paid, and the victory won.

The Lord is my salvation. The Lord is my salvation. The Lord is my salvation. Let's pray. Gracious Father, as you had compassion on the widow, we know, Father God, that to this day, that it is because of your compassion that the world is not consumed. Help us, Lord God, to understand this compassion, to celebrate, and to be thankful.

It would lead us to worship you in spirit and in truth. Help us, Lord God, not to be so entangled with civilian affairs. Help us to know, Father, how fleeting this life is. Remind us how our life is truly like a mist. That whether we are young, middle-aged, or seniors, help us to know, Father God, that our home is not here.

That one day we will be home. That we would live our lives, Lord God, as ambassadors in this dark world. As you warned us, that as a wickedness will increase, that love of many, or most, will grow cold. Lord, we are tempted. Lord, at times we have succumbed. But help us, help us, Lord God, that our love would not grow cold.

That we would love you with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength. That we may also love our neighbors as ourselves. Send us, that we may be your ambassadors wherever we go. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. God sent his Son. They called him Jesus. He came to love, heal, and forgive.

He lived and died to buy my pardon. An empty grave is there to put my Savior there. Because he lived, I can face tomorrow. Because he lived, all fear is gone. Because I know, he holds the future. And life is worth the living, just because he lived. This is amazing grace.

This is unfailing love.