I rejoiced with those who said to me,
“Let us go to the house of the Lord.” Psalm 122:1

God has Visited His People

The Sixteenth Sunday after Trinity – Pr. Anderson sermon
St. Luke 7:11-17 “God has Visited His People”
September 15, 2024 | Christ Lutheran Church

In Nomine Iesu
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Lord God, heavenly Father, You sent Your Son to be made flesh, that by His death He might atone for our sins and deliver us from eternal death: We pray, confirm in our hearts the hope that our Lord Jesus Christ, who with but a word raised the widow’s son, in like manner will raise us on the last day and grant us eternal life; through Your beloved Son, Jesus Christ, our Lord, who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one true God, now and forever. Amen. (Evangelical Lutheran Hymnary, by Veit Dietrich, p. 162)

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen. (Rom. 1:7, etc.)

The sermon text for today is taken from the 7th chapter of the Gospel according to St. Luke. We read selected verses in Jesus’ name:

Soon afterward [Jesus] went to a town called Nain, and His disciples and a great crowd went with Him. As He drew near to the gate of the town, behold, a man who had died was being carried out, the only son of his mother, and she was a widow, and a considerable crowd from the town was with her. And when the Lord saw her, He had compassion on her and said to her, “Do not weep.”
Then He came up and touched the bier, and the bearers stood still. And He said, “Young man, I say to you, arise.” And the dead man sat up and began to speak, and Jesus gave him to his mother.

These are Your words, heavenly Father. Sanctify us by Your truth, Your Word is truth. Amen. (Joh. 17:17)

In Christ Jesus, being rich in mercy and because of the great love with which he loved you, even when you were dead in your trespasses, made you alive together with Him, dear fellow redeemed:

When my parents purchased a new home and spent the next five years getting it ready to live in, my siblings and I spent many weekends at Grandma’s house. She would take care of us by feeding us breakfast, lunch, and dinner. She would take us thrift store shopping and let us watch the Disney channel on the TV. After the house was done and we finally moved, of course we were always over at Grandma’s but we were never over there like we were those five years. It is always fun when we get to visit with our loved ones, whether they are across town, or they come halfway across the country. Now while we eventually have to say our goodbyes, even if they are Midwestern goodbyes, our God doesn’t say goodbye to us. In our text the people exclaim, “God has visited His people!” Not only were they right, but God continues to be with us, even when it looks like we have been left alone by the jaws of death.

The jaws of death are always hunting. As time passes by, the people we know will be taken by it. Before our text, Jesus had already thwarted death. A prominent Centurion had a servant who was near death. He went to Jesus believing Jesus could heal him without being in his house. Jesus was astonished with this Gentiles great faith. The servant was healed and death was held off. Our text continues, Soon afterward [Jesus] went to a town called Nain, and His disciples and a great crowd went with Him. We have this procession into this little town. While Jesus pushed back on death with the healing of the Centurion’s servant, death is going to come walking straight at Him.

As He drew near to the gate of the town, behold, a man who had died was being carried out, the only son of his mother, and she was a widow, and a considerable crowd from the town was with her. What a sad scene to witness. A woman who already had to bury her husband, now burying her son. While death is not natural for man to experience, it is very hard for a parent to bury a child. This woman now in the process of doing both looks like she has lost everything. It looks like God has taken away His blessings to her of a husband and son. In this great loss that she is experiencing, which would make her future uncertain, the text reveals God still cares. We see the people are with her. While death marches toward its final destination, death doesn’t realize when it looks fully in control, it loses to God.

For Jesus to destroy death, He needs to face it head on. Now Jesus does something that looks to be against the law. The law states, “Command the people of Israel that they put out of the camp everyone who is leprous or has discharge and everyone who is unclean through contact with the dead” (Numbers 5:2). So, what does it mean for Jesus touching the coffin. Is He sinning? If Jesus was only a regular man like you and me, then He shouldn’t have touched the coffin. Death does not realize who he has walked toward. The one who fulfills the law and overcomes death stands before him. Death has been visited by God.

In visiting His people, we should find relief from the problems of the world. This sweet relief is a great gift. Often, the sweet relief of Him visiting His people is thrown away. “They are darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, due to their hardness of heart (Ephesians 4:18). We will try to say it isn’t our fault. Maybe we were just influenced by our friends to have sinful thoughts or to commit sinful actions. It is staying with the negative influences that our hearts continue to darken. The work of Christ in us can disappear. When we believe that God isn’t visiting us, we will be convinced by the darkening of our hearts that He isn’t with us. These thoughts can creep in when we face death. Death is something that we struggle with every time. Death makes it look like God is treating us unfairly when He takes our loved ones away from us. As the woman witnessed with her husband and son, it looks like all is lost in her life. Now while tragedy does not discriminate, it is with these tragedies and struggles that we see our Savior at work. He visits us, taking on our struggles and brings us life through His defeat of death.

We don’t deserve the mercy the Lord gives us. Yet, He reveals that He knows what we are going through and He knows what we need. The woman in Nain needed her son. So, He gave him back to her. And when the Lord saw her, He had compassion on her and said to her, “Do not weep.” Then He came up and touched the bier, and the bearers stood still. And He said, “Young man, I say to you, arise.” Jesus’ command is a command of compassion. She doesn’t need to weep anymore because He is there. He goes up and touches the coffin. He does something that would mark someone unclean but He is not marked because He is the Lord of life and the man isn’t dead, but only asleep. All the people who are gathered see prophecies fulfilled. “Your dead shall live; their bodies shall rise. You who dwell in the dust, awake and sing for joy! (Isaiah 26:19a)

Jesus is visiting His people and because of this may the world sing for joy seeing death defeated! If Jesus would not have come among His people, death would have claimed everyone. St. Paul writes how the people are affected by death and the mercy of God destroying it. And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the Prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience— among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind. But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ— by grace you have been saved–and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus (Ephesians 2:1-6).

We see what we justly deserve when we are sitting at a funeral. We see the body or the urn of ashes and we know this is what our sinful bodies will become. When Jesus walks into our lives everything changes. He has power over what is dead by making us alive. And the dead man sat up and began to speak, and Jesus gave him to his mother. In visiting us in this world, He redeems us with His life and death. With this miracle He reveals to the people and to the world that He is God. Jesus says, “I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die. Do you believe this?” (John 11:25-26) There will be times we struggle with believing this. He lights up our darkened thoughts. He doesn’t have to, and yet He treats us with the certainty we will wake up again.

This certainty comes to you because of the life He lived. When you admit your faults and throw away your excuses of your thoughts and deeds, Jesus, who is visiting you here and now takes them from you. He felt them all and He felt your punishment. His death on the cross and resurrection proves to you the truth. Your fate will not be an eternal death. Jesus confirmed He would be able to do this when he answered them, “Go and tell John what you have seen and heard: the blind receive their sight, the lame walk, lepers are cleansed, and the deaf hear, the dead are raised up, the poor have good news preached to them (Luke 7:22). You continue to see these blessings of your Savior. You see how He heals physical problems, but most importantly you see your spiritual problems forgiven and taken away. Like the woman who now has her son, you can rejoice as St. Paul writes, and you, who were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses (Colossians 2:13). Since this continues to happen, Jesus doesn’t just visit you. He comes to you every day in the Means of Grace.

As you have the joy of your Savior with you every day, you must watch out as the world will try to convince you this isn’t true. For fear seized them all, and they glorified God, saying, “A great prophet has arisen among us!” and “God has visited His people!” And this report about Him spread through the whole of Judea and all the surrounding country. The people understood that Jesus was someone special, but as Jesus continued His ministry, He was not the Messiah they wanted. Most of the time, Jesus is still not the Messiah the world wants. Even though Moses told the Israelites, “The LORD your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among you, from your brothers–it is to him you shall listen— …And the LORD said to me, ‘They are right in what they have spoken. I will raise up for them a prophet like you from among their brothers. And I will put my words in his mouth, and he shall speak to them all that I command him” (Deuteronomy 18:15, 17-18). God visits His people yet many will still reject Him. The devil will try to get you to dwell on your rejection. Yet as you were surrounded in darkness, in your confession of your sins reveals the light of your Savior. The devil’s taunts are destroyed and you can rest assured your faith in your Savior is saving faith. You see His saving work and His great mercy for you. He died for you and in His resurrection, death is defeated and you will live forever. You dwell with the Lord of the living. Amen.

Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Ghost; as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, forevermore. Amen.
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