Grace Baptist Church, Nokomis, IL.

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What’s the most amazing thing you’ve experienced in this life? Ministering in Haiti would be on my list. And I’d say becoming a parent has been an amazing experience. And eating the Chili Cheeseburger horseshoe at D’Arcy’s Pint in Springfield. Heaven on earth! It might kill you, but it’s so good!

And there are so many things that I’d still like to do in life. I’d love to zipline. I know some of you have done that. I’d love to go skydiving. Anybody want to go with me? I’d love to swim with dolphins, and go scuba diving, and see the world. I’d love to see the Grand Canyon. And the Egyptian pyramids. And the northern lights. And so many other things, because experiencing these kinds of things gives us a sense of being so full of life, and they direct us to be in awe of God and the world He made.

But even if I do none of those things, I’m not missing out. Because we’re not full of life by what we do, but by who we know. Jesus is the one who gives life! And if you know Jesus, then you have abundant life.

So while it might be fun to do all sorts of things in this life, don’t make those things your ultimate goals. Find your satisfaction, and joy, and life in Jesus, and you’ll be so full of life that you’ll be satisfied wherever He has you go.

Read Luke 7:11-15

Wow! Amazing, right? Another account of Jesus doing something miraculous, and He does it just as a part of His normal ministry. It doesn’t even look like He exerted some extraordinary amount of energy. He just did it because He could do it. It’s part of who He is. It’s part of what He did. I mean, Jesus raises people back to life easier than I can wake up my kids in the morning!

If I were to go into Cory’s room early in the morning, and say, “Young man, I say to you, arise,” I’d be lucky if he even acknowledged that I said anything at all. So I went into Cory’s room this morning at 6 am, and said, “Young man, I say to you, arise.” And he just laid there. So, I said it a little louder, “Young man, I say to you, arise!” And he grunted and rolled over, but he still didn’t get out of bed. So I nudged him, and said, “Arise, my son!” And he just clung to his sheets that much more. I’m just kidding, none of that happened.

But, I mean, if it’s this hard to get someone out of bed sometimes, imagine trying to raise someone to life! But Jesus is the one who gives life! Because Jesus has the power to give life! So when we trust in Jesus, we have life! Joyful, abundant, everlasting life! It’s the life that only Jesus can give, because He is the way, and the truth, and the life.

I asked the question in the bulletin last week, “What the worst thing about life in this world?” And our responses included things like death and sickness. Stress and finances. And, if we were to ask this same question to others in our community, and in our world, we’d hear about even more worries and pains. We’d hear about kids all around the world not having enough food. We’d hear about things life sex-trafficking, and dictators, and so on. In our text this morning, we read about a woman who was a widow, so her husband had died at some point before this, and she only had one son, who took care of her, provided for her, and now he died, too! So she had nothing, and no one to take care of her. And this kind of thing happens in our world all the time! Social injustice! Pain! Sorrow!

I mean, life in this world sounds pretty bad! Life in this world sounds a lot like…death!

About 56 million people die every year, and as the population increases, so does the number of people who die. That’s about 2 people every second. I mean, there’s a lot of death going on!

My 5 year old daughter Emily, was talking with my mom over Facetime recently, and at the end of the conversation, my mom tells her, “Well, I’ve got to let you go, I’m dying here.” And then she hangs up. And Emily goes to Abby, trying to hold back tears, and says, “Mammaw said she’s dying!” And we’re trying to figure out what’s going on, why Mammaw told Emily she was dying, saying, “Oh, no, sweetie, she’s not really dying, she was just exaggerating and meant that she’s really tired or in a little bit of pain, she’s not dying!” But Emily’s not buying it. But then Cory pipes in and says, “It’s okay, Emily, she just meant her phone was dying.” And Emily says, “Oh, ok.” And she runs off to go play.

But here’s the point: even a 5 year old girl has an awareness of what death is, and the reality that people die.

And there’s a chance that even one of us, or even all of us, would die even before the end of this sermon. We have no control over that. It happened just over a week ago in Charleston. But even if we don’t die in the next 30 minutes, the fact remains that we’re all actually dying right now. Even right now, I’m closer to death than I was when I began this sermon.

And it’s all because of sin. Death entered the world because of sin. And we’re all sinners, so we all die.

But physical death aside, we also experience pain and sorrow because of sin, don’t we? Relationships often cause us pain. The people we love sometimes hurt us the most. Not to mention how much we get frustrated with work, and with our culture, and over things we’re powerless to fix. And these things feel like a kind of death as well, because we long to experience life and joy, but we’re often filled with pain and tears instead.

It’s like a cloud of death is over us all the time.

And even though we’re physically alive, because we have all these sorrows, it’s like we’re dead, and those that we love most are dead. And we have all this pain, and all these worries because of it.

Do you sometimes wish that all your worries would just be gone? I do. Sometimes I just want to cry out to God, “Take away all these sorrows! Take away this pain!”

But then I remember, that’s exactly why Jesus came. He bore our pain. He bore the sins of the world. He came to turn our sorrows into joy. You see, no matter what you’re facing, Jesus has compassion. He knows what you’re going through, and not just because He knows everything. Jesus experienced the pains of this world. And Jesus tells you, “Do not weep.” Maybe not in the sense that He’s going to take away your worries right now, but certainly in the sense that if you trust in Him, all your worries will be gone in eternity. There will be no more pain, no more worries, and no more tears. Jesus gives us life! Eternal life! Eternal not only in the sense that it lasts forever, but that it’s full! Abundant! Full of joy, and full of peace. And when you remember what’s coming for you in the future, it helps, at least a little, to not weep today. At least not in the sense that you have no hope.

So Jesus told this widow, “Do not weep.”

And then Jesus touched the stretcher. And the people who were carrying the dead man on the stretcher stood still. You really get the sense that everyone’s eyes were on Jesus. This whole crowd who came to mourn with the widow were now watching Jesus. And the crowd that Jesus came with were watching Him. They knew He could do miracles, but would He? I mean, what could Jesus really do, this man was already dead! And yet, this was Jesus! They had heard about what He’d done so many times before. And many of them had seen what Jesus had done.

But we often get so wrapped up in our own problems that we forget about the power of God. And we need Jesus to interrupt our lives to remind us of His compassion and power. Don’t ignore Him when He does. In the midst of every pain, every sorrow, Jesus is there to give you hope.

So Jesus said, “Young man, I say to you, arise.” When when you feel dead, even when you are dead, Jesus offers you hope. He says to you, “Arise.” Arise out of your pain, out of your worries, out of your death, and be born again. That’s what baptism symbolizes. It reminds us that we were dead in our sin. But that Jesus raises us to a new life. Baptism doesn’t give us a new life, but reminds us that God has given us a new life by His grace, through faith.

And just the same way, the young man, who was dead, sat up, and began to speak. If this kind of thing were to happen today, everyone would be trying to figure out who was in on it. Which people did Jesus plant in the audience? Was the widow in on it? The bearers? Or was this just some elaborate con that Jesus was able to pull off?

But this wasn’t a con, or a magic trick. No, the whole crowd knew the widow and her son. And they knew that he really did die. But then they all saw him sit up, and they heard his voice! I mean, the man’s own mother was there! She knew his voice! There was no doubt that this man was dead, and yet now alive again!

And when Jesus causes us to be born again, there’s no doubt about it. We were dead in our trespasses and sins, and yet Christ makes us alive! We have joy in Him. We have peace! And even in the midst of pain and sorrow, and worry, we have hope, because we know that all of these things are temporary when we leave this world of death and enter eternal life.

If day by day, when you wake up, all you can think about are your problems, trust in Christ. Trust in His love. His compassion. And remember that in Him you have eternal life, and that any problem in this life, this light momentary affliction is only preparing you for an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison.

A friend of mine, Wayne Brown, posted this to Facebook a couple months back. After leaving the hospital where he witnessed to a woman, who she accepted Christ in the morning and died that afternoon, Wayne saw this on a bumper sticker: “many who wait to meet God at the eleventh hour, die at 10:30.” “Today is the day of salvation.” Today is the day to receive life. True life, that only Jesus can give. Don’t put it off until it’s too late.

And really, why would you want to? Because whatever you consider to be living in this life is nothing compared to living in the grace and power of God. Jesus is the way, and the truth, and the life. Give your life to Him, because He’s already given His life for you.