[0:00] Now as we continue then our progress through what we've been styling resurrection case studies over previous weeks. Some of you will remember that we've looked in the past at the Old Testament instances.
[0:13] Elijah raising the widow of Zarephath's son. And then we had Paul being used in the raising the life of Eutychus who fell out the window, the third story window in Troas.
[0:26] And then we had Elisha raising the Shunammite's son who had died. And then most recently we had the instance of the Tabitha that Peter had raised to life in Joppa.
[0:42] So these four are the four outside of the immediate ministry of Jesus. And in the remaining three now we turn to the ministry of our Lord. And those three instances that are recorded for us, there may have been others but these three are recorded for us.
[0:59] Of those whom our Lord Jesus raised to life. And we'll look first then, of those three, we'll look this evening at the widow of Nain's son. And so we have here this account when Luke chapter 7 after Jesus has healed the centurion's servant in Capernaum.
[1:18] We now find it says the next day, the day after, verse 11, he went into a city called Nain. Now Nain is a comparatively nondescript town or city in biblical terms.
[1:30] It's only mentioned this once. It's only mentioned here in the New Testament, here in this particular account. And I think I'm right in saying that only Luke records this particular instance.
[1:42] It is in the western shadow of the hill of Moray, which is about 18 miles to southwest of Capernaum. So although it's the next day that Jesus goes there, it would have been a fair hike, quite a walk in the Middle Eastern.
[1:59] He's 18 miles or thereabouts to come to Nain. And he would have almost certainly broken his journey overnight somewhere along the line. It's not really part of Galilee proper.
[2:11] It's a bit too far south to be Galilee proper, but not far enough south to be part of Samaria. And the hill of Moray, in whose shadow Nain is situated, was where the Midianites had been camped.
[2:26] If you remember way back in Judges chapter 7, verse 1, where they're described as being encamped, they were more on the southern slopes of the hill of Moray, whereas Nain is more to the west.
[2:37] And that's where Gideon defeated them in battle in the hill of Moray. And just a little bit to the north of Nain is Endor, where Saul consulted the witch in 1 Samuel chapter 30 of the Guinness.
[2:52] And again, slightly to the south of Nain is Shunan, from where the Shunammite was, the Elisha, had raised her son to life. So in all of this area, it's ancient history in many ways, but we have to recognise that with the Bible lands there, the Holy Land there, you've got sort of waves of historical events happening, all in the same tiny geographical area.
[3:19] Because in terms of the world, and the world stage, and the spread of countries, all of these things, all of these events of such significance, are all happening within a comparatively tiny radius, all up and down the Holy Land.
[3:34] The Holy Land is actually an incredibly small area of land. And so we've got all these different events all happening, not literally a stolen stroll from Nain, but certainly within a very few miles, within two, three miles of Nain.
[3:50] You've got Saul consulting the witch at Endor. You've got Gideon defeating the Midianites there on the southern slopes of the hill of Moray. You've got Elisha raising the Shunammite son. It's all in this particular area of the Holy Land.
[4:03] If you were to think of Nain as a sort of point, and you were to think of a triangle, then you'd have sort of Endor to the north, east like that, and then Shunammite to the south, southeast like that.
[4:15] So it's all in this sort of triangle area, grouped around the hill of Moray, which was highly significant in the Old Testament, and now here in the New, here is Jesus coming to its western slopes.
[4:28] Now as we said, this is our Lord's only recorded visit here. Although he must often have passed by this sort of area on his way from Galilee to Jerusalem, but we don't have it written that he came to this town, this city, on any other occasion.
[4:44] He came to pass his people, came into a city called Nain. Many of his disciples went with him, and much people. So much people, a big crowd is following Jesus, and as the widow comes out of the city for the funeral of her only son, we mean much people of the city was with her.
[5:02] So one of the things that you should notice here is that for this particular incident, there are two crowds, two separate crowds of people, one coming towards the city, and the other coming out of the city as mourners with the widow whose son has died.
[5:18] So two separate crowds converging, so two big groups of people, all of whom will then be in a position to testify as witnesses to what has happened here.
[5:30] No miracle that Jesus does is ever simply for show. It is never just to be a spiritual firework and to make everybody go ooh and ah and wonder.
[5:41] He is moved, as we see here, primarily by compassion. We'll come to that in just a minute. But it is undoubtedly the case that every work and every miracle that Jesus or the apostles do has the effect of causing the word of the good news, the gospel, the teaching of Jesus, to spread outwards because it is literally news.
[6:04] If somebody raises somebody from the dead, that is news. That is unheard of. Although in Jesus' day, of course, it happened once or twice more because of the power that he exercised.
[6:17] But it was news. It was newsworthy. And people would talk about it. And as they talked about what had happened and about the man who had been raised to life, they would talk about Jesus and about some of the other things that he taught.
[6:29] So it would have this effect of spreading out the good news and preparing the soil, as it were, not only for the visits of Jesus to different other places in the Holy Land, but also especially for when the Spirit was poured out at Pentecost and then the apostles and the other disciples went preaching the good news.
[6:50] They went into ground that had been, to an extent, already prepared by the work of Jesus and the miracles that he had wrought and the teachings that he had given.
[7:01] So these two crowds, one coming from outside with Jesus to the city of Nain and the other coming out of Nain with the woman as fellow mourners with her for her son's funeral.
[7:16] So we read, Now, the grief of this woman would not simply be for the song of bereavement.
[7:32] It would also have a very practical purpose as well. Remember that if you were a widow in that country and time and culture, then there was no other means of support for you.
[7:43] Having a son, she would have thought, That's good. My son then can provide for me. He'll be able to work. He'll have a trade. He can earn money. He can provide for us both.
[7:53] If he gets married, then there'll be a family. There'll be children. They'll look after me as well in my old age. Her future was reasonably secure if she had a healthy son to work and look after her and all the future that that might have with it.
[8:09] But she being already widowed and having no other children, this loss of her only son was not only going to be the breaking of her heart and leaving her desolate in any other companionship or family or support, but also it would leave her completely destitute.
[8:31] It would leave her without anyone to care for her. This was her only son, the only son of his mother. And the grief of such a loss is described in the prophet Zechariah in chapter 12 when we read it, verse 10.
[8:45] I will pour upon the house of David and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem the spirit of grace and supplications. They shall look upon me whom they have pierced, again looking towards them a sign, and they shall mourn for him as one mourner for his only son and shall be in bitterness for him as one that is in bitterness for his firstborn.
[9:09] This is then described by the prophet then as the most intense form of grief you can possibly have. An only son, a firstborn only son who is now no more.
[9:24] And this is what afflicts this woman. And all the comfort and support of her fellow mourners is not going to ease that burden and take away that pain.
[9:35] So we read verse 13. When the Lord saw her, he had compassion on her and said unto her, Weep not. You'll notice what moves our Lord here.
[9:47] It is not the crowds. It is not all the professional mourners. It's not all the grief of the multitude. It is this woman herself. When the Lord saw her, he had compassion on her and said unto her, Weep not.
[10:03] Now, the word that is translated compassion here, in terms of, in the original Greek, words that are used to convey sympathy, it is a word that is the most intense sympathy.
[10:17] There isn't a deeper, more powerful word in the Greek to convey the depth of sympathy and compassion and empathy that Jesus has here.
[10:28] Compassion, we've translated it as with the English, and there is no more powerful word to describe his feelings towards her here. He had compassion on her. His soul grieved for her.
[10:40] He was empty, as it were, in terms of his own sorrow on her behalf and said unto her, Weep not. He alone is the one who has power to do anything about it.
[10:52] And he came and touched the fire, and they that bare him stood still. And he said, Young man, I say unto thee, Arise. And he that was dead sat up and began to speak, and he delivered him to his mother.
[11:07] So we have here Jesus, who would, if he was an ordinary person, contract ceremonial uncleanness by touching a dead body. Those who were doing the carrying, they would, according to the law, have to wash their clothes and stay outside of the city and be unclean until the evening, and so on, because they were in contact with a dead body.
[11:28] This was also one reason why bodies were buried well outside the city. They weren't buried in any kind of internal cemetery and anything like that. They were buried well outside the city because there was uncleanness contracted if you touched a dead body.
[11:43] But Jesus touches a dead body and is not rendered unclean by any more than a millionaire touching the debt of a pauper becomes a pauper by taking it on board.
[11:56] He has abundance to take the debt, to pay the debt, to consume the debt, and still to have abundance left over. Jesus has such power and purity that although we might say any uncleanness were to attach itself to him, would be swamped.
[12:14] It would be overcome by the purity of God the Son. He touched the fire. They that bare him stood still. Young man, I say unto thee, arise. And here again we have this instance where the Lord addresses the dead.
[12:29] The Lord speaks to the dead. He says to him, get up, sit up. And this is just the word that you use of somebody sitting up in bed. And he that was dead sat up. He does exactly as Jesus commands and began to speak.
[12:42] In other words, it's not just in a sort of zombie state. When he is awakened by the word of Jesus, not only does he sit up, but he begins to speak. And remember, he would be bandaged up, as it were, bound, as Lazarus would be in his grave clothes, probably with a napkin or whatever over his face.
[13:00] So he is beginning to speak in terms of whatever he is saying, we don't know, but it must give absolute terror to everybody who witnesses, on the one hand, but in unspeakable joy thereafter, and particularly to his mother, who has been told that she should not wait because he's going to raise, well, he doesn't say he's going to raise this man from the dead, but he then goes on to do it.
[13:24] This is the thing that has broken her heart. This is the thing that has ruined her future. He is the only one who can rectify it, and he has done so. And now all that has been done, all the funeral preparations, all the professional mourners, all the preparing of the grave, doesn't matter.
[13:38] None of that matters. He was dead and is alive again. He was lost in his mind because the Lord has spoken to the dead. And the dead, having heard the voice of God respond, and such is the power of Christ, that those who are dead hear him speak and are raised to life.
[14:00] How can you hear anyone when you're dead? Well, if you're dead, you have no powers, no meanings, no abilities at all. But God has more power than death. God has more life than death.
[14:13] God has more strength and ability than all the deadness of your body or soul. And that which is true physically here for the widow of man's son is true also for all those who are in spiritual death.
[14:27] Some are in a state of mere indifference and comparatively think well of the Lord, but they are not changed or converted in their hearts. Others are completely, totally hostile to the Lord.
[14:39] But whichever way or whatever condition they may be in, when God speaks, they cannot but respond. There is no more powerful voice than that of the living God.
[14:50] Young man, I say unto thee, arise. Now, of course, this is not to say that he perhaps had a choice about whether or not he was dead. Of course he didn't.
[15:00] He wouldn't have chosen to die. And none of us, dead in trespasses and sins, choose to be that way. We may choose plenty of sins for ourselves, but we didn't necessarily choose to be born and conceived in that condition.
[15:14] We didn't choose to be spiritually dead. We may perfectly enjoy our spiritual deadness until such time as we are shown the way of life. But we didn't choose that.
[15:25] He didn't choose to be dead. We didn't choose to be spiritually dead. And it is only when we hear, as it were, the voice of God speak to us and speak to our hearts, speak through his word, speak through his spirit, reach that which we had thought was unreachable, show to us that to be real, which we had thought to be mere myth-making.
[15:48] Because deep down, until such time as we are converted and changed in our heart and brought alive, there is always that, if I can use the word, in a non-pejorative sense, skepticism.
[16:00] It's not that we're sneering against the Lord. It's not that we're pouring scorn on it. It's just that we might think, well, you know, yeah, that's perfectly good and right. A lot of Christians are very good people and so on.
[16:12] Some aren't, of course, but some aren't. It's generally a force for good, but you know, is there any real power in it? It's not like what you read about in the days of the apostles or the days of the prophets, you know, where people were being raised on the dead and healed and having their eyes open.
[16:27] We don't tend to see that nowadays, do we? I mean, we don't see so much of that reality and power in us and around us nowadays. But when a soul is born again from the spiritual state of death in which they were, that is a greater miracle and a greater life force than mere sight where there was blindness, than mere physical life where there was physical death.
[16:52] It is the reversal of the dark way of nature. It is the reversal of the devil's downward pull. It is the upward surge of life from spiritual death, from the spiritual grave, from that state of deadness in which we are all born and conceived.
[17:11] And it happens because God speaks. God speaks life to a soul that is dead. God, when the perfect timing has come, speaks in a soul, is raised to life.
[17:25] And we might think, well, you know, why didn't he just, you know, go a day earlier? Why didn't he go surah before this young man died? And then he could just have healed him from whatever illness it was. Why didn't he just leave it?
[17:36] Well, which do you think would have been more powerful? Which do you think would testify more of the power of God? Healing the sick, which is noble and great in which he was doing at Capernaum, there with the centurion's servant, or raising the dead?
[17:51] This is not the only instance where Jesus has raised the dead so far in the Gospel accounts. Of course, of Jairus' daughter, and then later on there's Lazarus, as we know, and we'll come to those in subsequent weeks.
[18:02] But his power over sickness, over illness, over darkness, over death, over blindness, over all the symptoms of separation from God, that he is able to reverse these, that he is able to overcome these, these are the very symptoms, as he says to John's messengers, that the kingdom of God has come, that God is greater than all these things, God is greater than death itself.
[18:31] And this is something which we need to recognize even in our state of perhaps unconverted indifference, or uncertainty, or well-meaning fear, or whatever the case may be.
[18:42] If we are not born again by God's Spirit, and by his voice speaking to our heart, then there is still opportunity to be so, because the Lord says, come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.
[18:58] He says, all that the Father giveth me shall come to me, and him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out. The Lord has promised, and if a human son asks his father bread, he's not going to give him a stone.
[19:11] If he asks for fish, he's not going to give him a serpent. If he asks for an egg, he's not going to give him a scorpion. He says, if you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, will not then your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them and ask him?
[19:25] Will he not give that Spirit and life to those who ask that they might receive? So although we may not have experienced it yet, yet still it is there for the asking.
[19:38] Why do people not ask? Why do they not? They not automatically say, well, yes, I'd love to have that. Not, I would suggest to you because they doubt the truth of it, but there are occasions and there are some souls, no doubt, who fear the truth of it.
[19:54] What if it happens? Well, if I am changed, what if I'm converted? That means I have to be a different person. It means I have to change my life. Oh no, it means that some things might have to be done differently. I might have to have different priorities.
[20:05] I'm not sure I'm ready for that. The Lord will make you ready for that. When you are born physically, you do not instantly, the minute you are born, become an adult.
[20:16] You grow gradually, little by little, from babyhood to infancy to childhood to youth and then to manhood and womanhood. It is a gradual process. It is a learning process.
[20:28] Every day you are feeding, eating and drinking and growing and stretching and wearing different clothes and undertaking different learning exercises exercises and so on. You are growing every single day physically until you reach maturity and then you are living out the life that the Lord sets before you and then of course comes age and decay and greater weakness and so on at the physical sense.
[20:55] Now spiritually, ideally, that will not happen. That decay will not happen. Spiritually, even when we become decrepit physically, we go on from strength to strength and grace to grace but the growth does not happen immediately.
[21:10] Even if the Lord speaks to this young man as he does, arise, a young man, I say unto thee, arise, and he gets up and begins to speak. He doesn't automatically go back to what he was doing before he fell ill.
[21:22] There will be a recovery process, a beginning again, the use of his limbs, you'll be adjusting again back to life as will everybody else around him. It will be a gradual process.
[21:33] You don't have to be afraid. The Lord will change your heart to be in line with his. The Lord will bring your will into conformity with his will. You will find it to be the greatest delight and joy of your life.
[21:48] Do not hold back from asking the Lord's blessing not because you suspect it may not be true but you fear it may be true. The changes he will make in your life, the changes he will make and its direction and its growth and its blessing will be that which will be sweet to your taste.
[22:09] And although there will be difficulties and problems, he will give you the grace to overcome them. He will give you the means of victory. Sometimes we don't use the means the Lord gives us.
[22:21] Sometimes we end up in defeats that were unnecessary. But he has promised he will never leave us nor forsake us. The Lord raises this man to life because it is a witness and testimony of his complete, sovereign, total power over even death itself.
[22:40] And he does so because he has compassion on this grieving mother. Because he sees not only how brokenhearted she is but how destitute she has become.
[22:52] This is the vicious result that death brings into the world. Sin brings forth death and death brings forth misery.
[23:05] And the Lord seeks and intends and brings about a reversal of that misery. A reversal of that darkness. A reversal of that suffering.
[23:17] He delivered him to his mother. And there came a fear on all. Not immediately notice not a joy not a delight but rather a fear on them all.
[23:29] And they glorified God saying a great prophet is risen up among us and that God hath visited his people. Notice that the ordinary people in many ways have greater perception than do the scribes and the Pharisees and the chief priests.
[23:42] They recognize God has visited his people. Whether or not they recognize that Jesus is God the Son they know that God is certainly at work through him and in him.
[23:54] And this rumor of him went forth throughout all Judea and throughout all the region round about. Now Judea is miles away from Nain which is just south of Galilee.
[24:07] So it's an awful deep in the south of the Holy Land. So it's all the way down to Judea it is spread as well as all around the area just south of Galilee there.
[24:17] So the Lord is causing then the good news to spread by this means but there are many who have the rumor of Christ the rumor of him went throughout all Judea and all the region round about.
[24:30] There are many who have the rumor of Christ who have not might say the relish of him in their hearts. It's all very well to hear about Jesus but that will do you no good unless you lay hold upon Christ.
[24:44] You see you can be in a ship that's going down and there's all these life jackets and all these life boats there and he's getting the life boat and yeah yeah yeah fine time enough you at least put on a life jacket or a life bill but yeah that's okay I can see they're there all used to in good time I'm not quite ready to put them on yet and so if you go down and drown when all these things were available to you and you didn't make use of them there will be no help for you because all the things that could have been used to say you were ignored you see there is a rumor of Christ that spreads around this rumor of him went forth throughout all Judea and throughout all the region Rondalat and there are many who have the rumor of Christ in their ears who have not the relish of Christ in their hearts and the disciples of John showed him all these things now John it is often suggested by commentators was not imprisoned in
[25:45] Galilee itself but some commentators and historians suggest that there was a castle that Herod had inherited from his father which was called Machaerus which was to the east of the Dead Sea way down south and on the eastern shores of the Dead Sea and it is said for whatever reason I'm not quite sure it is said that John the Baptist was imprisoned there now if it was as far away as that it would have taken some time for the message to get down to John the Baptist about all that had happened and sometime again for his disciples to come back to find Jesus and for him to explain all these things to it so I think we should take from verse 19 onwards is not happening at name unless Jesus is spending an enormous amount of time in name which he didn't tend to spend a huge amount of time in one place unless he was going to be there for a really prolonged period then by verse 19 the narrative has moved on exactly to where we don't know but John sends to his disciples say are you he that should come or look for another when the men were come unto him they said
[26:51] John the Baptist hath sent us unto thee saying art thou he that should come or look thee for another and in that same hour he cured many of their infirmities and plagues and of evil spirits and unto many who were blind he gave sight then Jesus answering said unto them go your way and tell John what things he had seen and heard how that the blind see the lame walk the lepers are cleansed the deaf hear the dead are raised to the poor the gospel is preached and blessed is he whosoever shall not be offended in me now why this message from John perhaps he by just languishing in prison he's cut off from any news he has already known and testified behold the lamb of God taken away the sin of the world and so perhaps perhaps John too like so many others had expected that although Jesus of Nazareth was the Messiah he would be the kind of Messiah everyone was waiting for he might have expected news that would be not the deaf are made to hear the blind are made to see the lepers are friends but rather the Romans have been thrown out of Caesarea
[28:00] Pilate has fled from Jerusalem the legions are sailing away from the holy land the temple has been cleansed and the kingdom of David has been set up in Israel that's the kind of thing they want to hear that's what they want their foreign occupation is gone the Gentiles have been driven out the purity of the kingdom of Judea and Israel has been set up again and the priesthood is purified and the kingship of David is already restored that's what people wanted to hear they had their sights set and an enemy who was earthbound and a fulfilment that was limited in its horizon to this Sadducean idea of it all being just in this world what does Jesus tell them instead he says go your way and tell John what things you have seen and heard how the blind see the lame walk the lepers are cleansed the deaf hear the dead are raised to the poor the gospel the good news is preached and blessed is he whosoever shall not be offended in me in other words it's not the kind of news you expect to hear but what is it in fact that is being done the symptoms of separation from God are being reversed now it is not the case that somebody would be blind or deaf or leprous or whatever because they were such a bad person sin doesn't work that way it's not the case if you're really bad then you must be really suffering and if you're suffering you must be really bad but if you're whole and hearty and healthy then
[29:32] God is blessing you if you're rich God is blessing you if you're poor you must be a bad person it doesn't work like that at all but rather these things are in the world because of our separation from God because sin is in the world death is in the world and because death is in the world all the other symptoms of illness and imperfection and disease and impurity and all the suffering that goes with it that is in the world too all these things are symptoms of our being separated from God they are symptoms of sin they are symptoms of that first fatal separation that happened in the garden and because of that all these other things have made their way in amongst mankind these are the symptoms of separation separation and these are what is being reversed by Jesus the blind have their eyes open the deaf are unable to hear the dead are raised to life the lepers are cleansed and to the poor the gospel is preached those who had no hope are given good news those who are diseased are cleansed those who are blind can see all the symptoms of separation are being reversed in other words
[30:47] God is saying I am bringing and calling suffering sinners back to me come back to me and all these things will be put right come back to me and you can be made whole come back to me and even death itself can be overcome let alone all these symptoms and illnesses here is the proof Jesus is doing it and it's happening wherever people come into contact with Jesus and this is the proof of God's kingdom Jesus is saying in other words you may be thinking in terms of an earthbound limited enemy like Rome you may be thinking in terms of earthly paganism and an earthly kingdom well your horizons are too weak your God is too small if that is what you're focused on the Lord has come to reverse the symptoms of separation that have afflicted an entire human race because everybody is under the sentence of death when they are separated from the Lord everybody is afflicted by illness and disease and sorrow and suffering and bereavement because of that first sin that separated us from the
[31:53] Lord Jesus has come to reverse that to heal that great chasm to close up the gap to be the great bridge between man and God this is the battle that he has come to bring victory over this is the warfare that he has come to triumphant it is far bigger and far greater and far more lasting and powerful than any of our little petty political horizons or little victories that we envisage here go back and tell John that not only is the battle far more great and sovereign and heavenly and eternal than he could ever have imagined but it is already in the process of being one the symptoms of separation are being reversed Christ is rolling back the frontiers of darkness and when the messengers of John were departed he began to speak unto the people concerning what did you go out to see and he praises up John not to flatter him he waits till his own disciples have gone but he says to people do you know what you had with John the Baptist do you realise just how important he was
[33:07] I say unto you among those that are born of women there is not a greater prophet than John the Baptist but he that is least in the kingdom of God is greater than he now this verse perplexes many of us of course and it is a complicated verse to understand properly perhaps it can't be explained simply but one suggestion that has been made which I think is perhaps helpful is that the meanest and least significant of those who follow the lamb who come after him who follow after who he has led are in a more blessed condition than the greatest of those who went before him now if we are greater in the kingdom of God it's not because we are more virtuous it is because we have received more blessing greater gifts those who are greater in the kingdom of God because they have been more blessed and it is more blessed to come after the Lord in his wake in his train as it were knowing what he has accomplished knowing what he has done knowing that he has paid the price of sin for all who would trust in his name than all of those however great they may be who came before him and John the Baptist is the final prophet with a capital
[34:27] P he is the forerunner of Christ he is as Jesus says among those that are born of women there is none greater than John the Baptist but he that is least in the kingdom of God is greater than he whoever follows in the wake of Christ knows more blessing than John did prior to the coming of Christ because to come after Christ is more blessed than to have gone before they saw but dimly the future promise we have seen it all unfolded in the person of Jesus Christ and how solemn and serious this is Christ's criticism of the Pharisees and scribes and the generation is this look is this a game for you like children in the marketplace oh we packed you and you haven't danced we mourned to you and haven't went weddings and funerals and that's what they're playing at this isn't a game Jesus said you had John the Baptist and nobody could have argued with his solemnity and his seriousness and his holiness but you dismissed him as being afflicted with a devil and then nobody could have been more personable and more sociable and more mixing with all kinds of people and making themselves available than the son of man but you say oh look
[35:43] I'm blackness man I'm a friend of publicans and sinners so sin will always find a reason evil will always find a reason to reject the advances of God and the Lord comes whether through the severity of John the Baptist or whether it be through the kindness and compassion of Christ either way those determined to reject the advances of God will do so they will find an excuse they'll find a reason sin does not need logic in order to force its own cause and part of the thing we need to recognise is that this is not a game your eternal salvation is not a game it matters that you accept Christ it matters that you recognise the one who John the Baptist was pointing people to even his own disciples he did not discourage them from following Jesus he pointed behold the Lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world and the first two disciples
[36:46] Andrew and whoever that other disciple was some say John some say Philip and so on they went after Jesus Rabbi where are you staying and he said come and see this is the invitation Christ would make to all John points them on the prophets point them on the Old Testament and the law and the sacrifice point us on your entire experience of your life whether or not you have ever opened a Bible all of your entire experience will have been pointing you on to the moment of encounter with Christ and nothing will be lost nothing will be in vain it will all have been for a purpose to bring you to that moment of encounter with Christ and then we might say what are you going to do Lord where are you staying what difference can you make in my life how can you help me Lord what am I to do what must I do to be saved and he will say as he said to them come and see he's not going to give you a one word answer he's not going to point you in a different direction when you come to
[37:49] Christ you have found your destination come and see spend time with the Lord dwell with the Lord continue with the Lord wait and hear when the Lord speaks to the dead young man I say unto thee arise and whether we be young or old or middle aged whether we be men or women or boys and girls when the Lord speaks you cannot help but hear and if we continue as yet in a state of deadness or feel ourselves in deadness and listen for the voice of God and seek him that when he speaks we may hear and respond life from the dead is what his joy and resurrection is all about let us pray