This document is a sermon about Jesus showing compassion by raising a widow's son from death in Luke 7:11-17. It summarizes the key events from the passage, where Jesus sees a widow mourning the death of her only son and raises the boy back to life. The crowd praises God, recognizing Jesus' power over death. The sermon emphasizes that Jesus' powerful compassion can overcome even the cruelty of death.

1. The Powerful
Compassion
of Jesus
Luke 7:11-17
image: don

2. God Gives Us His Words of Eternal Life
Today’s Scripture:
Luke 7:11-17
Found on page 856 in our guest Bibles.

3. “I’m not afraid
of death.
I just don’t
want to be
there when
it happens.”
~ Woody Allen

4. Luke 7:11
Soon afterward he went to a town
called Nain, and his disciples and a
great crowd went with him....

5. Luke 7:12
As he drew near to the gate, 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....

6. Luke 7:13
And when the Lord saw her, he had
compassion on her and said to her,
“Do not weep....”

7. Luke 7:14
Then he came up and touched the
brier, and the bearers stood still.
And he said, “Young man, I say to
you, arise....”

8. Luke 7:15
And the dead man sat up and began
to speak, and Jesus gave him to his
mother....

9. Luke 7:16
Fear seized them all, and they glorified God, saying, “A great prophet
has arisen among us!” and “God
has visited his people...!”

10. Luke 7:17
And this report about him spread
through the whole of Judea and all
the surrounding country.

11. “This is a
good story
and all, but I
don’t know if
I can buy it.”

12. ~ The Apostle Peter
Acts 2:22ff
Jesus of Nazereth...you
crucified and killed by the
hands of lawless men.
God raised him up,
loosing the pangs of
death, because it was
not possible for him to be
held by it... This Jesus,
God raised up, and we
are all witnesses.

13. Quadratus
Early Christian Apologist

14. “The persons who
were healed and those
who were raised from
the dead by Jesus
were not only seen
when they were healed
and raised, but were
always present also
afterwards...;
Quadratus in a letter
to Hadrian the
Emperor, c. 125AD

15. “...and not merely
during the time that the
Savior walked upon the
earth—but after His
departure also they
were still there for a
considerable time, so
that some of them lived
even until our times.”
Quadratus in a letter
to Hadrian the
Emperor, c. 125AD

16. Important Question
Why does Luke include this
event in his historical
biography of Jesus?

17. Main Idea
The cruelty of death
does not have the final word.
The powerful compassion
of Jesus does.

18. 1
Properly
identify
Jesus
Image: Bart van de Biezen

19. “When I saw him, I fell at
his feet as through dead.
But he laid his right hand
on me, saying, ‘Fear not,
I am the first and the
last, and the living one. I
died, and behold I am
alive forevermore, and I
have the keys of Death
and Hades.”
~ The Apostle John
Revelation 1:17

20. “Truly, truly, I say to you, an hour is coming,
and is now here, when the dead will hear
the voice of the Son of God, and those who
hear will live…. Do not marvel at this, for an
hour is coming when all who are in the
tombs will hear his voice, and come out….”
~ Jesus of Nazareth, Gospel of John, (5:25, 28-9a)

21. “Then comes the end,
when he delivers the
kingdom to God the
Father after destroying
every rule and every
authority and power….
The last enemy to be
destroyed is death.”
~ The Apostle Paul
1 Corinthians 15:24-25

22. 2
Anchor your
hope in
Jesus
image: Lawrence OP

23. ~ Revelation 21
“He will wipe away every
tear from their eyes, and
death shall be no more,
neither shall there be
mourning nor crying nor
pain anymore, for the
former things have
passed away. And he
who was seated on the
throne said, ‘Behold, I am
making all things new.’”

24. ~ Aslan, The Last Battle
“The Chronicles of Narnia”

25. “Have you not guessed?”
Their hearts leaped and a
wild hope rose within them.
“There was a real railway
accident,” said Aslan softly.
“Your father and mother
and all of you are—as you
used to call it in the
Shadowlands—dead. The
term is over: the holidays
have begun. The dream is
ended: this is the morning.”

26. “The things that began to
happen after that were
so great and beautiful
that I cannot write them.
And for us this is the end
of all the stories, and we
can most truly say that
they all lived happily ever
after. But for them it was
only the beginning of the
real story....

27. “All their life in this world
and all their adventures in
Narnia had only been the
cover and the title page:
now at last they were
beginning Chapter One of
the Great Story which no
one on earth has read:
which goes on forever: in
which every chapter is
better than the one before.”

28. flickr images courtesy of:
Don: http://www.flickr.com/photos/97224989@N00/4534960280/
Bart van de Biezen: http://www.flickr.com/photos/63195643@N00/4184705426/
Lawrence OP: http://www.flickr.com/photos/35409814@N00/5200997702/
other images:
Photos.com: Hemera Technologies / 89675574