Episode #174
Sermon: When God Visits (Luke 7:11-23)
When God Visits Sunday, August 9th, 2026 Eleventh Sunday After Pentecost Christ Covenant Church – Centralia, WA Luke 7:11–23 Prayer O Father, we thank You for the compassion of Christ, who sees us in our suffering, who visits us in our death, and who takes us by the hand to lead us to eternal life. Grant us to know Him more truly, to love Him more fervently, and to not be offended by Him in the midst of our doubts, we ask for Your Holy Spirit in Jesus’ name, Amen. Introduction Last Sunday we considered the great faith of the Centurion. We marveled with Jesus at the humility of the Centurion, and also how bold his request was. Recall, the Centurion sent for Jesus to come to his house and heal his dying servant, but then on second thought the Centurion sent friends to Jesus saying, I did not think myself worthy to come to You. But just say the word, and my servant will be healed ( Luke 7:7 ). This act of faith makes Jesus marvel, and he turns and says to those following him, I say unto you, I have not found so great faith, no, not in Israel ( Luke 7:9 ). So Jesus exalts the Centurion as a model of faith for you to imitate. You should aspire to know more intimately your own unworthiness. You should aspire to believe more firmly and confidently that Christ has power to forgive your sins, to heal you from every uncleanness ( 1 John 1:9 ), and to make you walk worthy of the calling by which you were called ( Eph. 4:1 ). Jesus wants your faith to grow, and so he gives us many examples and opportunities to help us grow. Now if we are honest with ourselves, most of us must admit that we are not people of great faith. If we were living in the 1st century, we would probably not be the Centurion Jesus commended. Instead, so many of us are more like the disciples in Luke 24. Remember that scene, at the end of the book? Jesus has just risen from the dead, but he has yet to appear to everyone. Two of his disciples are walking on the road to Emmaus, and Jesus starts walking beside them, but they don’t realize it. And after asking about their conversation, and hearing their doubts, Jesus says to them, O fools, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken…And beginning at Moses and all the prophets, he expounded unto them in all the scriptures the things concerning himself. These two disciples receive the most epic Bible study ever given. Jesus Himself expounds the Scriptures starting in Genesis and going through all the prophets. And yet still, they do not recognize him. It is not until later, when they eventually sit down to eat together, Luke tells us, Jesus took bread, blessed and broke it, and gave it to them. Then their eyes were opened and they knew Him; and He vanished from their sight. And they said to one another, “Did not our heart burn within us while He talked with us on the road, and while He opened the Scriptures to us?” How often is that our state as believers? Jesus is right beside us. Jesus is walking with us. Jesus is teaching us His Word. And yet we do not recognize Him. We are foolish and slow to believe what God Himself is saying to us, and we forget that God is ever present with us to help. He is the one who said, I will never leave you or forsake you, I will give you of my very Holy Spirit ( Heb. 13:5 , John 14:18 ). Or perhaps you are on the fence, you’re not even sure if you are a believer. You are like the father with the sick child in Mark 9:24 who cries out to Jesus, Lord, I believe; help my unbelief! You have a measure of faith, but even that is mingled with doubts and fears and unbelief. What does Jesus do for us then? Outline of the Text Well here in our text this morning, we see how God visits three kinds of people who do not yet have great faith. In verses 11-13, Jesus visits a grieving widow. In verses 14-15, Jesus visits a dead young man, the widow’s son. And then in verses 16-23, Jesus is visited by two disciples of John the Baptist, and they are in doubt as to whether Jesus is who John says he is. And so here we have three kinds of people, with whom you may relate to more or less: 1) A Widow in her Grief, 2) A Young Man in his deadness, and 3) Two Doubting Disciples. So let us see how God visits them to strengthen their faith. Verses 11-13 – Jesus Visits A Grieving Widow 11And it came to pass the day after, that he went into a city called Nain; and many of his disciples went with him, and much people. 12Now when he came nigh to the gate of the city, behold, there was a dead man carried out, the only son of his mother, and she was a widow: and much people of the city was with her. 13And when the Lord saw her, he had compassion on her, and said unto her, Weep not. So first notice the meeting of two large crowds. There is Jesus, his disciples, and many others with him. And then there is a crowd of mourners, a funeral procession, carrying a dead man outside the city. And it is there at the gate of the city of Nain, that these two crowds converge. The crowd with Jesus is probably joyful, expectant, and still talking about how Jesus healed the Centurion’s servant. Whereas the other crowd is in the depths of sorrow, they are walking through the valley of the shadow of death. They are sowing the ground with their tears. For what is the saddest kind of funeral to attend, but one where a parent must bury their own child. Where a young man or young woman in the flower of youth, about to enter adulthood, has their life suddenly cut short. All the labors of this mother to raise her son, and all her hopes that one day he may care for her in old age, all those hopes are suddenly dashed by death. Luke tells us this woman is a widow. So she has already suffered the loss of her husband. And so now for her only son to die, a young man now, is to compound grief upon grief. At the funeral of her husband the people could say “at least she has her son.” But what is there left to say now that her only son has died? We are reminded here of the story of Ruth, and how Naomi says, Do not call me Naomi [which means pleasant]; call me Mara [bitterness], for the Almighty has dealt very bitterly with me. This widow is in an even worse state that Naomi was. For Naomi at least had Ruth to help her. But this widow has no one. At least, not until Jesus comes to meet her. We read in verse 13, three actions of Jesus towards this widow. First, it says the Lord saw her. Here, Luke for the very first time in his gospel, explicitly identifies Jesus as the Lord. So whatever Jesus does it is the Lord’s doing, and what does the Lord do? In the midst of the crowds, amidst the flood of grief, with all the disorientation that severe loss inflicts upon us, Jesus sees us in our pain.The Lord looks upon this widow, singles her out, and gives her His special and divine attention. Of this special regard that God has for us in our afflictions it says in Psalm 138:6 , Though the Lord is on high, Yet He regards the lowly; But the proud He knows from afar. And in Psalm 34:18 it says likewise, The Lord is near unto them that are of a broken heart; And saveth such as be of a contrite spirit. The God who is everywhere at all times, who knows all things and upholds all things in their being, is said to pay special attention to those are humble and hurting. Because they are the ones who most feel and know their need for God. Whereas the proud do not. This was true of Hagar in the wilderness. Remember how she was proud against Sarai, and treated her with contempt, and then Sarai treated her harshly in return, so Hagar runs away. But God meets Hagar and tells her to return to submit to Sarai, and promises the blessing of a son. And it is after Hagar has humbled herself that it says in Genesis 16:13 , Then she called the name of the Lord who spoke to her, You-Are-the-God-Who-Sees; for she said, “Have I also here seen Him who sees me?” Pride, contempt for others, blinds us from seeing God. But humility opens our eyes and opens our soul to receive His blessing. So the same God who saw Hagar in the wilderness, now sees this widow in her desolation. And Jesus is that God who sees. The next thing Luke tells us it that when the Lord saw her, he had compassion on her. When you are in pain, what do you desire but the removal of pain, which the Bible calls mercy, or compassion. And here it says that the Lord co-miserates with this woman. He sees her suffering and makes her suffering his own. This is what Jesus does for us pre-eminently on the cross. This the Divine Compassion. Yes, it is a comfort to have the sympathies of our friends and community, the flowers and the cards and the kind words, but only God can visit us in the depths of our broken heart. Only God can touch those invisible and spiritual places within us. This is one of the reasons why the very name for the Holy Spirit is Comforter/Consoler/Advocate, because the Spirit is the healing balm, the oil of mercy, sent from the Father and the Son to comfort us in our affliction. It is the Spirit who lifts us up when we are weak. It is the Spirit who indwells us, and makes us to know that God sees us, God pities us, and God has the power to work great good from these present evils. Isn’t this what He has promised us in His Word? Well, what does God to say to us when He comes to console us? Well here Jesus says to this woman, weep not. Do not cry. God is here. Notice how shocking and heartless this might have appeared to those standing around this woman, or even to the woman herself. How can you tell her to stop crying? Don’t you see the body? Don’t you see what has happened? Have you no compassion? When these words, weep not, come from The Lord, they are an invitation to hope in Him. It is true that in the moment when Jesus says weep not, nothing has changed. Her son is still dead. Her house is still desolate. Everything feels hopeless. And yet, Jesus comes to her and says weep not as an invitation to hope in Him. We are never told what this woman thought, or said, or did. She has no words of dialog like the Centurion had, there is no response from this widow recorded by Luke. And I think that is because God wants you to ponder what you would do in this situation. What do you do, when it feels hopeless, do you believe that God sees you, that God has compassion on you, and that God is inviting you to dry your eyes, to hear his voice, and to put your hope in Him. We are taught to pray in Psalm 33:18-19 , Behold, the eye of the Lord is upon them that fear him, Upon them that hope in his mercy; To deliver their soul from death. And in Lamentations 3 we are taught to pray likewise, It is of the Lord’s mercies that we are not consumed, because his compassions fail not. They are new every morning: great is thy faithfulness. The Lord is my portion, saith my soul; therefore will I hope in him. Well in verses 14-15, we see that hoping in Jesus is a blessed hope. For here now he raises the dead son to life. Verses 14-15 – Jesus Visits A Dead Man 14And he came and touched the bier [that is, the open coffin or stretcher they were carrying]: and they that bare him stood still. And he said, Young man, I say unto thee, Arise. 15And he that was dead sat up, and began to speak. And he delivered him to his mother. Now what Jesus does physically for this young man, is what he does spiritually for every elect soul. And indeed, if you look at how The Apostle Paul describes salvation in Ephesians 2 (and elsewhere), you will see that it mirrors what Jesus does literally here. So how does someone go from dead in trespasses and sins to alive in Christ? Well what does Jesus do here? First, Jesus comes and visits you in your deadness. Before ever you could get up and call out to Him, God comes and says to your soul, Arise. And by that creative word of omnipotent power, God justifies you, God sanctifies you, God makes your soul upright, so that you like this young man may sit up and begin to speak. It says in Psalm 116:10 , I believed, therefore I spoke. God speaks faith into our hearts, and then from the faith that He has given we make confession to Him. And thus, the words of Romans 10:10 comes to pass, For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. And then once God has made you alive in His Beloved Son, and washed you clean in the laver of regeneration ( Titus 3:5 ), He delivers you to your mother The Church, who nourishes you, giving you the pure milk of the Word, so that raised in the Church Militant you may one day join the Church Triumphant. As it says in Galatians 4:26 , But Jerusalem which is above is free, which is the mother of us all. And as Paul says in Ephesians 2:5-6 , Even when we were dead in sins, God hath made us alive together with Christ, (by grace ye are saved;) And hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus. God in salvation raises us from the dead, He makes us to sit up and speak, and gives us to our mother. All this Jesus does here, miraculously, unbidden, from the compassion of His heart. And so by this one miracle, two are made whole. The widow receives her son back, her desolation is undone. And the son receives his life back, as a testimony to God’s resurrecting grace. Now remember that every miracle that Jesus works upon the body, is infinitely less valuable than what He works upon your eternal soul. And so as marvelous as the raising of this son is, you should marvel far more that God raised you from your deadness, and all as free gift of His mercy. So we have seen how God visits us in our grief. We see how God visits us in our spiritual deadness. And now finally we see how God visits us in our doubts. In verses 16-23, rumor spreads about Jesus, and word reaches John the Baptist, who is currently sitting in prison awaiting execution. And so for John’s disciples, this is a real crisis of faith. Their leader has been imprisoned, and so they are starting to have some doubts. And so what does Jesus do to strengthen their faith? Verses 16-23 – Jesus Is Visited by John’s Disciples 16And there came a fear on all: and they glorified God, saying, That a great prophet is risen up among us; and, That God hath visited his people. 17And this rumour of him went forth throughout all Judaea, and throughout all the region round about. 18And the disciples of John shewed him of all these things. 19And John calling unto him two of his disciples sent them to Jesus, saying, Art thou he that should come? or look we for another? 20When the men were come unto him, they said, John Baptist hath sent us unto thee, saying, Art thou he that should come? or look we for another? 21And in that same hour he cured many of their infirmities and plagues, and of evil spirits; and unto many that were blind he gave sight. 22Then Jesus answering said unto them, Go your way, and tell John what things ye have 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. 23And blessed is he, whosoever shall not be offended in me. Now some people have thought that John is the one who is having some doubts about Jesus. He is in prison after all,and Jesus has yet to rise from the dead and ascend to heaven. And while that might be possible, I do not hold that view, since it seems to contradict what Jesus says about John in the very next section, that he is not a reed shaken with the wind. He is not a soft man, living delicately in king’s courts. Jesus says, John is a prophet, and much more than a prophet, and, Among those that are born of women there is not a greater prophet than John the Baptist. So I don’t think John is doubting here, I think he knows he must decrease so that Jesus must increase, and so he is sending his two disciples to Jesus, not for his sake, but for their sake. John wants his disciples to believe in Jesus and to become followers of Jesus. And of course, Jesus knows this and wants this as well. So what does Jesus do for them when they arrive? They ask him, Are you the one who is to come, or shall we look for another? So think about how Jesus could have answered this question. He could have just said, Yes, I am he. I’m God. Believe. But he does not do that. Instead, Jesus chooses to give them reasons to believe. He gives them motives to find His word credible. And he does this in two ways. First, he heals a ton of people. It says in verse 21, And in that same hour he cured many of their infirmities and plagues, and of evil spirits; and unto many that were blind he gave sight. They want to know if Jesus is the one the prophets spoke of. And Jesus shows them that He is by many miracles of healing and exorcism. But he does not stop there. The second thing he does is point them back to the Scriptures the he has just fulfilled. He says in verses 22-23, Go your way, and tell John what things ye have 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. These are all quotations and references to the Old Testament Scriptures, especially Isaiah and the Psalms. To give you just a sample, listen to Isaiah 35:3-6 , Strengthen the weak hands, And make firm the feeble knees. Say to those who are fearful-hearted, “Be strong, do not fear! Behold, your God will come with vengeance, With the recompense of God; He will come and save you.” Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened, And the ears of the deaf shall be unstopped. Then the lame shall leap like a deer, And the tongue of the dumb sing. For waters shall burst forth in the wilderness, And streams in the desert. This is Jesus, the fountain in the wilderness, the one who make streams of grace to flow in the desert. Or listen to Isaiah 61:1-3 ,“The Spirit of the Lord God is upon Me, Because the Lord has anointed Me To preach good tidings to the poor; He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted, [as he just did for the widow] To proclaim liberty to the captives, And the opening of the prison to those who are bound [as he just raised the young man from bonds of death]; To proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord, And the day of vengeance of our God; To comfort all who mourn, To console those who mourn in Zion, To give them beauty for ashes, The oil of joy for mourning, The garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness; That they may be called trees of righteousness, The planting of the Lord, that He may be glorified.” Wherever Jesus goes, God is visiting His people. And because the mystery of the incarnation is so marvelous and incomprehensible, for who could ever imagine that the Infinite Creator and Unchangeable God would take to himself our mortal flesh, Jesus condescends to our doubts, and gives us many reasons to believe that He is God. Most of all he will give us his death and resurrection as the ultimate sign of his divinity. Conclusion In closing, you see how few have great faith like the Centurion. The Centurion believed without ever seeing Jesus. He believed on account of what he had heard. That is great faith and with it comes great blessing. As Jesus says to Thomas in John 20:29 , Thomas, because you have seen Me, you have believed. Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed. But behold the compassion of God. God knows you have doubts, and so he constantly points you to the Scriptures. He points you to His many mighty miracles, signs, wonders, and all those prophecies that He fulfilled. As Jesus says to the Jews in John 10:37-38 , If I do not do the works of My Father, do not believe Me; but if I do, though you do not believe Me, believe the works, that you may know and believe that the Father is in Me, and I in Him. So do you believe that Jesus is the Son of God? Or are you offended by Him?Stumbled by his humanity that conceals his divinity? It says in Psalm 118,The stone which the builders rejected Has become th
