When Jesus was concluding His Sermon in the Plain recorded in Luke 6, He compared someone who heard and obeyed His sayings to a man that built his house by digging deep and laying his foundation on bedrock.

Last time we studied the bedrock faith of the centurion. Although he was a Gentile, he dug deep into what he knew and experienced about life and God, and developed a great faith that amazed Jesus. This was the kind of faith that Jesus had been looking for in Israel, and had been teaching about in the previous chapter of Luke.

Shortly after the healing of the centurion's servant in Capernaum, Jesus and his disciples and a large crowd of followers went to Nain. The walled village of Nain was located on the slopes of Mt. Hermon about 6 miles SE of Nazareth. Jesus was on a teaching circuit around Galilee and appeared at the gate of this town just as a funeral procession was coming out.

Nain means "beauty" but there was nothing beautiful in this heavy day for a poor widow who had lost her only son. This young man was probably being carried in an open coffin, as was the Jewish custom of the day.

If this funeral was typical, it would have been lead by women (since Eve was the one whose sin caused death to come into the world). Then would follow the funeral orator, proclaiming the good deeds of the deceased. After those would come the family (in this case the mother), followed by the coffin and then the sympathetic crowd.

The word for "heart went out to her" is splagchnizomai {splangkh-nid'-zom-ahee} meaning to have compassion or be moved with compassion, literally "to be moved as to one's bowels" for the bowels were thought to be the seat of love and pity by the Greeks. This would be similar to our expression, "I have a feeling in the pit of my stomach". This indicates a very strong feeling on Jesus' part, He was physically and emotionally involved, and felt the grief as if it were His own.

Jesus said "Don't cry". The word for cry here is klaio {klah'-yo} meaning to mourn, weep, lament as the sign of pain and grief for the thing signified (i.e. for the pain and grief), specifically of those who mourn for the dead, to mourn for, or bewail.

Then we will be with the Lord forever. Therefore we should encourage one another with these words. Death doesn't have the final say. It didn't back in Nain when Jesus grasped the young man's coffin. And it certainly doesn't have the final say THIS side of the Cross and resurrection. Death has been defeated!

I Corinthians 15:26 The last enemy to be destroyed is death. But through Jesus Christ our Lord one day that physical death will no longer have any effect on us, because we shall have bodies just like HIS.

Revelation 21:4 "He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away."

Because Adam sinned, we bear his likeness and have inherited physical and spiritual death. When we are born again we become spiritually alive but still are subject to physical death. But in these mortal bodies we cannot inherit the kingdom of God - they wouldn't stand the trip to Heaven, much less be able to live in Heaven.

When Jesus comes and we feel that resurrection power flooding through us, then we will KNOW what we've been believing all these years. And then we will KNOW what in faith we've been shouting about! When the power of the Holy Spirit quickens our mortal bodies now and we feel like leaping for joy, we're just getting a foretaste of the joy that will fill us as we raise off this earth into everlasting life. Then we can look death in the eye and say - is that the puny, whiney thing that held me in bondage for so long?

Death will be SWALLOWED up in victory! It will have power over us and those we love NO MORE! It's reign will finally be over and we will be FOREVER loosed from it's captivity. Hallelujah!

When Jesus touched the coffin, this was in violation of Mosaic Law, which made Him "unclean". A Pharisee wouldn't touch a coffin with a ten foot pole! The word used for touch is an interesting choice. It is haptomai {hap'-tom-ahee} meaning to fasten one's self to, adhere to, or to cling to. Jesus didn't just lightly stroke the coffin, He grabbed hold of it. He MEANT for them to stop!

The people who were carrying it stood still. And Jesus spoke to the dead man and told him to get up. Now imagine if you will what this must have been like for those observing. A funeral march through the town's gate, very typical and common for the day. A rabbi passing the procession in the other direction. The rabbi stops, and GRABS the coffin and then commands the dead man to get up. I can almost hear their sharp intake of breath, and their shocked expressions as these strange events occur.

The dead man sat up! He started to talk! Wonder what he said??? The Greek is laleo {lal-eh'-o} to utter, tell, to use words in order to declare one's mind and disclose one's thoughts.

Wouldn't you like to have been there to hear what this young man had to say? Sadly for us, what he said isn't recorded. Perhaps in the excitement no one was really paying attention, otherwise surely it would have been remembered. It would be interesting to compare that to all of the NDE's (Near Death Experiences) floating around today.

The KJV translates "awe" as "fear" which is closer to the original phobos, meaning to be terrified, to be struck with fear, to be seized with alarm, of those startled by strange sights or occurrences, of those struck with amazement. In THIS case this fear leads to reverence and veneration, to treat with deference or reverential obedience. And this is exactly what this amazement led to - praising God. This type of fear is often called "godly fear".

Good answers. This verse has a different word for fear, deilia, {di-lee'-ah} meaning timidity, fearfulness, cowardice, which is NEVER used in a good sense, and NEVER leads to praise and worship of God. This is the kind of fear that Jesus came to defeat, and this is the kind of fear that discourages us and causes us to lose faith. And this spirit of timidity, cowardice or fearfulness against the devil is what Paul is telling Timothy about.

But if we let fear - of death or anything else - control us, we will tend to run FROM God and be held in slavery by the devil. BUT through His death, Jesus DESTROYED the devil who holds the power of death! And we have been set free to run TO God and worship God instead of our former jailer, the devil, and be liberated from the bars of the fear of death that held us captive!

I imagine we would be dazed at least if we saw someone raised from their casket on the way to the cemetery today. And terrified might describe our feelings even better! But this type of fear led to them glorifying God - giving God praise and glory for something definitely outside of their physical capabilities. They began to magnify God and celebrate this marvelous miracle.

Notice that the miracles that false Christs and false prophets can perform are so wonderful that even the ones closest to God, the elect, could possibly be deceived. We must get the Word in our hearts if we are to escape the increasing deception that is being poured out upon the earth!

People are teaching all kinds of strange beliefs - they are mixing the pure Gospel with all kinds of doctrines of devils. I've said this once, and I'll say it again, don't take anything for granted. Test all things by the Word. And test them again, and test them again! Put the Word in your heart, and then you will be able to discern what is true and what is false!

Back to Nain: Perhaps the people thought that since a great prophet was now here to help them that they would no longer die. Perhaps they remembered the miracles of provision and protection wrought by Elijah and Elisha in days of old. Perhaps they even thought that this prophet would some how help them to be delivered from the bondage of Rome. But even with Jesus raising the dead, they did not realize who He is.

For more than 400 years since the time of Malachi, there had been no prophets of God in the land. There had been many false prophets, but no one of these could offer the credentials that Jesus did in this one miracle.

At any rate, this was exciting news! A young man had been raised from the dead! People were electrified, they were chatting at the village well, they were discussing these things at the village market, they were telling travelers who came in caravans this thrilling news! And as always, they were putting their own "spin" on it and trying to figure out just who this Jesus was. A prophet? What would He do next? And they spread the news throughout the area.

This kind of blows our theology out of the water doesn't it? After carefully studying the centurion's faith, and asking the Lord to develop that kind of faith in us, here comes the widow of Nain and gets a miracle without even asking for it! Why? Jesus was moved by the woman's need and sorrow.

I remember one time in my life when I was very depressed, suicidal in fact. No body knew, because I was too angry and proud to reveal what I was thinking of doing. But I had several alternative methods in mind, and had even envisioned my own funeral and how sorry every one would be who had treated me so badly.

So what happened? Obviously I didn't commit suicide, even though that is what my full intentions were. I pictured myself as a broken doll, thrown into a ditch, sodden and filthy. And all of a sudden two loving arms picked me up, cleaned me off, healed my hurts and set me on my feet. But the most amazing thing was that my heart, which had been filled with hatred and loathing, was now full of love and joy, in the twinkling of an eye.

Now, I had not prayed or asked God for help. I'm sure that my mother and grandmother were praying for me, as they always have, but they didn't know in the physical realm what was on my mind, because I told no one.

But in this instant, God reached down to me, and filled me with love and hope, and immediately I realized that I had been looking at life all wrong. I had gotten "saved" 500 times or so, but never really believed God accepted me because I was such a failure in living the Christian life. That's why I kept getting saved, because I thought my salvation depended on my works, and my works were crummy.

But now, scooped up in the everlasting arms of God's love, I could see things from a totally different viewpoint. It was like being raised from the dead and looking down from Heaven and getting the whole picture. God loved me, He sent Jesus who died for me, and accepting that fact was what being saved meant!

The point is: Jesus had compassion on a poor struggling fool without a clue. I had no faith to claim a miracle with. My life was a mess. I was as good as dead. But my Lord loved me and raised me up and filled me with love.