Interrupting the Dead

So imagine these two processions meet.

They can't get around one another. You have this intersection of life and death. One procession is led by the angel of death, as it were. The other procession is being led by the Lord of life. You watch a terminal sinner encounter the true Savior.

Now you have life and death meeting face to face. One day Jesus and a group of his followers were on a road and they encountered a funeral procession. They didn't just step to the side, yield the road, and allow the funeral to pass. No, Jesus completely interrupted that funeral. And I can tell you that it was a shock because in that encounter, Jesus brought that dead corpse back to life. That's what Jesus does, and that's what he offers. Today, as we continue reflecting on the resurrection, we see that Jesus offers life to us as well.

This is Wisdom for the Heart with Stephen Davey. Stephen's message today is called Interrupting the Dead. You've probably enjoyed the writings of a number of choice servants of the Lord.

Many of them have pastored for years. One of them, by the name of Chuck Swindoll you're familiar with, he collected for years in his journal epitaphs. And on one occasion, I wrote about it and I got a copy. He said, you know, some of them are humorous, some of them are sobering, some funny. One read, beneath this silent stone is laid a noisy antiquated maid who from her cradle talked to death and never before was out of breath. Here lies returned to clay Miss Arabella Young who on the 11th day of May began to hold her tongue. One woman penned her own epitaph, I thought this was great. She said, dear friends, I'm going where washing isn't done, cooking or sewing. Don't mourn for me now or weep for me never, for I go to do nothing forever and ever.

That's good. Another woman evidently wanted to get married again and used her husband's tombstone to make the announcement. It read, if you believe it, sacred to the memory of my husband John Barnes who died January 3rd, 1803.

His lovely young widow, age 23, has many qualifications of a good wife and yearns to be comforted. Has to be the forerunner of eHarmony.com right there on the graveyard. One more, Jedediah Goodwin, who was a professional auctioneer.

That was his career as an auctioneer. It's interesting, he had this simple message inscribed on his tombstone, Jedediah Goodwin, born 1828, going, going, gone. Well, I guess epitaphs and tombstones have a way of reminding us that we are all mortal. All of us are in the process of going, going, gone. But is that the end? Is it the end for 6,000 people somewhere on our planet who will die while we are in here this hour? Is it the end for 150,000 people who will die today? Or 55 million who will die this year?

Is that it? Jesus made that rather audacious, incredible claim that he was the resurrection and the life. He even went on to say if anybody believes in him, even if he dies, he's going to live afterward.

Really? That's a claim that he will back up over and over and over again. Has it ever occurred to you that according to eyewitness accounts, Jesus Christ never attended a funeral which he did not entirely disrupt? He interrupted them all. Five graveyard scenes are provided for us in the New Testament and all five graveyard scenes are disrupted.

Let me take you to two of them, most often overlooked, and let's focus there. Take your gospel by Luke and go to chapter 7. Jesus and his disciples are arriving in a small city and it is almost all entirely consumed with the death of a young man, and they are all involved in the funeral procession. If you look over at verse 11, the text reads, and it came about soon afterwards that he went to a city called Nain and his disciples were going along with him, accompanied by a large multitude. Now as he approached the gate of the city, behold, a dead man was being carried out, the only son of his mother, she was a widow, and a sizable crowd from the city was with her.

Now, stop for a moment with me and let's set the scene. If you have ever watched news reports of a procession in the Middle East, they really haven't changed from the first century to the 21st century. You'll have an idea of the wailing and the confusion and the chaos and the grief. It's what's happening here as nearly this entire city is involved in this procession, leading outside the gates to bury this young man.

There were four things that were typical of the scene. First would be the tearing of garments. You've probably observed that expression in the Old Testament, where they would tear it from the neck downward across their heart, symbolizing that their heart was broken. That would be the way they would express their grief. Secondly, these processions would involve professional mourners.

It would be their career. It would be a difficult career, I would think, but this would be their hiring to weep and to wail. They would often compose chants where they would insert the name of the deceased and even the names of family members in this chanting obituary that would only add to the grief and the sorrow and the lamenting. Professional musicians, thirdly, would be hired, most often flute players, and they would play loud, rather disconcerting sounds that were intended to reflect the emotional discord and the confusion of their grief. And fourth, uniquely, the funeral procession, especially of Jewish funerals, would be led by women.

It was a Jewish tradition for centuries which taught that since women brought mankind into the world, they ought to lead them out. So they would be leading the procession. You can only imagine the noise and the commotion and the wailing and the lamenting and the despairing of the crowd. And we know that the widow would have been just in front of this makeshift coffin. Luke gives us the details that she had lost her husband, and now she had lost her only son, her only hope of any kind of survival in this generation.

She is rather desperately alone. The coffin would have really been nothing more than planks of wood that formed an open container, and the pallbearers would stop pressed by the crowd periodically to let newcomers view the body and then join into this loud, deeply confusing cacophony of grief and sorrow. And Luke tells us, if you can imagine this, that this weeping, wailing, chaotic scene is exiting the city gates just as Jesus and his disciples and a crowd following him arrive. So imagine these two processions meet.

They can't get around one another. They meet at this crossroad, at these gates. You have this intersection of life and death. One procession is led by the angel of death, as it were. The other procession is being led by the Lord of life. And here they meet. Just as we watched last Lord's Day, a terminal sinner encounter the true Savior, now you have life and death, as it were, meeting face to face in this encounter. The next verse tells us, when the Lord saw her, he focused on the widow, he felt compassion for her and said to her, Do not weep.

Now that's a strange thing to say. She's virtually destitute without a provider, without someone to protect her now. The widow in these days was guaranteed poverty. The first thing Jesus does is inform this widow that she can now stop weeping. Why? Verse 14, because he came up and touched the coffin and the bearers, the pallbearers came to a halt.

Let's not rush on. There is a Jewish rabbi voluntarily defiling himself. He reaches out and he touches the coffin. The law would declare that he is now ceremonially unclean. But just as we observed last Lord's Day, when Jesus reached out and touched that leper, when he grasped that man by the shoulder, the Lord wasn't defiled, that leper was cleansed. So here, Jesus isn't being defiled by death, he is about to bring life. I imagine at this scene, at this moment, all the lamenting stops, the flute players stop, the whalers cease, and it's quiet. I imagine just the shocked hush as they see Jesus touching this coffin. Notice that Jesus said, Young man, I say to you, arise. By the way, that's an imperative, that's a command. Get up.

Oh really? Get up. And the dead man, literally the corpse, sat up and began to speak, and fear gripped them all.

I imagine it would. Here's the corpse suddenly sitting up in his coffin and beginning to talk. I don't know what he said, it might have been, Hi mom, I have no idea. No doubt some people screamed, others fainted, some ran, others just kind of gasped.

You know, those pop errors, what do they do? The next text tells us Jesus gave him back to his mother. In other words, Jesus introduced himself, helped unwrap the grave clothes, and brought this young man back into the arms of his mother, and now you have this mix of incredible confusion and surprise and joy. At Christ's command, the same root word is used by the Apostle Paul when he comforts the Thessalonians, giving us a glimpse into the afterlife, where he writes, And the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a shout, and the dead in Christ will rise.

That's the same root word Luke uses here in this text. At death, those that have already died, their spirits having gone immediately to be with the Lord, to be absent from the bodies, to be present with the Lord. There's no limbo, there's no floating around scaring people with the Lord. But upon his coming with the redeemed, and at his command to rise their bodies, which have gone back to dust, carried who knows where, our Lord's command will reach into the depths of the oceans, and the seas, and the caverns, and the depths of the earth, wherever their bodies have migrated. And in a moment, he will reform, he will reconstitute, and then resurrect them in a glorified, immortal state, rejoining with their spirit to be with the Lord forever. 1 Thessalonians 4, 16 to 18. And the Lord does that with a shout. We're not told what the shout is. I have every reason to believe because of what happens. After he shouts, it's this word, Arise, get up, I am the resurrection, and the life he who believes in me will live, even if that is after he dies.

And Jesus here says, let me prove that for you now, and to this young man he commands, Arise. Can you just see the flute players packing their instruments away? You know, the mourners, you know, maybe a little upset their concert never got off the ground.

You know, probably never got their full fee. The funeral was interrupted by the Messiah, and that man becomes a living testimony, and he can go around for the rest of his life saying, you know, I was dead, but now I'm alive. What about us? We who were dead in our sins, our trespasses, have been brought to life by the power of Christ. That's occurred in our lives spiritually. We await the day, it'll happen physically, Ephesians chapter 2, verse 1. What about us? You know, we, Peter wrote, who have been born again to a living hope through the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ, 1 Peter 1, verse 3. It ought to make a difference in how we live now because of everything we're saying we believe in here.

It ought to translate out there, out there. Some time ago I was sent this article from a man in our church, and it told about a man who was being tailgated by a pretty stressed out woman, and the light in front of him as he was traveling turned yellow, and he had time to stop, or he had time to go through it, which is what I know some of you do, but he stopped. He did the right thing. And the woman became infuriated, the article said. She hit the roof, she laid on the horn, she screamed at him, she shook her fist at the man in front of her for making her miss the chance to get through the intersection. And while she's in mid-rant, she hears a tap on her window and looks up into the face of a police officer. The officer ordered her to exit her car with her hands up. He put her in the back of the police car in handcuffs, took her to the station where she was fingerprinted, photographed, and placed in a holding cell. Then after a couple of hours, the policeman came back to her cell, escorted her out, and he was very apologetic. And he said, man, I am so sorry.

I have made a terrible mistake. See, I was behind you when you were blowing your horn, when you were just ranting, when you were cussing a blue streak at that man. I could hear you back there. And I noticed all that stuff on the back of your car, the Choose Life license plate holder, the What Would Jesus Do bumper sticker, the fish emblem on your trunk.

So I assumed that wasn't your car and you'd stolen it. Let's not just sing about, you know, we follow Jesus in here. Let's live like it out there. Let me show you one more scene quickly, perhaps the most overlooked demonstration of resurrection power. Take your copy of the good news by Matthew. The word gospel, by the way, means good news. So here's the good news written by Matthew.

Turn back a few pages to chapter 27. And you'll notice this resurrection event taking place beginning with verse 50. And Jesus cried out again with a loud voice and yielded up his spirit.

Go to verse 52. And tombs were opened. Not every tomb, but some tombs were opened. And many bodies of the saints had fallen asleep.

That is, they died. Their bodies were raised. This is a precursor of the coming resurrection.

It's happening now. Verse 53. And coming out of the tombs after his resurrection, they entered the holy city and appeared to many. This isn't a mystical, spiritual, you know, resurrection of ghosts that are going into Jerusalem and how to just completely freak everybody out. The specific mention here is of bodies.

They have bodies. They're resurrected. Jesus sort of pulls back the curtain on what's going to happen and shows us a picture of it here.

Who are they? Well, he uses the word hagioi, which is the word saint, holy one. It's a term referring to Old Testament believers and New Testament believers. Matthew says their tombs were opened. And then after the resurrection of Christ, they entered the city of Jerusalem. The language can be taken to mean, and we can't be sure which way, but it could mean they came out of their tombs and then on Sunday entered Jerusalem or their tombs were opened and they were raised from the dead on Sunday. I would personally interpret this to mean that they were immediately raised from the dead and then after Jesus' resurrection on Sunday, they entered Jerusalem.

So what are they doing in the meantime? Well, the text doesn't tell us that they were all buried next door. We have every reason to understand that they're buried in and around the Middle East and they're spending the weekend traveling. They're going to arrive in Jerusalem when Jesus rises from the dead. They're going to be testifiers. They're going to be exhibits of the fact that he really is the resurrection and the life.

It would be undeniable evidence. Evidently a select few among the deceased Old Testament believers who were awaiting the Messiah are given their glorified bodies, reunited with their spirits, and now here they come. And it says, the Bible says, they appeared to many.

That's the same expression he uses of Jesus in his post-resurrection. He appeared to many. Matthew's words imply these Old Testament saints would have been introduced. They would have been recognized, some of them. Their testimonies, maybe some of them even physically recognized, some perhaps dead for centuries. Can you imagine that?

Some perhaps dead for a few months. Suddenly here they are in Jerusalem. Can you imagine the sudden appearance? Imagine the astonishment and the confusion and the joy and the wonder and the tears. Who were these saints of the past chosen by God to testify that Jesus is indeed the resurrection and the life? And we're not told.

So let me imagine with you. Can you imagine if one of them was Joseph? Wouldn't that have been wonderful for Joseph to appear and say, I was the favorite son of my father, rejected by my brothers, but I rose to power to save my family from famine and certain death. Jesus Christ was the favorite son rejected by his brethren, but he is the only one who can save you from everlasting death.

I mean, he could have had quite a testimony. Can you imagine a man stepping in Jerusalem and announcing, hey, I'm Job, and I just want you to know that my Redeemer lives. I know that my Redeemer lives.

I know that my Redeemer lives. Can you imagine if David had shown up, the beloved king, saying, you know, all those songs I wrote, I'm glad to hear you singing them, but I was writing about this Lord who is my shepherd and he will one day sit upon this throne in a new Jerusalem. He's really truly the Messiah.

I mean, that'd just be staggering, wouldn't it? Wouldn't it be amazing if one of the resurrected believers was John the Baptist? He'd been dead for just a few months. His message would have been simply, I told you so. He really was the Lamb of God who came to save us from our sin, take away the sin of the world. You know, beloved, it's interesting in our day and time, if somebody claims to have died for 45 seconds or 45 minutes, they can come back and they can write a bestseller.

Why? Because there's something about our hearts that want to know about life after death, but imagine somebody coming back to life after four months or four years or 45 years or 450 years or 4,500 years. They can give eyewitness accounts. They can describe paradise to those who will listen. They can talk about life beyond the grave. And by the way, just how urgent do you think they'd be to everyone who heard their testimony that they decide to follow this Messiah? They'd be pretty passionate, wouldn't they? I can't help but wonder who God chose to serve as these Old Testament witnesses.

But I would like to imagine two more. Can you imagine a husband and wife entering Jerusalem saying, My name is Adam and this is Eve. It was because of us that sin entered the world. It was because we defied the Creator God. And so everything, the toil of work and the corruption of mankind and even the pain of childbirth, it started because of us. God atoned for our sin, covered for us as we looked forward to the one he promised us would crush the serpent's head.

He came and did just that. The question is not, Are you going to live forever beyond the grave? The question is, Where will you live beyond the grave? We would encourage you, Beloved, to live in light of the fact that we have sung the truth of our hope in Jesus Christ and those of you who come today who don't believe that before you leave, you do. And you join us who say by faith, He is risen. He is risen. He is risen. Jesus Christ has risen indeed.

Jesus is indeed the way, the truth and the life. His death all those years ago was certainly not the end of his story. On that very first Resurrection Sunday, he conquered death and rose from the grave.

And here's the really good news for us. By faith, death is not the end of our story either. Because Jesus has power over death, He can extend that power to you. And not only can Jesus give you life, He offers His Resurrection power to you freely. As Stephen said in today's message, every person who has ever lived will live forever.

So that's not really the question. Living forever is never the question. The question is where will you spend forever? I'm glad you joined us today. This is wisdom for the heart. Our Bible teacher Stephen Davey has taken the message you just heard along with part one of the series which you heard yesterday and put it together as a booklet called Resurrection Power. We hope and pray that God will use this resource to encourage His people and to stir the hearts of those who've never responded to the truth of the Gospel. If you'd like a copy of Resurrection Power, we can help get this resource into your hands. With this being Good Friday, our office is closed today.

Our staff is enjoying some extra time with family and friends. If you want a call, you can leave a message and we'll call you back on Monday. Our number is 866-48-BIBLE or 866-482-4253. Another option for contacting us is to use our website. You'll find us online at wisdomonline.org. You can go there any time to learn more about our ministry, access our resources, subscribe to our email list, or hear the complete archive of Stephen's preaching ministry. You can listen to the lessons, read the manuscripts, or for the most recent sermons, you can watch the videos of Stephen preaching. All of that is at wisdomonline.org. And of course, you'll find the resource I mentioned, Resurrection Power, in our online store. I'm Scott Wiley, and for Stephen and all of us here, thanks for listening. We hope you have a wonderful Easter celebration and that you've experienced the Resurrection Power Jesus offers. Please join us here again on Monday for more wisdom for the heart.