LUKE 7:11-17 JESUS HAS COMPASSION AND POWER2011 Teaching by Jerry B Simmons

Teaching Transcript: Luke 7:11-17 Jesus Has Compassion And Power

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You are listening to FerventWord, an online Bible study ministry with teachings and tools to help you grow deeper in your relationship with God. The following message was taught by Jerry Simmons in 2011.

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Well, as we get into our passage this morning, we're looking at a pretty simple account. It's not very difficult. It's not very complicated. But there's some great powerful things that we need to consider here. And so I want to highlight for you two things. Now, many times as I share the word on a Sunday morning, I'll have three or four or five points to share with you. And, you know, I highlight those things that God highlights in my heart. But this week as I've been studying, there's two things. And I

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They're a little bit basic, and that's, I think, on purpose, not because that's what I want, but really God wants to remind us of some of the basic truths of our foundation in Christ. And so the first thing we want to look at today is found in verses 11 through 13.

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And that is that Jesus has compassion. We need to be reminded this morning that our God is a compassionate God. And a lot more so than we would probably tend to think or we forget to remember of how compassionate he is. Let's look again at verses 11 through 13. It says this,

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Now it happened the day after that he went into a city called Nain, and many of his disciples went with him and a large crowd. And when he came near the gate of the city, behold, a dead man was being carried out, the only son of his mother. And she was a widow, and a large crowd from the city was with her. When the Lord saw her, he had compassion on her and said to her, Do not weep.

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Here as we are looking at this portion, we see two crowds coming together. Two crowds are meeting here in verses 11 through 13. There's a crowd that is coming with Jesus. It says there in verse 11 that many of his disciples were with him and a large crowd. And so there's a large gathering of people with Jesus.

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The city of Nain is about 12 miles away from Capernaum, where we were last week in our study. And so he's journeyed 12 miles, and there's this large crowd with him. And they're entering into the city, or they're about to enter into the city. Now you can imagine the crowd that's with Jesus is

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Probably has quite a buzz around it. I mean, there's excitement, there's anticipation. They've been watching him work miracles. They've been hearing him teach things that have astounded them. And they've been just astonished by the works that have been going on through the ministry of Jesus.

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And so I imagine, I picture the crowd there with Jesus kind of alive and there's just this excitement, this anticipation as they head now into a new city, probably wondering what is he going to do there? What kind of works is he going to perform? What miracles are going to happen? What things is he going to teach? And this crowd that's alive with excitement, that has this buzz going on around it, heads into the city and now meets Jesus.

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Another crowd. This is a crowd that's coming out of the city. This is a crowd that is surrounding a widow who is about to bury her only son. And this crowd would be pretty much the opposite of the crowd that's with Jesus. Not alive with excitement and anticipation. This crowd would be full of sorrow, full of despair, full of grief, full of questions like,

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How could this happen? Why would God allow this? And so these two crowds meet. They come together, it says, near the gate of the city. And so they join together, they meet one another, and there as Jesus is entering in, he sees the crowd of mourners, the crowd surrounding this widow. She's lost her only son, and he goes to her and he says, do not weep.

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Now to get a little bit of perspective about what was going on there, to be a widow in those days would be very, very difficult. Now I don't mean to suggest that being a widow today is not difficult. But there were some extra circumstances surrounding being a widow in that culture and in that day that would make it a little especially hard, especially difficult for a widow. Because in that culture and in that time,

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The husband was the provider and protector of the family. And when the husband is out of the picture, there's not much available to

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for the widow. There's not many jobs that were available. There's not, you know, much built on in society that was for the women. They didn't have as much rights as the men. There was not as much opportunity as for the men. And so a widow would have a very difficult life, not just in losing her husband, but in providing for herself, in maintaining herself, and being able to continue on and live without experiencing extreme poverty. And

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And so there was great need in the widows of that day. Well, what would happen for a widow in those times is the children would then take care of the mom who had lost the husband. So primarily the son, the eldest son, would provide for and take care of and protect his mother who was widowed.

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But here in this account, what we see is that son, her only son, the one who is taking her father's place and providing protection and provision and making sure her needs are met, that son now has died. Now, that's probably the farthest thing from her mind, like, you know, how am I going to eat and those types of things at this point. But she has experienced this great loss, first of her husband,

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And that puts her in a difficult position. But now her son has taken that up. But now her son has died. And so she's left with the two most important men in her life gone. Her provision, her protection, the things that she would need just gone with the death of her son. And so you can begin to imagine

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A little bit of what she is going through and what she is experiencing as this crowd is heading out of the city. Now one more thing to point out. In the Jewish culture in that day as well as today, they would make a point to bury the dead that same day.

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They don't want to leave the body overnight, but they buried the dead. Now in those days it was very practical because they didn't have the means of preserving the body that we have today. And so they would bury the dead the same day. So as they're walking out of the city to bury her son, understand it's not that he died two weeks ago and now they're getting to the funeral. He died today. She lost her son today. And she's walking out of the city to bury her son today because

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Can you imagine the state and the condition of this poor woman? Can you imagine what she's going through, the emotions that she's experiencing? And in the midst of that, Jesus comes to her and he says, do not weep. Do not weep. Now, if you don't know the rest of the story, then his words are cruel and out of place.

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And to go to a woman in that condition, to go through someone who's sorrowing like that and just say, you know, stop crying, that's not compassionate. That's not merciful. That's very insensitive, right? But we know the rest of the story. So that's not what Jesus was doing. But he tells her, can you imagine? He tells her, do not weep.

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Now the reason Jesus tells her not to weep, it says there in verse 13 that he had compassion on her. And so his message to her, don't weep, comes not from insensitivity or carelessness or anything like that, but it comes from his great compassion that he has for her.

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When you and I talk about compassion, we, well, we can use the word compassion to refer to kind of a wide spectrum of intensity as far as compassion is concerned. A little bit of compassion to a lot of compassion. One of the neat things about the Greek language, which is what the New Testament was written in, is there's a lot of times where the words that they use can kind of fine-tune and focus in on certain aspects of things that we just use one word for.

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The Greek word for compassion here in this portion literally means to have the bowels yearn. That's what it literally means, to have the bowels yearn. It means to feel sympathy or to have pity, but it's describing this yearning of the bowels. Have you ever had your bowels yearn?

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I don't know if you're familiar with that kind of experience or that kind of feeling. But the reason why it is described this way or worded this way is because they believed...

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That the bowels were the seat or the root of those strong emotions like love and like sympathy, like pity, like those deep emotions that you had. They were rooted from the bowels. Now, today you and I more commonly refer to it as the heart. And, you know, it's the heart that births those emotions. But those are just kind of like, you know, our best feelings.

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of where those emotions are coming from. And so the bowels yearning is talking about the deep emotions. In fact, Pastor Chuck describes it as being the deepest kind of sympathetic emotion that one can experience. And so there's other words that are translated as compassion. We would consider that compassion.

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But this is the deepest of those words. It's the deepest type of compassion, the deepest type of sympathy, the one that causes the bowels to yearn. Have you ever had that feeling where you're looking upon a situation, you're looking upon someone who is hurting, someone who is in pain, and you have that gut-wrenching feeling?

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That's what it's talking about here. That gut-wrenching, for me, I don't know if it's any way accurate or if anybody could relate to it this way, but the way I visualize it in my head is like when you're wringing out a towel.

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And you ever had that feeling where the inside, it just feels like it's just like, like it's just, you're ringing out of town. It's just all that, that gut feeling that's just like, oh, it's agonizing. As you look on a situation, as you look on someone who is hurting, someone who is going through suffering, that's the idea that is contained in this word compassion.

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And so as it says that Jesus has compassion on her, it's not just that, you know, he felt sorry or, oh, I'm, you know, a little bit sad for you. I kind of know what you're going through. He's experiencing like a physical response. His gut is just wrenching. It's these bowels yearning. It's this deep emotion that he's experiencing as he sees this widow who has lost her son.

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This word compassion is also interesting because throughout the New Testament, this specific word is only used to describe Jesus' compassion except for some of the parables that he tells. And so in some of the parables, the people that he describes, they have compassion. Like the prodigal son, the father has compassion upon the son as he sees him returning home in the condition that he came home in. But other than that, when it's talking about compassion,

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it's only used to refer to Jesus' compassion. And so from that, I understand this. Nobody has compassion like Jesus has compassion. Think about that. Nobody has compassion like Jesus has compassion. He sees this woman.

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And he has the deepest compassion for her. His gut is wrenching. His bowels are yearning. He's torn up inside as he sees the condition of this woman, her grief and her sorrow over losing her only son. And it's because of that great compassion for her that he says, do not weep. Because of course he knows what he is about to do. He knows what he is going to accomplish in the next few moments.

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But before we go on and look at that, I want to just take a moment and camp on this idea of compassion because the reality is Jesus did not just have compassion for that woman, but Jesus has compassion for you. He has compassion for you.

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I'm sure that you've experienced, I'm sure that you know what it's like to be going through something that is difficult or painful or hard. There's some suffering, there's some agony. And as you're in the midst of going through such a difficulty, such a hardship, there's a tendency for us to begin to think, where is God? There's a tendency for us to begin to feel like God is off somewhere somewhere.

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Not really paying attention, and I understand you're busy, God, and you've got a lot of more important things to do, and I'm just kind of stuck here in this agonizing, painful, difficult situation. There's a tendency to feel that way, that God's not really with us, that He's not paying attention, that it's not that important to Him, or not that meaningful for Him, that we're going through such things.

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But this morning, the Lord really strongly emphasized this on my heart and that's why I'm camping out on this idea and you'll hear it throughout the rest of the message today. Jesus has compassion upon you. He wants you to know whatever you go through, whatever hurt you experience, whatever sorrow that you feel, whatever hardship that you encounter,

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That Jesus has compassion on you and is with you. And I don't mean compassion like he just kind of recognizes and acknowledges, yeah, oh man, that must hurt. Ouch. Ooh, so sorry. Glad I'm not you. You know, glad I'm not in your shoes. It's not just that he sees and he knows about it and that he's omniscient and he knows everything.

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But Jesus has compassion upon you and I like he does for this woman where the bowels yearn, where there's this gut-wrenching, where he feels the things that you and I feel. He knows what it's like. The author of Hebrews in Hebrews chapter 2 and Hebrews chapter 4 points out that Jesus walked this earth. He had to experience life as you and I experience it so that he could be our perfect high priest.

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He knows what it's like. And so as He sees us go through difficulty and hardship and pain, He agonizes with us. He has compassion for us. Jesus has compassion for you. He sees. He knows. You're not lost in the crowd and He has no idea what's going on. He's not too busy and distracted with other more important things.

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As Jesus said in Matthew chapter 6, right? He knows the number of hairs on your head. He knows every detail about your life. And he sees what's going on and he has compassion. He agonizes along with you. Let me give you some examples of how it talks about Jesus having compassion to help kind of stir up some understanding of the compassion that he has towards you in different aspects of your life.

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So in Matthew chapter 9 verse 36, it tells us there that Jesus saw the multitudes and he was moved with compassion for them because they were weary and scattered like sheep having no shepherd. He looks out at the crowds, at the multitude, and he has compassion for them. He has this deep emotion for them. Why? Because they're weary and

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and scattered. Do you know what that feels like to be weary and scattered? Now, the idea of being weary here is not just, you know, you didn't get enough sleep last night, but it's weary of life. That, man, life is hard. I'm tired of living this life. It's hard. It's a battle. It's a fight. And I'm tired.

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Jesus looked at the crowd as there were those who were weary. Life was so hard. Not only that, but they're scattered. They don't have a shepherd. They don't have someone to direct them. They need guidance. They need direction. They need counsel. They need wisdom. And he sees them and he has compassion upon them.

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In the same way, the Lord looks at us this morning and He sees those who are weary, those who are just, life is just overwhelming. It's a huge burden. And He has compassion upon you. He sees those who are just lost, scattered. I don't know what life is about. I don't know what direction I'm going. I don't know what the purpose is. I don't know what to do. He sees you and He has compassion upon you. Another example we find in Matthew chapter 14.

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There again, Jesus is looking at the great multitude and it says that He's moved with compassion for them and healed their sick. So He looks at the multitude, He looks at the crowd, He sees those who are suffering, who have diseases, illnesses, some of them life-threatening, some of them not so much. He has compassion upon them and He heals them. Have you ever had a cold? Have you ever experienced life-threatening disease? No.

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Or anything in between? Is that what you're going through right now? Listen, Jesus wants you to know. Again, He put this on my heart very clearly. I need to communicate to you. He has compassion upon you. He knows where you are. He knows what you go through. He knows the pain. He knows the difficulty. He knows the discomfort. He knows everything.

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What it's like. And it's not just that he feels compassion or sympathy and he says, well maybe I should send him a card or something. His gut is yearning. His gut is wrenching. His bowels yearn. There's this deep effect upon him as he sees your pain, your suffering, your illness. He wants you to know he has compassion upon you. He's with you. Another example of compassion we find in Matthew chapter 15.

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And there Jesus, he gathers his disciples to himself and he says, I have compassion upon the multitude because they've now continued with me three days and have nothing to eat. He says, I don't want to send them away hungry lest they faint on the way. Not to make light of other situations, but have you ever been hungry? Jesus has compassion. Now, I'm not talking about because you didn't get your snack between breakfast and lunch, right? But...

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You're hungry because, well, you don't know where your next meal is coming from. Jesus sees those who are in that condition. You're hungry because you can't even afford to provide for yourself. You haven't had sufficient nutrition or funds or whatever. You're hungry. Jesus sees that. He has compassion upon you. Again, it's not just kind of a light thing. He knows it because He's God and He knows everything. But

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But he's connected with you. He's feeling it as you feel it. I would encourage you to consider this. Can you look at somebody who is going through some type of difficulty or pain or affliction and not have compassion upon them? Are you capable of that? I would suggest to you that every one of us is capable of that. Not only are we capable of it, but we practice it pretty regularly.

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We see pain. We see sorrow. We see difficulty and situation. But we grow callous. We kind of grow numb. And we kind of just walk right past. How much do you worry about or agonize over? You know, those who don't have food to eat. We don't like to think about these things. But people are starving to death all around the world, right? There's great famines going on. There's lots of

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who are starving to death. We don't like to think about it too much. And so that's how we handle it. We just kind of put it away. But think about God. Is God able to look at someone and not have compassion upon them? Absolutely not. This is pretty incredible to think about. There's not one person who suffers, who hurts physically, emotionally, or whatever. There's not one person who is agonizing emotionally

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That God does not look on them and have compassion. He's connected with them. He agonizes along with them. He suffers along with them. He's God. He sees everybody. He knows all the details about them. But He still, without exception, He suffers with those who suffer. He has compassion on those who are starving, on those who have lost loved ones, on those who are hurting deeply.

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We become callous, but God does not. He loves perfectly. It's pretty incredible to think about. Even when we are suffering because of our own doing, we put ourselves there by our sinful choices, our sinful actions, our rebellion against God, and we reap the consequences, and we're suffering as a result. Even in that case, you and I might look on and say, you got what's coming to you, buddy. But God looks...

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And he has compassion. I love Psalm 103, and there's the verse there I'm sure you're familiar with, that he casts our sin from us as far as the east is from the west. And then right after that, it goes on to say, in Psalm 103, verse 13, it says, "...as a father pities his children..." That word pity is the same idea of compassion. "...as a father pities his children, so the Lord pities those who fear him, for he knows our frame, he remembers that we are dust."

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He has compassion upon us even when it's things that we've done to put ourselves in the situation where now we're experiencing suffering and pain. And He remembers. He knows our frame and He remembers we're just dust. He remembers our condition. He knows about our sinful nature. And so He looks on us in the midst of our pain and difficulty. Even when it was brought upon ourselves, He has compassion upon us.

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His bowels yearn. There's this deep emotion as he's connected with us in the midst of the suffering that we go through. Now this is important for us to know because again, in the midst of those times, so often we begin to feel like or think that God is somehow far away. That he's disconnected. That he's not a part. That he's not aware. He's not paying attention. But understand, that has never, ever, ever been true. There's never been a time

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Where God's taken His eye off of you. Where He's not cared about you. Where He's not been paying attention to you. God is right there with great compassion. He feels it with you. And so as we look at this account here in chapter 7, we see Jesus has compassion upon this widow. And we're reminded this morning that Jesus has compassion upon you. Whatever you're going through. Whatever situation you're faced. Whatever agony you're experiencing. Whatever suffering you're

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an affliction that you have in your life. Jesus knows. He cares. And it affects him. His bowels yearn. He has this deep compassion for you. He doesn't take it lightly. He has compassion. Well, the second thing we find as we finish up our passage in verses 14 through 17 is that Jesus has power to raise the dead. Now, as we talk about this idea of Jesus having compassion,

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it probably raises up a question in your mind. It kind of begs the question, doesn't it? If Jesus has such great compassion, then why does he allow for bad things to happen? Why did he allow this woman to lose her son? If he's got such great compassion and his bowels yearn and he aches and he suffers along with us, why does he let these things go on? Why does he let them happen? Is it because he has no power?

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Because he's not able to do anything about it? Absolutely not. And we can tell by what happens next. Because Jesus has power to raise the dead. Look at verse 14 again. It says, Then he came and touched the open coffin. And those who carried him stood still. And he said, Young man, I say to you, arise. So he who was dead sat up and began to speak. And he presented him to his mother.

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So you got the scene in your head? The two crowds meet. One full of excitement, anticipation. The other one full of sorrow and weeping. They clash together. Jesus sees the widow. He has compassion upon her. He says, don't weep. And he goes and he touches the coffin. And the guys who are carrying it, they stop. Probably a hush over the crowd, I imagine. As Jesus is there touching the coffin, he looks to the young man.

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And he says, young man, I say to you, arise. And the amazing thing happens. He sits up. If I was one of the guys carrying the coffin, I probably would have dropped it at that point. You know, I'd sit up. But he sits up and he begins to speak. His life has returned to him. And Jesus, it says, presents him to his mother. Young man, I say to you, arise. Can you imagine how this widow is feeling now?

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I mean, just moments earlier, she's lost her son. They're on their way out to bury him. And now, here he is. We probably can't even begin to imagine what that was like. And so it makes sense. Now Jesus says, do not weep. Because he knows what he's about to do. Now for you and I, please understand. I'm not saying we should never weep.

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Jesus was able to say, do not weep, because he knew what he was about to do. But sorrow in and of itself is not wrong. It's not bad. It's healthy. It's necessity. There is sorrow. We shouldn't pretend like there's none and we shouldn't call other people and tell them, pretend like nothing's wrong. Stop weeping. Stop crying. No, there is real suffering. There is real agony. There is real sorrow.

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In this particular case, Jesus was able to say, do not weep because he knew what he was going to do in raising her son back from the dead. But we need to be careful not to be callous, not to beat ourselves up. Grief is normal. It's needed. We don't like it. We're uncomfortable with it. But it's a reality of life that we need to learn how to handle. And so there is an appropriate time to weep, to sorrow. Not...

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That we sorrow as those who have no hope, as Paul talks about in 1 Thessalonians chapter 4. We have a hope, but that doesn't mean we don't sorrow. So Jesus tells her not to weep because he raises her son from the dead. He presents her son back to her. And then the crowd responds in verse 16. It says, Then fear came upon all, and they glorified God, saying, A great prophet has risen up among us, and God has visited his people.

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And this report about him went throughout all Judea and all the surrounding region. So the crowds that have clashed together near the city gate now watch with amazement at what has happened. It says that fear came upon them and they glorified God. They are recognizing this is the hand of God. God is at work. He has done this great miracle.

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They recognize that it's the work of God because only God can raise the dead. Have you ever thought about that? How much power does it take to raise the dead? How much power does it take to bring life back to somebody? Well, it's not so much about strength or might. It's really about authority. As we discussed last week, the centurion who recognized that Jesus had authority over all, that he could just say the word and his servant would be healed.

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We see here that Jesus has authority over the physical realm as well as the spiritual realm because he is able to bring the spirit back into this young man's body. He has authority over all things, the seen, the unseen. He has all authority and all power. And so Jesus has power to raise the dead. What problem, what difficulty in your life requires more power than that?

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I mean, really, what's the biggest thing that could compare to raising the dead? In other words, if he can raise the dead, he can do anything else that he wants to. He has all authority and all power. But this should probably bring up another question in your mind. All right. So if Jesus has compassion and he has power, so in other words, he sees our situation, he has compassion upon us, and he's able to do something about it.

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it begs the question, why did bad things happen at all? If Jesus was compassionate, but he had no power, then he could see our situation. He could feel for us. He could have that deep sympathy and then say, I'm sorry, there's nothing I can do. If he had power without the compassion, then he could see the situation. He could see the suffering. He could see your agony and he could say, yeah, I see that. I don't really care though. So go talk to someone else. Here's a quarter. Call someone who cares.

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It doesn't work anymore, right? You need like 35 cents or 40 cents. But he has both. Compassion and power. So if that's the case, he sees our hurt, he feels our hurt, and he's able to do something about it, then why doesn't he? You ever ask that? It's okay to ask that. You ever wonder, why does he allow this pain? Why does he allow this suffering? Why does he allow these things to go on?

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This question in our hearts is not something that's new. It's something that's been around for a long time. In fact, in John chapter 11, we find people asking this very question. John chapter 11 records for us, you might remember, the account of Lazarus being raised from the dead. Similar situation, right? And there is, Lazarus has been in the tomb for four days. Jesus comes. He sees the sorrow. He sees the grief that the family is going through. In John 11, 35, it says, Jesus wept.

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And the people who are crowded around, the people who are there, they see Jesus weeping. They realize this is someone he loves. He's weeping over this. And it causes them to ask. John chapter 11 verse 37. Some of the crowd asks, could not this man who opened the eyes of the blind also have kept this man from dying? See, they're recognizing the power and compassion in Jesus. He has compassion. He's weeping.

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He has power. He opened the eyes of the blind. Couldn't he have stopped this from happening? Couldn't he have kept him from dying? It's a question that is common. It's a question we need to know how to deal with. We need to know how to grapple with this question. Because you'll face it and people around you will face it. If he has compassion and he has power, why do we suffer the way that we do? Well, two things I want you to consider.

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Whenever we grapple with this question, whenever we wrestle with it, two things. There's a lot of other things we could consider as well, but just to keep it simple for today, two things to consider. First thing is eternity. You need to take eternity into account whenever you're looking at a situation and wondering, why doesn't God do something? Why does He allow this? This life is temporary. As Paul said, everything that you see is temporary.

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The unseen things are eternal. And so this life that we have here on the earth is not all that there is to life. There is eternity which spans before us. And you cannot evaluate a situation without pulling eternity into perspective. Now that's a little bit difficult for us. God said in Isaiah chapter 55, His ways are not our ways. As high as the heavens are above the earth, that's how high His ways are above our ways.

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It's really difficult for our finite minds to comprehend and understand an infinite God, an infinite time, eternity. We don't have the whole picture. And so we need to remember as we are grappling with this question, eternity is real. We don't have the whole picture. So we are not really equipped and able to come to any real conclusions. I think about it this way, or I liken it to a surgeon.

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You know, what if Pastor Sisko came over here and he said to us, hey guys, there was this guy, he got his friends, he got his buddies, and they jumped me, they knocked me out, and then they sliced open my gut with a razor. And so we go, man, that's crazy, let's get him, right? And we mount up, right? No. We start asking questions, what do you mean, what happened? We find out the surgeon gave him anesthesia.

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The nurses, you know, the buddies attended to him. They sliced open the gut in order to remove the cancer that was killing him. And now the story has a whole different take, right? It's the same basic things, but it's a whole different perspective. Does a surgeon cause pain? Yes, absolutely. In fact, you go watch Cisco walk around a little bit and you'll see he's still recovering from the process of these surgeries and the pain.

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There is real pain that's involved. They're helping him. They're saving his life. But that doesn't mean that there's no pain. Does the surgeon use a knife to cut someone open? Absolutely, yes. And that, depending on the context, could be good or bad, being cut open with a knife, right? Depending on the context, it could be someone trying to take your life or it could be someone trying to save your life. And so your perspective on the account, your perspective on what happened really makes a huge difference.

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And so when you zoom out in order to put eternity into perspective, it changes the story. We realize, we recognize. If you zoom in and you only see the cross, you see that's terrible. That's awful. It's the worst thing I've ever heard. But then you zoom out to eternity and you see that Jesus gave himself. He volunteered. He said, I love them. I'll die for them. And then you see the result of him going to the cross is perfect.

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That you and I have the opportunity to spend eternity with him in heaven. Well, it changes the story. It changes the perspective. We see things differently. And so whenever you grapple with this question, understand you have to bring eternity into account. And understand we don't have the whole picture. We don't understand all the things that are involved in what we're going through, what we're experiencing, what we're seeing.

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Jesus endured torture and death for the joy that was set before him. Eternity with you. Jesus could have, when he walked this earth, he could have went around everywhere and just healed everybody. And they would have been fine for a little bit, but it would have only been a little while. This man that Jesus raised from the dead, he would later on die again. Because we're talking about this life. It's temporary. If Jesus were to say, okay...

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I'm getting rid of death. Nobody will die. But he only dealt with the temporary. Listen, eternity in a world of sin would be hell. Really, it would be hell. Because the devastation, the destruction, the effects of sin in this world are terrible. To have to live forever in this body. To have to live forever in a world affected by sin in this way.

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That would be terrible. Beyond terrible. That would be horrible. I can't think of a better word. Terrible, horrible. You get the point. It would be hell. We wonder, why does God allow people to die? Because eternity is better for those who know Christ. Eternity here in this life, it would be no good. Now the other thing that we need to take into account, not just eternity, but we also need to take into account free will.

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When you're grappling with this question, why does God allow suffering? Why does he allow me to go through these things? Why does he allow this person to hurt in this way? We need to take into account free will. Because here's the reality. You and I, we live in a world that's affected by sin. And as a result, there's pain, there's death, and there's tragedy. And those things are happening. Suffering takes place. Starvation takes place. Because of the effects of sin. And why is there sin?

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Well, it takes us back to the Garden of Eden with Adam and Eve. And God gave them a choice. He stacked the deck in favor of choosing God. He made it difficult. There's only one way to disobey, to partake of the tree of knowledge of good and evil. There's a million other trees you can have and enjoy and all you want. Help yourself. There's one tree. He gave them one choice.

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And they got to choose to walk with God and obey Him or to disobey Him. Of course, we know the choice that they made. And they chose to partake of that forbidden fruit. And the rest of humanity has experienced the consequences of that choice. The sinful nature that we have. We experience the effects of sin in this world. Now, God could have. He had the power to

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to force Adam and Eve to only do good. He is the creator after all. He didn't have to put the option there. He could have built the Garden of Eden without the tree of knowledge of good and evil. He could have established it, planted it, built it without any option to sin against God, to disobey God. He could have forced them, even though there was the option, to obey. But God created us with the intention

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Of a real relationship with us. And a real relationship cannot be forced. It can't be forced. You have to offer yourself freely to the Lord as He offers Himself freely to you. God has given us the power of free will. If He forced you to only do good and love Him, and He says, you will love Me and you will like it. That's not a real relationship. That's not love. He gave us free will.

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In order for God to have a loving relationship with each of us, He had to give us free will, the option to choose. And in the same way as He gave Adam and Eve the option to choose, He gives us the option to choose. He sent His only begotten Son. He died upon the cross for us that whoever believes in Him should have everlasting life. And He gives you the choice. Choose Christ or reject Christ.

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Choose forgiveness or reject it. Choose life or reject it. But the choice is ours. We have free will. As we live in this life, we'll experience in this world disasters. And disasters happen because of the sin condition of this world. And there's hurricanes and tornadoes and floods and it's devastating. And there's tragedies that go along with it. We'll experience diseases, serious life-threatening illnesses, and minor inconveniences. Because of the sin condition, we experience these things.

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There's also crime and corruption, violence, injustice. All of these things take place because of the sin condition and continual sinful choices. And we look around and we say, how terrible, how could God allow this? But what's the alternative? Forced devotion. And that's no kind of existence. There's no real relationship in that. And so as we grapple with this understanding, this question, why does God allow bad things? It's for the opportunity.

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For you and I to have relationship with him. He gave us free will. He gave us the choice. We get to choose. In just a few days we are celebrating Christmas. And as we do, I want to encourage you to consider Christ. The fact that Jesus was born. We call it the incarnation. The fact that Jesus being God became man. He was born of the Virgin Mary. It's the incarnation. The incarnation is the ultimate display of

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Of compassion and power. You see God saw our sinful condition. And the disasters. And the diseases. And all of the things that result from that. He had compassion. His bowels yearned. He sees our condition. Not just what we're suffering here. But then the eternity that awaits us. If we do not have forgiveness. And so he sees our condition. He has compassion. And so he sends his only begotten son. To walk this earth. To die upon the cross.

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He looked and saw our situation. He had compassion, but he also had the power to do something about it. And so we have this incredible, very difficult thing to understand of Jesus being God becoming man. He had the power to do something about it. And he did because he has compassion. You see, John 3.16 solves both the issue of eternity and free will.

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For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that whoever would believe in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. He gives us everlasting life. It brings eternity into view. And He gives us the power to choose life by believing in Jesus or rejecting Him. It's our choice. We get to choose.

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Paul tells us in Romans chapter 8 verse 28 that God works all things together for good to those who love him and are the called according to his purpose. And so here's what we can rest on. God is a God of compassion. Jesus does have compassion. He looks, he sees your situation. You're not lost in the crowd. He knows what you're going through. He knows your pains and your sorrows, your suffering. He knows it. He sees it. He doesn't just see it, but it affects him. He's connected to you. He feels it.

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He has compassion upon you. And he has the power to raise the dead. So not only does he see your situation, but he is able to take you out of it. And you say, well, why hasn't he then? Why doesn't he? I don't want to feel this way anymore. I don't want to go through this any longer. Why doesn't he take me out? Here's what you can rest on. He would take you out if that's what was best for you. I know it's hard for us to understand, but as you put eternity in the scope,

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And you realize, you recognize, He promised He would work all things together for good to those who love Him and are called according to His purpose. That's our part. You make sure you love God. Make sure you're walking with Him. And then He will make sure that all things work together for good. The worst things imaginable in your life, He will work them for good. That's difficult for us to comprehend because His ways are higher than our ways, as high as the heavens are above the earth. But it's a promise that we can hold on to.

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As we look at eternity, we can rest assured if it was best for us, He would take us out of it. If it's not what's best for us, He'll allow us to go through it. But not in some disconnected way where He's just like, go ahead, I'll watch from a distance. Like He told the Apostle Paul, my grace is sufficient for you. He says, I'll never leave you nor forsake you. One final thought as we close.

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I want to just throw out a word of caution. Many times as Christians, we look at situations and we know what God says. He works all things together for good. And so we look at something that we've going through or someone else is going through. And then we point to something in this life as the reason for those things. For example, you see someone who's going through great difficulty and tragedy. And then several months later, as a result of those things, they have a new car.

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And there's a little bit of a temptation, not just a temptation, but many times, we as Christians, we say, look, look, look what God did. He let you go through that so He could give you a new car. Now, I just want to make sure it's clear. God does bless us in this life and He does allow the things of this life to impact and bless us and pour out His love upon us. And He does. He provides. He meets those needs. But please understand, it would be cheap to say,

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You're suffering so greatly so God can give you a new car. There's much more depth. There's much more meaning. That's not the eternal picture. God's not allowing you to go through such tragedy and difficulty and hardship so that he can give you something that's temporary. It has eternal impact what you're going through. It has eternal value. Like Paul said, he said, look, the things that we're going through are storing up or building up for us in eternal weights of glory.

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And so make sure that you look at eternity and you keep eternity in perspective. Sure, God will bless you with stuff in this life too, according to His will and however He wants. That's up to Him. But that's not the reason why you had to endure such heartache. Understand, God has eternity in view. He has compassion upon you. He has the power to raise the dead. And when it's best for you, He will. But when it's best for you to endure eternity,

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Then He'll say, my grace is sufficient. And He'll carry you all the way along. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, as we finish up our time looking at Your Word this morning, I pray that You would continue, Lord, to speak to our hearts and comfort us and remind us that You're right here with us. Sometimes it may feel as though You're far away. And sometimes it may feel as if You don't care or You've got more important things going on. But Lord, You've never turned Your eye away from us.

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You've never lost focus of who we are or what we're going through. In fact, you know more about us than we know about ourselves. And you have great compassion upon us. Lord, of course, we're undeserving of your attention, of your care, of your love. But Lord, we're grateful for it. We thank you that you had compassion upon us and provided us a Savior. That you dealt with our sin condition so that we would not have to spend eternity in hell.

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That we could have the choice to love you and walk with you. And so God, I pray that you would help us. Understanding these things. Lord, that we would grasp hold of you. That we would rest fully and firmly upon your promises and your truth. That we would trust in you to work all things together for good. That we would not despair. But Lord, we would know that you are here with us. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.

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We pray you have been blessed by this Bible teaching. The power of God to change a life is found in the daily reading of His Word. Visit ferventword.com to find more teachings and Bible study resources.