{"id":11359,"date":"2020-09-06T20:00:28","date_gmt":"2020-09-07T03:00:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/luke_7_1-10-copy\/"},"modified":"2020-09-07T00:07:26","modified_gmt":"2020-09-07T07:07:26","slug":"luke_7_11-23","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/luke_7_11-23\/","title":{"rendered":"Jesus > Death (Also, How to Handle Your Doubts)"},"content":{"rendered":"

Luke 7:11-23\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0Click here for Bible Verses<\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Hi GAMErs,<\/p>\n

Today\u2019s passage is Luke 7:11-23.\u00a0 Let\u2019s go!<\/p>\n

Luke 7:11-16 (NIV)\u00a0<\/strong>
\n11\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0Soon afterward, Jesus went to a town called Nain, and his disciples and a large crowd went along with him.
\n12\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0As he approached the town gate, a dead person was being carried out–the only son of his mother, and she was a widow. And a large crowd from the town was with her.
\n13\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0When the Lord saw her, his heart went out to her and he said, “Don’t cry.”
\n14\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0Then he went up and touched the coffin, and those carrying it stood still. He said, “Young man, I say to you, get up!”
\n15\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0The dead man sat up and began to talk, and Jesus gave him back to his mother.
\n16\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0They were all filled with awe and praised God. “A great prophet has appeared among us,” they said. “God has come to help his people.”<\/em><\/p>\n

On verses 11-16:\u00a0 So far in Luke\u2019s gospel we have seen Jesus\u2019 supremacy over evil spirits, over sickness, over nature, and over the Sabbath.\u00a0 Now here we see Jesus\u2019 supremacy over death.<\/p>\n

Here we have a tale of two crowds.\u00a0 One crowd is led by Jesus.\u00a0 The other crowd is led by death, at least figuratively speaking.\u00a0 When these two crowds meet, team Jesus swallows up team death, as Jesus raises back to life the dead and only son of the grieving widow.\u00a0 The crowd that was led by death is now in awe of someone who has shown himself greater than death.<\/p>\n

This miracle of Jesus raising the dead and only son of a grieving widow also points us forward to what would happen later as Jesus Himself, God\u2019s only Son, would die and rise again.\u00a0 In Jesus we have a Saviour who is greater than death.<\/p>\n

Luke 7:17-23 (NIV)<\/strong>
\n17\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0This news about Jesus spread throughout Judea and the surrounding country.
\n18\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0John’s disciples told him about all these things. Calling two of them,
\n19\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0he sent them to the Lord to ask, “Are you the one who was to come, or should we expect someone else?”
\n20\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0When the men came to Jesus, they said, “John the Baptist sent us to you to ask, ‘Are you the one who was to come, or should we expect someone else?'”
\n21\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0At that very time Jesus cured many who had diseases, sicknesses and evil spirits, and gave sight to many who were blind.
\n22\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0So he replied to the messengers, “Go back and report to John what you have seen and heard: The blind receive sight, the lame walk, those who have leprosy are cured, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the good news is preached to the poor.
\n23\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0Blessed is the man who does not fall away on account of me.”\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

On verses 17-23:\u00a0 About John the Baptist Jesus would say, \u201camong those born of women there is no one greater than John\u201d (Luke 7:28).\u00a0 In other words, in Jesus\u2019 estimation, there was never a man greater than John the Baptist.\u00a0 And yet notice that even John the Baptist experienced a season of doubt and had to get reassurance from Jesus.<\/p>\n

Keep in mind that John the Baptist had been Jesus\u2019 greatest champion and proponent.\u00a0 Now, however, John is in prison for preaching against King Herod\u2019s incestuous relationship with Herodias, and John begins to doubt whether Jesus is the Messiah.<\/p>\n

Notice how Jesus responds to John\u2019s doubt.\u00a0 Jesus does not condemn John.\u00a0 Rather, Jesus points John to the facts:\u00a0 \u201cThe blind receive sight, the lame walk, those who have leprosy are cured, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the good news is preached to the poor.\u201d (v22)\u00a0 Then Jesus encourages John, saying, \u201cBlessed is the man who does not fall away on account of me.\u201d (v23)
\nWhat can we learn from this?\u00a0 At one point or another, all of us, even the best of us, may go through a period of doubting our faith.\u00a0 From personal experience I\u2019ve learned that what you do in those times is crucial.\u00a0 Don\u2019t just pridefully or impetuously abandon your faith.\u00a0 Instead,\u00a0if ever you go through a period of doubting what you believe, here are two things you can do:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Go back to the facts.<\/strong>\u00a0 Notice that when Jesus heard that John was doubting, Jesus pointed John to the facts (v22).\u00a0 Similarly, instead of just relying on how you feel, focus on the facts.\u00a0 When you\u2019re unsure about a lot of things, go back to the few things you can be very sure about and use that as your starting point.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n
      \n
    1. Humbly bring your questions to Jesus.<\/strong>\u00a0 Often when we wrestle with doubt, it\u2019s not that faith is completely gone; rather, our faith may be shaken in certain areas.\u00a0 With the measure of faith that you have, bring your questions to Jesus, just like John did.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

      When you deal with your doubts humbly and proactively, I believe God will use your season of doubt to build a stronger faith in you for the long-term.<\/p>\n

      Lord Jesus, I\u2019m so glad I get to follow the only One who is greater than death.\u00a0 And thank You that when I go through doubts You gently lead me back to Yourself.\u00a0 In Jesus\u2019 name, AMEN!<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div><\/section><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

      Hi GAMErs,<\/p>\n

      Today\u2019s passage is Luke 7:11-23.\u00a0 Let\u2019s go!<\/p>\n

      Luke 7:11-16 (NIV)\u00a0
      \n11\u00a0\u00a0Soon afterward, Jesus went to a town called Nain, and his disciples and a large crowd went along with him.
      \n12\u00a0\u00a0As he approached the town gate, a dead person was being carried out–the only son of his mother, and she was a widow. And a large crowd from the town was with her.
      \n13\u00a0\u00a0When the Lord saw her, his heart went out to her and he said, “Don’t cry.”
      \n14\u00a0\u00a0Then he went up and touched the coffin, and those carrying it stood still. He said, “Young man, I say to you, get up!”
      \n15\u00a0\u00a0The dead man sat up and began to talk, and Jesus gave him back to his mother.
      \n16\u00a0\u00a0They were all filled with awe and praised God. “A great prophet has appeared among us,” they said. “God has come to help his people.”<\/p>\n

      On verses 11-16:\u00a0 So far in Luke\u2019s gospel we have seen Jesus\u2019 supremacy over evil spirits, over sickness, over nature, and over the Sabbath.\u00a0 Now here we see Jesus\u2019 supremacy over death.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":11361,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11359","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-gametime-sharing"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11359","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11359"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11359\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11360,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11359\/revisions\/11360"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11361"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11359"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11359"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11359"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}