In the sermon 'Should We Pray to Raise the Dead?' by Peter Allison, the biblical account of Jesus raising the widow's son in Nain is examined. The speaker highlights the rarity of resurrection events in the Bible, noting only a few occurrences across the Old and New Testaments. The sermon discusses Jesus' compassion as a key motivation for the miracle, emphasizing that it served as a sign to authenticate Jesus as the Messiah. The speaker argues that these miracles were not intended as normative examples for ongoing practice but as unique signs of divine authority. The sermon also explores the concept of 'greater works' as mentioned by Jesus, interpreted as the transformative power of the gospel that brings spiritual life to those dead in sin. While acknowledging that God can raise the dead, the sermon suggests that such actions are not common and should not be the primary focus of prayer. Instead, the emphasis is placed on the spiritual resurrection that occurs through faith in Jesus Christ.

Please turn with me in your copy of God's Word to Luke chapter 7. I would like to begin reading at verse 11. 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. 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! And so he who was dead sat up and began to speak, and he presented him to his mother. Then fear came upon all, and they glorified God, saying, A great prophet has risen up among us, and God has visited his people.

And this report about him went throughout all Judea and all the surrounding region. The Word of God is very pure. May we, His servants, Love it. Almighty Heavenly Father, your word does endure forever, and it is true. Despite all of the words of men, We ask, Lord, for faith this morning to believe Your Word.

I ask that You would sanctify these lips to proclaim the truth. I ask that you would open our hearts to receive it with meekness as the Word of God. In Jesus' name, amen. There are really very few examples in the Bible of people being raised from the dead. Very few.

There were three in the whole Old Testament. Three recorded examples. One of which had nothing to do with any living prophet It was when some people cast a dead person they were burying in a hurry they cast him on a grave that any in Elisha's grave and He came to life The two other times one one was by Elisha and one was by Elijah, raising children. And Then there were three in the New Testament that Jesus did and two that the apostles did. That's about seven, I think.

My count is right. Jesus raised Lazarus and he raised the daughter of Jairus, which we'll see in a couple of chapters. And then this widow's son, This widow of Nain's son, the very first mention of Jesus explicitly raising somebody from the dead. The other two that the apostles did, one was Peter raised Dorcas, a woman who was known for her deeds, and Paul raised the euticus, the young man who fell asleep because Paul was preaching until midnight, and it had been a long day. He was preaching all day.

It was a true all-day conference. Went on, he preached a long time. Longer than I planned to preach this morning. This, though, this is a very then infrequent event that happens, that's recorded in the scriptures. Very infrequent.

We need to remember that as we go through this. And as we ask ourselves the purpose, right? Everything that Jesus did was done for a purpose. And so as we go through this account, be asking yourself, what was the purpose that Jesus did this? Because there was no faith that was on display here.

We've just seen last week, and this event is saying that it happened the day after, the very next day, after Jesus healed the centurion's servant and marveled at the faith of the centurion. Said he hadn't found such great faith in all of Israel as the centurion had exercised. In the very next day, this miracle occurs as Jesus went to a city called Nain, a little city a few miles south of Nazareth, maybe 20, 25 miles south of Capernaum, where Jesus did many of his miracles. But he's gone to this city and as he comes up to the gate of this city there is a crowd coming out of the city in a funeral procession. It's a you might say it's a coincidence I think that's a Biblical word the Bible even talks about chance things happening by chance as long as we remember That the that the lot the outcome of the lot is in the hand of God And so these events that we can rightly call because the Bible calls them that we can rightly say they are chance events Meaning we didn't plan them.

We didn't purpose them. We didn't try to do them They happened in God's providence, according to God's plan, by His decree. Jesus meets this procession coming out of name. And Jesus is moved with compassion. That's one of the things that we see common to all of these raisings from the dead.

They all Jesus is moved with compassion for a widow who has lost her only son. That's a very difficult position to be in. A widow who has lost her only son. A widow doesn't have a husband. There is nobody to provide for her.

There is nobody who is looking out for her security. There is no man who is laboring for her, to provide for her, caring for her. And so that duty then would fall to a son to care for a widowed mother. And now this son, her only son, has died. That means She has nobody on earth who has any natural affection for her or duty to care for her.

She is completely destitute. That's something that we see as a common theme in these. Elijah raised the son of the widow of Zarephath, the one that he had gone to stay with during the drought. Elisha raised the son of the Shumanite woman. She was a wealthy woman, but this also was her only son, and it was a special son that Elisha had prayed for, for her to have a son.

And so when God took that son away, that was a, this was a son that Elisha specifically had prayed to God for her. The daughter of Jairus was restored to Jairus. Lazarus was raised up and restored to his sisters. They apparently, we don't read of them having husband, so Lazarus was probably their provider. So we see that in all these cases, Eudicus was a young man.

When somebody is raised, it is to restore a family, to restore a provider in a family, but to restore the family relationship that was prematurely taken. Now, there are many, many such situations where God doesn't raise people from the dead. But where it did happen, we see particularly the restoration is to restore families. And so Jesus has compassion on this widow of name. Compassion for widows is something that God's word specifically commands.

Any oppression of people, and oppression is to make it hard for people to follow God's precepts. That's oppression. Any oppression of anyone, any abuse, misuse of authority, That's what abuse is, misuse of authority. Any misuse of authority is wrong. But God is especially angry at any oppression or misuse of authority with respect to widows.

And God says that his anger is especially hot to anybody that would dare to oppress a widow. So Jesus here has compassion on this widow who has lost her only son, her only means of earthly provision. Jesus brings her a word of comfort. He brings her a word of comfort. He says, do not weep.

Jesus' words bring comfort. God is the God of comfort. And through His promises, He brings us comfort with what He promises to do for us, what He promises to do in us, what He promises to do through us, what He promises to do in His Kingdom and in this world. He brings to us comfort. We can take comfort in his words and in his promises As to what he's going to do And so he says to this This widow he says to her do not weep Do not weep And when God tells us that we don't need to weep, then we can take comfort in that.

And we don't need to weep. Do not weep. Then he came up and he touched the open coffin. And those who were carrying this coffin stopped. Because Jesus is somebody who spoke with authority, not like the scribes and Pharisees.

He spoke with authority, he spoke with wisdom, and so he simply came up and touched this open coffin and the men that were carrying it stood still. They stopped. And then Jesus turned to this dead body lifeless body doesn't say whether there was any embalming or any of that being poor that may not have been something she could have afforded, but he was dead. There was no life in him. Jesus turned to him and said, young man, I say to you, arise.

And this is what is unique about all of the people that Jesus raised from the dead. In each and every case, He simply spoke to them. He spoke directly to dead people and they heard his voice and they responded. They got up. This young man arose.

Just like when God spoke to Lazarus, Lazarus come forth. Lazarus came forth even though he was bound in the grave clothes and the wrappings that had been put on him, Lazarus came forth out of the grave. You think, well how could he do that? Well how could a dead man hear? This man heard and got up.

In all the other cases where the prophets like Elijah and Elisha or the apostles Peter and Paul, where they raised people from the dead, It wasn't by directly speaking to them. It was because they prayed, because they pleaded with God, because they did other things like laying out their body on the lifeless body and praying for God to raise the dead. Now, Peter did speak to Dorcas, but it was only after he had specifically prayed that God would raise this woman. Jesus doesn't do any of that. He simply speaks to the dead and they hear and they arise and they have life in them.

That's a very good example of a good analogy of what happens in salvation. We are dead. We are dead people. We are dead in our trespasses and sins. We are dead and All men are dead in their sins.

God told Adam in the day that you Sin in the day that you eat this you will die and we we are dead We are without life. We are without ability to hear and to understand or respond and When Jesus calls us when he saves us it is his voice that brings the dead to life. That raises the dead. And so he raises up this young man and then he who was dead gets up and begins to speak. There's no trickery going on here.

This man begins to talk of his own accord. His mind is functioning, is fully restored. And then Jesus presents this young man to his mother. Jesus restores this family and this relationship because he had compassion on her. We don't know, I don't know if this is a saving love.

Some people would say that because it is God loving, that it is therefore a saving. I don't know that we can say that. There is no mention here, it could be, I certainly don't rule that out, but I don't know that we can confidently say that because there is no mention here of any faith on anybody's part. You know many many times when Jesus heals he did so because their faith. He said go your faith has made you well now It's not their faith it is the object of their faith that has healed them But it is through their faith that that power has come to their life But There's nothing here that says anything about anyone's faith.

He didn't see the faith of the dead person. He didn't see the faith of this widow. He didn't see any faith in any of the crowd. So this may not have been a saving love, but it is a love. It is a love.

God has saved us because he loved us. For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son. There are different types of love. There are different qualities of love. Even in humanly speaking, we're called to love our wives, we're called to love our enemies, we're called to love our brothers and sisters in the Lord, we are called to love our children, and so on.

But Nobody would argue that the love that a husband and wife have is the same as the love of an enemy, although they are both called love. There are differences. So Jesus has compassion on this woman, but I don't know that we can definitely say that it was a saving love, but it was a love and it did restore a family. Jesus restores families. Jesus restores families.

You know, In the covenant of grace, God promises to be God to us and to be God to our children. God does in that sense restore families and preserve families. He promises that even as He has saved us, so he will save our children as they call upon him. That's what Peter proclaimed. The promise is to you.

These are people who are saying, what must we do? They were cut to the quick in the sermon at Pentecost. What must we do? And Jesus said that the promise is to them and to their children and to all those who are far off, even as many as the Lord our God will call. Jesus restores families.

And in many of the raisings from the dead, It was to restore a family. It was to restore a young child or a son of a widow to a mother or to their family. Now this secondly is a real event. Everyone acknowledged this. Fear came upon all and they glorified God.

Fear came upon all. People realized this was not a gimmick. This was not a trick. There are people today that claim to raise the dead or claim to have seen the dead come to life. But it doesn't have the same effect because there is not the same thing going on.

There are people that claim to heal I was listening to one person give an account of the how this how these people were healed You know and they're all getting up out of their wheelchairs Well, there are many ways that people can get up out of their wheelchairs. There are many illnesses that are mental and and where people believe that they are sick. And what I found interesting in this account is this lady was talking about all this healing service. She said they were going along healing and these people, she said, were getting out of their wheelchairs. And then she said, and there were 20 more people to go and they all got out of their wheelchair and came running before they'd even gotten healed and I thought well maybe they what were they what were they in there for maybe it was a mental thing with them a psychosomatic type of an illness Because they were able to jump out of their wheelchairs even though they hadn't been healed.

So there's a lot of gimmicks, a lot of fraud that often goes on in this area. But here was a case where everybody that saw it recognized. This was no gimmick. This was no fraud. This was no trick.

This wasn't somebody who had just passed out. This wasn't somebody who mistakenly was dead. You know, those kind of things happen. People can be thought to be dead. People can, you can miss things, but they're not.

But in this case, there was no question in anybody's mind. And so great fear came upon all of them and they acknowledged that this was the work of God. A great prophet has risen among us and God has visited his people. Visited his people. God visits his people in blessing.

God visited Hannah, and she had Samuel, and God visited Sarah, and she had Isaac. God specifically visited these women when he brought their children Joseph said that God would visit the children of Israel when he delivered them that and God when Moses came that's what the Bible says God visited his people and To deliver them from the land of Egypt It means that God is coming in his with blessing. It means that he is coming To bring his make his power knowing to exercise his power for us But it also is used to refer to God coming in judgment. God can visit his people in judgment. The Lord is long-suffering and abundant in mercy, forgiving iniquity and transgression, but he no means clears the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and fourth generation." Visiting the iniquity, meaning coming in judgment.

But he can also come, he can also visit in blessing. Ruth says the Lord has visited his people by giving them bread. He visits the earth and he waters it. Or in Luke when Jesus' birth was proclaimed, it is blessed is the Lord God of Israel for he has visited and redeemed his people. And so these people recognize that this was a visitation of God in great blessing in raising this son.

And they glorified God because only God, only God can raise the dead and they recognize that. Even though there was no faith specifically present here, people recognized This was an act of God. You could say it doesn't take faith, saving faith, to recognize an act of God. The demons can recognize God and they recognize his work, but there's no saving faith there. So these people, whether there was saving faith or not, they recognized that this was God visiting his people.

And they acknowledged it. Now, then Why did Jesus do this? I would submit to you that this was a sign. This was a sign. Signs serve to authenticate the messenger and the message.

Signs serve to authenticate the message that is brought and also the messenger. When God gives His messenger signs, it is to authenticate them as His messenger. Just like he gave the signs to Moses when Moses came bringing the Word of God. Just like he gave signs and wonders to the apostles, because they were bringing the Word of God, they were bringing new revelation, and those signs served to authenticate. That is one aspect then of why Jesus did this.

This was a sign to authenticate him as the Messiah. In fact in the very next section that Luke writes here, John the Baptist sends two of his servants to ask Jesus, are you the coming one? Are you the Messiah that is promised or do we look for another and what was Jesus answer We'll see that we'll look at it Lord willing next week, but just a just a precursor Jesus recounts he tells the disciples you go Tell John the things that you see and hear. The lame are walking, the blind are seeing, the deaf are hearing, the dead are being raised to life. The poor are having the gospel.

What did he do? Jesus listed out the signs that would authenticate the coming of the Messiah. Signs that were prophesied in Isaiah in the Old Testament. Signs by which the people of that generation will be able to recognize and know the Messiah when he came. And those are the signs and these are the things that Jesus told the disciples of John, you go tell John, this is what you're seeing.

And John will be able to then know, or you will be able to know if John was sending them for their own benefit. Peter in that same sermon we referred to just a moment ago at Pentecost said, Men of Israel, hear these words. Jesus of Nazareth, a man, remember he was a man, he had a flesh and blood like us, he grew up in Nazareth as a son of a carpenter, and when the other people of the city saw him doing these things they said, well this is just an ordinary carpenter, Because Jesus was a man, a man attested by God to you, how? By miracles, wonders and signs which God did through him in your midst as you yourselves know. Peter said Jesus is the Messiah, He was a man who was attested to by God through these miracles.

And so this was something that Jesus did as a sign to authenticate him as the Messiah. He did this without being asked. Nobody asked him to heal. Nobody came to him and said, will you raise my son? Or, you know, This is a widow.

Nobody in the city came to him and said, have mercy on this person. None of that is recorded. Jesus did it on his own initiative. He did it without being asked. He did it as a sign, authenticating himself as the Messiah.

Now a sign is not that which it signifies. A sign is not that which it signifies. Baptism is a sign of the work of the Holy Spirit in regeneration, but it's not the stat which it signifies. It is not itself the work of regeneration. The application of water is not the regeneration of which the water signifies.

And so this sign then is not the sign of Christ, of Jesus being the Christ, is not the resurrection. Jesus has come to defeat death and the grave could not hold him because he had defeated death. But this is not that resurrection. Because think about this. This young man that was raised, just like all the other people that were raised, died again.

This young man would have lived, come back to life and lived and then at his appointed time died. The resurrection unto life is eternal. It's eternal. The dead are raised. Those that are in Christ are raised to everlasting life, meaning fellowship with God.

Those that are outside of Christ are raised to everlasting death. They're eternally cut off from God. That's that resurrection, that's the actual resurrection that Christ has accomplished. But this is just a sign of that. These people will die again.

This was not an eternal resurrection. It is appointed unto men once to die and then after that the judgment. Now the question is, should we pray to raise the dead? Should this be something we do? I mean Jesus called his disciples in Matthew 10, he sent them out with the command that they were to raise the dead.

He sent them out two by two, go to the lost sheep of the house of Israel and as you go preach saying the kingdom of heaven is at hand, heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, raise the dead, cast out demons, freely you have received, freely give." Well, I would note that that phrase, raise the dead, is not in the majority text. And I think that is the text that God has preserved. And so that text, that statement is not in there. It's not in the majority text. However, even if it was, should we raise the dead?

Just assume for the moment that it is in the Bible that God has preserved. Should we pray to raise the dead? Jesus said in John, most assuredly, I say to you, he who believes in me, the works that I do, He will also do. And greater works than these He will do because I go to My Father." Greater works. Jesus said, we're going to do the works that He did and even greater works.

So Should we pray to raise the dead? Well I think in answering that question we need to remember what this was for. This was a sign authenticating the messenger. It was a sign authenticating that Christ was the Messiah. That was the purpose that it was done.

Does God ever raise people? Could he raise people? Certainly he could. Certainly he has the The power to do that. There is a story of a young missionary who told a leader of a ministry, let's call him Mr.

Timothy, Mr. Tim. This young missionary told Tim about his, about an experience that he had in this area. He had a next-door neighbor who lost a baby and his wife went over and tried to console the mother and then he went over and the family is there in the room in great sorrow over the this dead baby the mother is weeping over her dead baby and he and he felt great compassion for for this mother and this family that had lost a little one. He felt that God was calling him to pray to raise the dead.

In that confidence that he felt God was calling him to pray, he told the mother there is power in the name of Jesus. And with everyone looking on, he knelt down, as this young missionary told this story to Mr. Tim a few years ago, he knelt down and prayed that God would raise this child from the dead in the name of Jesus. And this is what he says, you know what happened? Nothing.

Absolutely nothing. He writes, I was left with only being able to say that no one understands the mind of God or His will. Truly empty words in my mouth and heart, not to mention the mothers. So here is where I am. I, this is the missionary speaking, this young missionary who told this story, wrote this to Mr.

Tim, said, I am left with doubts, fears and even anger. I prayed, I trusted, I put my neck out. What's more, I put Jesus' name out there and He didn't show up. Yes, I've heard from others and even from my own Western theological mind to remember all the reasons why God doesn't answer our prayers. It wasn't His timing.

It wasn't His will. Or he has something better in store. But all I hear is the scream of my heart asking, why didn't you hear me? You said you would, where are you? Are you even there?

The baby is dead. The mother is still lost in hopelessness and despair. And now I look like a fool, and the name of Jesus is a joke. Is the problem that I don't believe God can do these sorts of things? No, I think I still believe that.

Do I believe God isn't real or as Nietzsche said that he's dead? No if I'm honest, I don't think that. The real issue is I wonder why God didn't do what he said he would. I think I'm mad at him and not about him. This email is raw.

I don't usually write things like this. After all, there are unwritten rules in our faith. But my faith has been rocked to the core, and I know regardless of where I end up, I will never be the same. So I ask you to pray. Pray for me?

Sure. But I'm not even sure how to ask you to pray. Please pray more for this mother and baby. These people are dying, literally and spiritually. They need to know just like my heart needs to know now.

It's just my biggest fear is that the answer will never come, where is Jesus when you need him." Well, that's a Difficult problem, difficult scenario. What could we say about this? What could we say to such a person, such a missionary, whose faith, as he says, has been rocked to the core because He prayed for God to raise the dead and it didn't happen. Well Jesus prayed. Here is why I would say we might, or wouldn't completely rule out ever praying this prayer.

Because Jesus prayed in the garden for the cup to pass from Him. When He had been teaching that he came to earth to die. Yet he prayed if it was possible, if there was some way, the Lord would take that cup. And that was Jesus' prayer. Now God did not take that cup from him.

He went through the cross. But God did raise him from the dead. And so if we pray, not our will but your will, I don't think it would be wrong, but I don't also have to say I don't think it is often wise because it is clear that these raisings of the dead were signs. They were signs who were given to authenticate the message. But also think of this.

What is the will of God? The will of God, the scripture says, for us is our sanctification. It's our growing in grace and knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ. And What about somebody who dies in the Lord? What happens when they die?

The Bible teaches us that our soul is made perfect in holiness and does immediately pass into glory. Jesus said to the thief on the cross, today, today you will be with me in paradise. Our soul is made perfectly blessed or It is made perfect in holiness. It's not perfectly blessed until the resurrection, but it is made perfect in holiness. We do pass into glory.

Our soul goes into heaven. We are in the presence of Jesus. Even though our salvation is not yet complete because our spirit is not yet joined to our body, yet we are in the presence of God. And there is a great blessedness in it. We have crossed through, as John Bunyan so poignantly Describes in his allegory pilgrims progress we have crossed over that river We have gone through the valley of the shadow of death and that is if you remember his allegory that is a battle that is our last battle and It's And even those who are in Christ, still it is a battle as we lay down this body of sin.

And so people who have died in the Lord have gone through that battle. And they are now in heaven with Jesus. And why would we want to bring them back to earth where they can have 10 more years or 20 more years or 30 more years of a broken body and pain and suffering and sin, is that really a blessing? Given the very, very, very few times that we ever see this happening in the scriptures, given that this was not the resurrection of the dead. These people died again.

They weren't raised into glory. Christ's resurrection was a resurrection under glory. After he was raised, he had a glorified body. He passed through walls. Ordinary humans like us don't do that.

So Jesus' resurrection was a resurrection under glory, but these raisings of the dead were not. They were not. They were signs. To be... So what do we then do with Jesus saying that you will do greater works than what I've done.

Well, what is God doing today through his messengers? Isn't he raising the dead? For you were dead in your trespasses and sins and you heard the voice of God through the preaching of God's messengers and you and I have been raised from death into life. In Christ we are new creatures. He's made us alive.

He's given to us a new heart. He subdued our rebel will. You know how hard it is to change somebody's thinking? You can persuade them against their will, you know as the saying goes, a man persuaded against his will is of the same opinion still. We can't change hearts and minds.

It's impossible. But God does. We can't raise the dead. We can't bring life to a person who is dead in their trespasses and sins, but God does. And he does it through the preaching of his word by men, by ordinary men, through his servants, by others, by women as they also bring the Word of God to people.

You see what Jesus did at Nain is not as great as what he does today in bringing the dead to life by those whose feet are shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace. Is there anyone in history who can command the wind and the waves to be still? Is there anyone in history who can just walk up and speak to the dead and say, Arise? I don't think so. If you're just looking at it in terms of those outward signs, I don't think anybody can even come close to what Jesus did.

But when we look at what God does in saving even one sinner, the dead are being brought to life through the Word of God as it comes to us through His messengers. And these are people that are being raised to everlasting life not just 10 years not just another finishing out there 70 years or 80 years or 90 years but for all eternity these are These are people who are coming to life through the preaching of the word. And that, brothers and sisters, is a greater work than what Jesus did at Nain. Almighty Heavenly Father, we thank you for your power that we see through the gospel as you bring the dead to life, As you quicken minds that are deaf, unable to hear, hearts that are in rebellion against you, wills that are set against all that you call good, You change all of that by your power. And it is a marvelous work in our eyes.

Lord, give to us a zeal for your kingdom, a burden for those who are lost. Give to us our feet that are shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace. Grant to us the sword of the Spirit to use with effect. May your Word be hidden in our heart, not only that we might not sin against you, but that we may be able to wield your word against unbelief, against dead people. For your word is living and active and powerful.

And also grant to us the shield of faith. We take the shield of faith that we may be able to quench the fiery darts of the evil one. The helmet of salvation that we put on this morning. And the breastplate of righteousness, your righteousness, by which we are righteous in your sight. Father, we ask all of these mighty things in your name.

Amen.