Facing Death with Confidence
Notes
Transcript
Sermon Tone Analysis
A
D
F
J
S
Emotion
A
C
T
Language
O
C
E
A
E
Social
Funeral Service
(2 Timothy 4:6-8)
We are gathered here this afternoon to celebrate the life of John Lambert.
We also gather with the desire to comfort his family both by our words and by our presence.
And finally, we are here to hear what God has to say to us through his word about the realities of life, death and the eternal life possible through his son, Jesus Christ.
We are tempted to focus on the fact that John only lived __ years and that seems short. But how long you live is not as important as how you lived. And we are here to celebrate a life well lived!!!
When I came as pastor to Craft:
John’s joy was apparent in his smile and mannerisms.
I enjoyed every time we were able to talk
John’s love of his family was on full display
You are here today because you life has in some way been touched by the life of John. You are his family and his friends. The memories of how John touched your life are precious and will continue to live on in our hearts. Your presence here today is a testimony of how highly you thought of him.
I want to assure that John has gone to a better place, a place where there is no pain and sickness. A
bout this special place Jesus said, (John 14:1-3
“Let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God; believe also in me.
In my Father’s house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you?
And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also.
I believe with all of my heart that John is today enjoying all the benefits of that place, called Heaven. And I believe he would want me to tell you how you too can go there.
In our lives each of is in effect writing on the hearts of those we love what they will remember about us. As I reflected on what I wanted to share with you today, about the impact that John made in my life, some very clear images came to mind.
The first thing I think of when I think of John was his tremendous Courage. He has courageously fought the diseases that ravaged his body.
I think that we all realize today that it was best for John to leave behind this body of pain and suffering and find rest and peace in the presence of the Lord.
By his testimony, John was also a man of Enduring Faith.
This kind of quiet faith is captured for us in the words of the Apostle Paul. In his second letter to Timothy, and as he faces his own imminent death he wrote, (2 Tim. 4:6-8 )
For I am already being poured out as a drink offering, and the time of my departure has come.
I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith.
Henceforth there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, will award to me on that day, and not only to me but also to all who have loved his appearing.
Paul begins his thought by stating, “I am now ready.”
Someday each of us will face our final hour and nothing will be more important then than the ability to say, “I am ready.” I know that John was ready, but are you? If this were your final hour on earth do you know where you would spend eternity?
Paul further says that he was “ready… to depart.”
He uses a word that takes its meaning from the idea of a ship in the harbor and the time has come to cast off the lines and set sail for home.
If Paul were writing today he would probably use airplanes to illustrate his meaning. It is as if Paul was saying, “It’s time to catch my plane. My flight has been called and it’s time for me to board!” Paul says that death for the Christian is like a departure. We are cutting loose from this life and setting sail for the next.
The word “depart” also pictures the taking down of a tent. There is an interesting parallel here for the word of God describes this body of ours as a tent. I think that every one understands that tents were never intended to be permanent dwelling place. (2 Corinthians 5:1 KJ21)
For we know that if the tent that is our earthly home is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.
But how could Paul face his departure from this life with such confidence? I want to share with you some powerful reasons why he had this confidence in the face of his departure
1 First, he was able to face his departure from this life with confidence because he knew where he was headed.
Paul knew without a shadow of a doubt where he was headed in eternity Do you? Paul says in his letter to the 2 Corinthians 5:6,8)
So we are always of good courage. We know that while we are at home in the body we are away from the Lord,
Yes, we are of good courage, and we would rather be away from the body and at home with the Lord.
The Bible tells us that to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord. As with most things in life you can’t have it both ways. To be present with the Lord necessitates the giving up of this life.
Do you realize that the Bible says that you can know for sure where you are headed in eternity? In first 1 John 5:13 we read,
I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, that you may know that you have eternal life.
Death does not have to be a leap into the darkness of the great unknown. The Bible tells us that by placing our faith in the Lord Jesus Christ that we can be saved. In a scripture that almost everyone who has ever been to church has heard, John 3:16 we read, “
“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.
So if we place our faith and trust in Jesus Christ when the time of our departure comes we can face it with confidence knowing that we have been assured of a place in heaven.
2 Secondly, Paul is able to face his departure from this life with confidence because he knew he had successfully “finished his race” (v.7).
The Bible often uses the image of a footrace to describe the Christian life. But this footrace is not just a hundred yard dash it is a marathon.
You are probably familiar with how the Apostle Paul started his race; that is how he became a Christian. The story is told in Acts 9 how Paul was on his way to Damascus with the intention of persecuting the Christians there when he was struck down by a blinding light and heard the voice of Jesus speaking. Paul became a Christian because of that experience. But you do not have to experience a blind light to be saved. For most us our conversion, is a lot less dramatic.
In a footrace a good start is essential, if the start is off the race will go badly. But as important as good start is; even more important is a strong finish. Paul faced his own departure with confidence because he not only started well but he had finished his race.
3 Finally in verse eight Paul turns from reasons for his confidence in departure to tell us some things he anticipates about his arrival. Paul says, “I am ready to receive my reward.”
When we head off on a trip by plane; we make sure we get on the plane, we endure the flight and at that end of the flight there is the arrival. Often the reason for the excitement associated with the trip is not the trip itself but because of who is waiting for us there. The same thing is true for the Christian… we face departure from this life with excitement… not because the departure is exciting… but because of what is waiting for us there.
I don’t mind plane rides for the most part… although they are not always the most enjoyable things in the world. I am willing to endure all the inconveniences associated with flying; the lines at the airport, all those compartments designed to be slightly smaller than your smallest piece of luggage, and even those little seats all crammed together in the plane. I don’t mind the inconveniences because it gets me to my destination. When the time of our departure comes it may not be delightful, it may include a hospital or a nursing home and illness and even incapacitation, but the goal will be worth it all.
There is an old hymn that we sometimes sing that summarizes what I am trying to say, entitled “It Will Be Worth it All.”
“It will be worth it all; when we see Jesus,
Life’s trial will seem so small, when we see him.
One glimpse of his dear face, all sorrow will erase. So bravely run the race, till we see Christ.”
I believe that John is enjoying the rewards of heaven today. But I would be remiss if I did not tell you how you can join him there. It really is not complicated at all. As I have already said the Bible tells us in (John 3:16), that “whoever believes in Him will have eternal life.
Jesus farther attests that he is not one of many ways to heaven but the only way when he says, (John 14:6 NKJV).
Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.
Jesus explained all of these things to a woman named Martha when her brother Lazaras died. Jesus said unto her,
John 11:25 NKJV)
Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live,
Then He asked her the most crucial question of all, “Do you believe this.”
You see heaven is attained by believing in the sacrificial death of Jesus on the cross as a penalty for your sin and the acceptance of that sacrifice by repentance and faith.
Have you ever accepted personally what Jesus did on the cross?
Why not turn to God in repentance today and ask him to forgive and save you.
There is nothing I know of that could honor John more.
We now eagerly await our reunion with our brother John. Take comfort in these words:
I tell you this, brothers: flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable.
Behold! I tell you a mystery. We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed,
in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we shall be changed.
For this perishable body must put on the imperishable, and this mortal body must put on immortality.
When the perishable puts on the imperishable, and the mortal puts on immortality, then shall come to pass the saying that is written: “Death is swallowed up in victory.”
“O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?”
The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law.
But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.
Therefore, my beloved brothers, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain.