Funeral Semon for Polly Braddy

Death as a gracious reminder.

Many today say that death is simply an unfortunate, but natural part of living. We mustn’t adopt that sort of thinking. Death isn’t natural at all; it is supernatural. Contrary to what is often believed today, death did not always exist.

Death is an intruder. It relentlessly pursues humanity with a NEAR PERFECT success rate. None of us can escape it, and funerals are a vivid reminder to us of this sobering reality.

However, while funerals are a dark and undesirable aspect of our lives, they can be a great blessing and benefit to those of us who are alive and remain. They are, for many of us, one of the few things that Jolt us out of our busy routines and cause us to re-examine our lives and our own mortality and eternal destiny. They cause us to have important questions like:

-Who are we?

-Why are we here?

-What’s Wrong? (More than anything, death makes us painfully aware that things are broken)

-How do We Fix It?

We have answers

The Bible speaks clearly to these questions. The passage we read at the beginning of the service summarizes them all. When God created the world it was good. There was no sorrow, or pain, or suffering, or sadness. He created the world to be a reflection of his goodness and glory. He made man to bear his own image and rule over all that he had created. He gave every good thing to our first parents (Adam and Eve). He made a particularly wonderful dwelling place for them and placed them in it. They were told to work and keep it. They were the stewards of God’s good creation. In the middle of this garden paradise God planted two trees. These trees represent so much, even today.

The Fall

One of the trees was the Tree of Life, from which they could partake freely. The other was called the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. The Tree of Life ultimately represented Christ, who gives eternal life to those who trust in him. The other tree represents (in essence) human autonomy. Self-Government. Doing things our own way, and choosing to figure things out for ourselves, rather than trusting what God has revealed about life to be true.

Satan tempted Eve to partake of this forbidden fruit, by questioning the integrity of God’s Word and promising her equality with God himself. She ate from the tree and gave some to Adam and he ate. Adam had been given the responsibility to guard the garden. He failed. Adam had been given the duty to govern and subdue all of creation for the glory of God. He failed, and his failure had catastrophic consequences: Death. Adam and Eve fell under the Judgment of God. They were cursed, and all that was under Adam’s dominion suffered under that curse. The entire creation groans to this day because of Adam’s transgression, and because of ours.

Remember the text from Romans 5 that we read that: Romans 5:12

. . . sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned—

You see it’s not as though we are merely victims of Adam’s transgression, we all ourselves have, and continually do, transgress the Law of God and choose autonomy and self-satisfaction over His glory.

The Bible tells us that the “WAGES of sin is DEATH” (Romans 6:23a). Now wages are what are owed to someone; what they deserve because of their actions. In the same book Paul says that, “. . . all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Rom 3:23).

In our society today, we have come to believe that we are basically good people that sometimes do bad things. The scriptures do not agree with this. They say that:

“None is righteous, no, not one; no one understands; no one seeks for God. All have turned aside; together they have become worthless; no one does good, not even one.” (Ro 3:10-12)

The Problem of God’s Goodness:

This brings us to our greatest problem of all: The goodness of God. When we think of God’s goodness we tend to think of his mercy, his patience, his forgiveness, his loving kindness, and so forth. All of these are absolutely an accurate expression of his goodness. But there is much more to who God is than just these attributes. When God revealed himself to Moses on Mount Sanai, (when he told Moses who he was) he said,

“The Lord, the Lord, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, 7 keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, but who will by no means clear the guilty” (Ex 34:6-7)

This creates a problem for us, seeing that all, including you and I are guilty. We are transgressors. We are covenant breakers. Proverbs 17:15 says that,

“He who justifies the wicked and he who condemns the righteous are both alike an abomination to the LORD.”

To justify means to legally declare someone to be righteous. Remember that Romans 3 said that there is no one who is righteous. Do you see the dilemma? If God is a Just Judge, he cannot forgive you. Would you call a judge good who had let the man who murdered your family go free simply because he is forgiving?

The Glorious Solution

There is a very simple and glorious, one-word-solution to this dilemma: Jesus! You see God’s holiness demand that those who bear his image (us) obey him perfectly in all he commands. God’s Justice demands that every act of disobedience be punished and receive its just reward. For thousands of years, Adam’s descendants failed to satisfy either of these conditions. It seemed hopeless that fallen man could ever be reconciled to the thrice holy God. So God acted. He took it upon himself to fix the problem that man had created in his rebellion: He became one of us. God the Son, took on flesh, became a man in order to redeem men.

Active Obedience:

Jesus became a new Adam, who lived in perfect obedience to his Father and fulfilled all the duties of headship that Adam and everyone else who ever lived had failed to do. The Bible says that Jesus was,

one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin. (Heb 4:15)

This active obedience satisfied what God’s holiness required of us. This is what Paul means when he says,

For as by the one man’s disobedience the many were made sinners, so by the one man’s obedience the many will be made righteous. (Romans 5:19)

Passive Obedience:

Jesus’ Death on the cross fully satisfied the demands of divine justice for the punishment of his peoples’ sins. The Bible says,

For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

And

Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us—for it is written, “Cursed is everyone who is hanged on a tree”— Galatians 3:13

Jesus died in the place of sinners like you and I. He endured the painful and shameful death on the cross, all the while bearing and drinking the cup of God’s wrath down to the dregs. There is no more judgement for those who are his. God charged his people’s sins to him and credited His (Jesus) righteousness to them. As the Christian stands before God in Christ, It is as though he has never sinned and always obeyed. This is the good news or Gospel. This is how God can be both Just and justify the wicked (us).

Our Response:

How can this forgiveness become ours? Repentance and Faith.

What is Repentance?

-Repentance is forsaking any confidence in your own goodness.

-Repentance is doing away with any notion of acceptance by God apart from Christ

-Repentance is turning away from confidence in religious rituals that you’ve preformed

Walking an aisle

Crying

Fasting

Praying a prayer

-Repentance is turning away from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, and agreeing with what God says about who you are.

What is Faith?

-Faith is trusting in Christ alone for right standing with God

-Faith is Clinging desperately to the Cross of Christ as your only hope of salvation

-Faith is believing that Jesus is who he says he is and that he is the only way back to the Presence of God that was lost in the Garden.

Faith and Repentance are Clearly displayed in the story of the Pharisee and the Tax Collector in Luke 18.

A Word of Caution:

“Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. 22 On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?’ 23 And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.’ Matt 7:21-23

God’s saving grace is a free gift. We bring nothing to the table, but the grace of God does not leave you the way you were. As the Scripture says:

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come (2 Co 5:17.)

And

9 No one born of God makes a practice of sinning, for God’s seed abides in him; and he cannot keep on sinning, because he has been born of God. (1 John 3:9)

If these things are not a reality in your life, I urge you to consider prayerfully the words of the Apostle: We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God (2 Cor 5:20)

Graveside Service

Genesis 3:19

By the sweat of your face you shall eat bread, till you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken; for you are dust, and to dust you shall return.”

This is the reason why we bury our dead in this particular manner. We do so in hope. Why?

Because Christ has defeated death, and will ultimately reverse the curse and its effects on his people. The proof of this is his resurrection. Death could not hold him because he had no sin of his own.

1 Corinthians 15:14

And if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain and your faith is in vain.

1 Corinthians 15:17

And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins.

1 Corinthians 15:20–21

20 But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. 21 For as by a man came death, by a man has come also the resurrection of the dead.

1 Corinthians 15:55–57

“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.