Roy Bradford Funeral

Scripture Introduction:

So, I’m definitely not one of those guys who thinks, just open the Bible and assume that is how God is going to communicate. Poke and hope might be a decent way to shoot pool—but it’s a pretty horrible way to teach the Bible.

But Wednesday morning I was praying about what text I should read or use for Roy’s funeral. And so that was kind of in the back of my mind a little bit…I opened up my Bible that morning to try to start preparing a little for my sermon on Sunday and as I opened my Bible up it came right upon Isaiah 52:7-10. And when I saw these words, I just knew this was what I was supposed to do for Roy’s funeral…tell me this isn’t fitting for Roy...

Isaiah 52:7–10 ESV

How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him who brings good news, who publishes peace, who brings good news of happiness, who publishes salvation, who says to Zion, “Your God reigns.” The voice of your watchmen—they lift up their voice; together they sing for joy; for eye to eye they see the return of the Lord to Zion. Break forth together into singing, you waste places of Jerusalem, for the Lord has comforted his people; he has redeemed Jerusalem. The Lord has bared his holy arm before the eyes of all the nations, and all the ends of the earth shall see the salvation of our God.

Sermon Introduction:

Roy had a great way of cutting through fluff. He’d listen for a few moments to someone complain, someone make excuses, someone look at life from a negative slant, and then he’d say something like, “let’s not go there...”

He did this as well in the way he would share the gospel with someone. I’ve noticed through the years there are a couple of different ways to share the gospel. One seems to be almost motivated by fear, as if that’s the underlying foundation—fear that if you don’t share the gospel the right way things will be all messed up and God will be mad at you, Fear that if you don’t share then a person’s blood will be on your hands, fear that if another person doesn’t accept Jesus they will spend eternity in hell.

Now, all of those might be valid concerns. But if you know Roy, you know that he wasn’t motivated by any fear other than the fear of the Lord. Roy was motivated by joy. And that’s what we see here in Isaiah 52.

What is happening here in Isaiah 52? Isaiah is speaking to a community who has been in exile. Without digging too deeply there just know that it’s given to a people who are accustomed to hearing bad news, pretty much all the time.

It’s like this…the postman comes to your house with an important envelope. It’s marked IRS.

What are you thinking? If you’re like that exilic community who is used to only hearing bad news all the time, you’re thinking, “great, I’m sure I owe more money. I bet this is an audit. This can’t be good news.” When all you get are bills and bad letters, you start to dread the sound of that little postal truck coming up to your mailbox.

But what is happening here in Isaiah 52 is that God is saying, I’m going to turn that story around. You are going to get used to hearing good news. That’s what it means in verse 7…it’s a delight to hear good news.

Can I share a little story about when I first came to Calvary 4 years ago? I was pretty beat up. I had just come out of a difficult situation, one where I dreaded hearing the phone ring, dreaded hearing the door bell, I was just waiting for someone to throat punch me. Waiting for the kindness to wear off and get a knife to the back.

When I first heard, “Brother Roy wants to come talk with you...” I was filled with anxiety. But that first meeting was a delight. I could see that Roy was an encourager. A good man that loved Jesus. Yet, I was still kinda waiting for that other shoe to drop, those first few times…it never did.

After a couple of months of knowing Roy, I realized that when my phone said, “Roy Bradford” what I was about to hear was an encouraging conversation. He was bringing good news.

And this is what motivated Roy. “The voice of your watchmen—they lift up their voice...”

What you’d expect here, what you’d expect from a watchmen is to say, “batten down the hatches, get the bullets ready, prepare for battle, we’ve got bad news coming....” They were watching for BAD NEWS, for DANGER…but look at what happens in this text.

The watchmen are singing for joy and saying, “the LORD is coming!!! celebrate! Good news is on the horizon. He’s fixing everything! He’s making all things right! He’s overturning darkenss! Good news, good news, good news.

And that’s Roy. Brother Roy, you have cancer. Praise the Lord! Looks like I get a mission field with some oncologist.

Brother Roy, they are going to take your arm. Praise the Lord! Looks like I get to tell a surgeon about Jesus.

Brother Roy, the cancer is still there and its spreading. It’s terminal. We are calling in hospice. Praise the Lord, that means sharing Jesus with hospice nurses. I don’t know why God chose me for this mission, but thank you Jesus.

That man is either crazy or he’s been transformed by some kind of good news that is able to overcome and conquer any bad news.

Brother Roy, you’ve fallen and hit your head. There’s nothing they can do. Praise the Lord.

Brother Roy, your body is lying there in a casket. One last sleep in church. Praise the Lord, my family gets to gather around and hear the gospel.

You see this is what marked the life of Roy Bradford. The good news of the gospel of Jesus Christ. Simpy put, it’s that God saves sinners. It’s that when we proclaim with our mouth—when we cry out to Jesus—when we say, “Lord save me...” he does just that.

And he changes us from the inside out. The gospel is that Jesus died so that you and I don’t have to....

You look in that casket and you say, “well looks like death caught up to him…We do die…does that mean the gospel isn’t true...”

Oh friend, Roy is more alive today than he has ever been. It is as Mrs. Mary said when he passed… “oh death where is your sting, oh grave where is your victory?”

Nah, you don’t win death. Sin doesn’t get the last word over Roy’s life. And Roy was a sinner. He’d be the first to tell you that. Roy wasn’t perfect. But Roy was forgiven. Roy was covered by the blood of Jesus. And it was this truth about how Jesus is and what Jesus did for him that caused Roy to be that watchman that shared good news....that would make him look at cancer and say, “Praise the Lord!”

--

But I want to say one word here. I think there is a way in which we could maybe take Roy’s posture and his Praise the Lord, in a way that isn’t healthy. It could be in a way in which you don’t acknowledge the grief and sadness of this day.

Scripture does tell us that it is okay to grieve, but we grieve as those who have hope. Scripture tells us that he will wipe away every tear from our eye. HE will wipe away every tear from our eye.

It’s not by steely resolve, pushing those tears back in, suck it up buttercup. No it is as we see in verse 9…they were honest with their sorrow…but the good news of the gospel spoke a greater word!

the LORD has comforted his people.

And that’s my prayer you as well today. That you would be comforted by the Lord. That you would know the good news of Jesus.

God saves sinners. That’s what it means there when it says “he has redeemed Jerusalem”. Bought her back. She had sold herself away to sin and to slavery. But the Lord has bought her back. He does the same with us…he has bought us back with His blood.

And in verse 10 we see that the Lord has bared his holy arm…he’s showing off his guns…he’s displaying His strength. And what do we see? When God shows up in all of his strength…look how big our God is…Look how powerful…look how mighty...

“all the ends of the earth shall see the salvation of our God”

What? Not his wrath? Not his fury? Not his judgment? We see his salvation?

He stoops and saves. He bares his arm, puts all that power on display, and then saves sinners like you and I. Friends, this is why we sing. This is why we shout for joy. This truth is what motivated Roy Bradford for so many days of his life.

At the end of the day none of us get to say the last word on Roy Bradford. That declaration belongs to the Lord Jesus. He gets the last word. And the good news of Jesus tells us that last word is likely something to the tune of

Well done, good and faithful servant.

Or perhaps it’s simply Jesus saying,

“He’s mine. He’s with me.”

There will be a void left. We’ve lost a watchmen, and in a world when far too many of those standing on towers and looking at our cultural moment, and seeing everything around us…far too many of these watchmen aren’t saying, “Praise the Lord!” The message is different.

So we lost a good news watchman.

We will need others to climb that ladder, to follow in those footsteps and look cancer in the face and say, “Praise the Lord”. To look the darkness and evil and all the encroaching armies in the face and say, “Praise, the Lord, my God is bigger.” To proclaim the good news of Jesus no matter what we face…to be able to say to Zion, “Your God reigns”

And there is no doubt that all of us here today would have loved more time with Roy. I am saddened to lose such an encouraging friend. I’m sad that we’ve lost a set of feet that brings good news...

But I’m also confident that having seen what he has seen and experienced what he is experiencing, he would tell us one more time. Praise the Lord! But he’d do it with even more confidence than he brought here.

He would say to every one of us, Be certain that you know Jesus. Put your faith and trust in Jesus and him alone, he is the only one that can pardon you and the only one that we can hope in. Do not leave this life without knowing the One who is Life Himself.

The greatest experience that Roy has had is not being reunited with family or friends as wonderful as that may very well be. No, his greatest joy is in seeing Jesus Christ and being with him.

Brother, your faith is now sight.

Keep pressing on, keep trusting Jesus, every ounce of pain and suffering is worth it. It only makes Christ all the more sweeter. And to those here that may not be trusting in Christ—I am confident that Roy would encourage you to trust in Jesus alone.

Praise the Lord!