Untitled Sermon (7)

Sermon  •  Submitted   •  Presented
0 ratings
· 4 views
Notes
Transcript
Hello everyone, many of you may already know or remember me. Once upon a time I was called “Big Jacob,” around the Fisk family, but I can see now that has reversed! It is my both my pleasure and pain to stand here right now, as Gordon for much of life had been like a second dad or uncle to me and it’s hard to share a word with you.
Non-the-less here we are, and I will do my best to share a Word from God (that I cannot take full credit for) with you that I know Gordon would want everyone to know now that he is on the other side of eternity, getting to experience the endless joy of spending his days forever more with His creator and loving heavenly Father where there is no pain or grief or sadness but only limitless joy in getting see and be with God in His fullness and Glory.
Let me begin by sharing with you from a Psalm of David, Psalm 39. David comments on his life and it speaks to us all today as well, he says,
“Lord, make me aware of my end and the number of my days so that I will know how short-lived I am. 5 In fact, you have made my days just inches long, and my life span is as nothing to you. Yes, every human being stands as only a vapor. Selah
This is the word of the Lord.
What do we say in moments like this, As family members and friends gather and we are confronted with the awfulness of death? When we experience the sting of death, surely we realize there must be more than the perpetual cycle of living, dying, and grieving. What do we make of the fact that Gordon was a believer? And where is God in the midst of all of this?
Well, I can assure you that death is not a sign that God has forgotten us or that God has forgotten Gordon. If we are to believe the glorious truth of the gospel, he is more alive today than he has ever been- free from the grip of sin and the sufferings of this life, and free from the grip of death.
But what is the basis of such a hope? Knowing that we will face or own deaths someday, what does God say to us today in our pain?
Our hope is in the good news of the gospel of Jesus Christ. If we want to make sense of life and death, we need to look no further than Jesus himself in John 11:17-36 and the circumstances surrounding the death of Lazarus. In this story, we see a God who has entered the pain of our world, fully understands the awful results of death, and offers us an everlasting hope in the person of Jesus Christ.
A Caring God Broken by a Sin-Sick World
There is nothing more difficult than facing the death of a friend or loved one. Even when it is a believer who has died, there is still great sadness. Death causes a painful separation that can be fully understood only if you have personally walked through it.
But one encouraging truth his that God is not uncaring about the sadness we feel when our lives are touched by death. The mourning at the funeral of Lazarus (a man that was well beloved by Jesus) sounds all too familiar to us- people weeping from the loss of their beloved friend and family member. But in a surprising turn, Jesus himself joins in and weeps. Jesus is fully aware that he will raise Lazarus from the dead. Yet he still cries.
It appears that he cries for at least two reasons. First, he is moved with love for those who are grieving over their loss. Jesus is not insensitive to the hurt of those around him. He is personally moved by their pain. These are his friends, and he shares in their suffering, as well as the suffering of his dear friend, Lazarus.
Second, Jesus weeps from the personal grief he experience as he sees the effects of death. When God created the world, there was no death. But ever since Adam and Eve rebelled in their sin, mankind has been covered in death’s darkness. Death is the result of sin, if there were no sin this world, there would be no death.
Gather here today at this funeral and parting with a loved one does not indicate something that is right in this world, but rather is evidence that there is something terribly wrong with it. Jesus looked at the pain, suffering, and destruction that sin had brought into this world, and he wept- not out of sentimentalism but over the hopelessness of a world ravaged by death and sin.
A Glorious savior.
How comforting it is to have a God who is willing to enter our world, experience our pain, and be moved with compassion in response to the dreadful course of a sin-sick world. But it is a far greater thing to have a God who is willing to do something and change the entire course. The wonderful news of the gospel is that Jesus came to do something about sin. He was not just moved by its effects: he entered our sin-sick world to offer hope to those living in it. The hope of the gospel is found in Jesus Christ, and this is the central message of the story.
The hope of the gospel comes in Jesus’ words to Martha:”I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die (John 11:25).
This is said in response to Martha’s troubled spirit as she tries to understand why everything has happened the way it has. She rightly knows that Jesus would have been the answer if he could have arrived sooner. She says, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.” (John 11:21). She had hope in the past, before Lazarus died, that Jesus would have made a difference, had he been there. In addition, Martha has a certain hope in the future. When Jeus declares that Lazarus will rise again, she shows her confident belief in the resurrection ‘on the last day’. However, although Martha had a great confidence in what could have been and believes what ultimately will be, she appears to be confused in the fog of her grief.
Jesus wants Martha to see him as more than one would have prevented Lazarus from dying and to understand who is the source of the future resurrection in which she is confidence. So, he does not declair to her what he is capable of doing, but makes a more profound announcement about who he really is: “Do you understand who I am, Martha? I am the resurrection and the life. The way of escape from the powerful grip of sin and the destructive nature of death is to believe in me.”
Jesus is the souce of the future resurrection which Martha hopes and the source of life in the face of death’s seeming victory. Martha’ hope needs to go beyond what Jesus could have done before and beyond the promise of future resurrection. She needs to place her hope in the very person who stands before her right then- the Lord Jesus Christ.
The same Jesus stands before you today as you face the fog of your own grief. All our hope- past, present, and future- is wrapped up I the person of Christ. If you want to escpae the horrific consequences of death, you need to be delivered from the rule of sin. Jesus is the answer! 1st Cor 15:54-57 says it isi Christ who has swallowed up death in victory and has taken away its sting. When he died on the cross, Jesus experience death in our place so that we might be freed from death. When a believer faces death, we certainly grieve over the loss. But Paul wrote in 1stThess 4:13 that we do not grief like those in this world, who have no hope. WE know that for the one who truly believes in Christ, death is not final. Death’s sing has been replaced with a promised resurrection and life because of who Jesus is and what he has done.
If Martha wants hope in the midst of her pain and grief, it is to be found in her belief that Jeus is who he declares himself to be, Therefore Jesus calls upon her to respond by asking, “do you believe this?”
Do you believe this?
In times like this, we have an opportunity to face our own mortality. What do we make of life and our inevitable death? The grief must be unbearable for those who not have the hope offered in Christ Jesus. Life loses all meaning.
The good news today is that hope is offered to each of us in the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. He entered our sin-sick world, died to pay for our sins, and arose from the grave victoursly over sin and death. That saving hope is given to all who turn to Christ in fait hand believe he is the resurrection and the life.
Do you believe that Jesus declares about himself? The question is as pertinent for you and me today as it was for Martha in the hour of her grief. Do you believe this? Do you believe Jesus is the resurrection and the life?
There is no better time to evaluate this question than when we see the inescapable reality of death. We know what Gordon’s answer to that question was. He faced death with a great certainty because he had entrusted his life to the one who is the resurrection and the life. If you share this hope in Christ Jesus, then even in your sorrow you can rejoice that this is not the end. Jesus Christ is your hope!
If you have any questions about God or putting your faith in Christ, after the service today I would love to talk and pray with you.
I want to conclude by giving you these words from the apostle John from Revelation 21, where God shared what the end of this age will look like with him and a prayer. The Bible reads in Revelation 21:
Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. 2 I also saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared like a bride adorned for her husband.
3 Then I heard a loud voice from the throne:[a] Look, God’s dwelling[b] is with humanity, and he will live with them. They will be his peoples,[c] and God himself will be with them and will be their God.[d] 4 He will wipe away every tear from their eyes. Death will be no more; grief, crying, and pain will be no more, because the previous things[e] have passed away.
5 Then the one seated on the throne said, “Look, I am making everything new.” He also said, “Write, because these words[f] are faithful and true.”
Pray for comfort and peace and thank God for Gordon and ask that others would come to salvation.
Related Media
See more
Related Sermons
See more
Earn an accredited degree from Redemption Seminary with Logos.