Funeral Lonnie “Noel” Ball - What Jesus Did to Death

Welcome:

Today we gather to remember and honor the life of Lonnie Ball. During this service of reflection, let us remember the beautiful memories, the shared laughter, and the countless moments of joy that marked Lonnie’s journey on this earth.

On behalf of the family, I want to welcome you and thank you for gathering here today to celebrate Lonnie.

Obituary:

Lonnie Noel Ball passed away on Tuesday, December 12, 2023, at home. He was 79 years old.

Noel was born on May 30, 1944, in Calico Rock, AR, the son of Winnifred and Amy Ball.

He married Lois Hope Cundiff in 1993, in Miami, OK. She survives at home.

Other survivors include nieces, who were like sisters to him, Debbie, Pam, Evelyn, and Karen. Sons, Jason (Erika) Cundiff, and their children and Brian (Jennifer) McDaniel and their children.

Noel was preceded in death by his parents, and his six siblings, Snowdean, Blaine, Pauline, Jesse, Don, and Dwain.

Prayer:

Our Father in heaven, we acknowledging your presence. Nothing is hidden from you, O Lord. You know each and every person who has gathered at this church today to honor the life of Lonnie.

Lord, I commit every person in this room to you. Let Your Spirit move today and bring peace. Direct our thoughts to you.

We acknowledge all feelings of sorrow, pain, longing, and even doubt. We recognize that we need your help today.

We commit ourselves to you, and we commit our loved one to you today.

We give him to your care as we also entrust every soul in this room into your capable hands.

Amen.

Scripture:

Psalm 23 MEV

A Psalm of David. 1 The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want. 2 He makes me lie down in green pastures; He leads me beside still waters. 3 He restores my soul; He leads me in paths of righteousness for His name’s sake. 4 Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil; for You are with me; Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me. 5 You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies; You anoint my head with oil; my cup runs over. 6 Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.

Family Remarks:

Read from letters given.

Message:

Lonnie was a good man. He loved his family, cars (especially corvettes), antiques, and playing cards with his friends. I’m told he was stubborn, but kind and generous to those he loved.

Hope told me, when she met him that her dad would call him “Hollywood” because he always wore cool sunglasses and was an ace playing pool.

I’ve been told that just a while back, Lonnie was asked about his relationship with God. Lonnie said that he had spoken to God and made things right with Him.

At the end of the day, we all should want to be able to say that same thing. We are made right with God.

Today, I want to give you a message of hope and truth based in the scripture of 2 Timothy.

Let’s read the words from a letter written by the Apostle Paul to a young Pastor named Timothy:

2 Timothy 1:8–10 CEV

8 Don’t be ashamed to speak for our Lord. And don’t be ashamed of me, just because I am in jail for serving him. Use the power that comes from God and join with me in suffering for telling the good news. 9 God saved us and chose us to be his holy people. We did nothing to deserve this, but God planned it because he is so kind. Even before time began God planned for Christ Jesus to show kindness to us. 10 Now Christ Jesus has come to show us the kindness of God. Christ our Savior defeated death and brought us the good news. It shines like a light and offers life that never ends.

Warren Buffet, the financial investment genius and one of the richest men in America, has his doubts about life beyond the grave. And this worries him. Buffet admits, “There is one thing I’m scared of. I am afraid to die.”

Warren Buffet is a man who has renounced religion because he is too logical to take a leap of faith. He believes in numbers and math more than he believes in God or Divinity. But just because he’s not religious it doesn’t mean he’s immune from dying. And he’s afraid to die.

We all have opinions about death. Some of us may fear it, and other have made peace with it. Someone has said that funerals “press the noses of the faithful against the windows of their faith—the afterlife begins to make the most sense after life—when someone we love has died.”

We can be made right with God when we place our trust and faith in Jesus we become His followers. We become Christians and Christians have hope.

Christians don’t need to fear death. Paul, near the end of his life journey, pointed this out in his letter to his protege, Pastor Timothy. He said that Jesus “defeated” or abolished death. The word defeated means “to make thoroughly inactive.”

Jesus Defeated The Mystery of Death

All other experiences—good and bad—have been witnessed to. But in death, no one has returned to talk about it, except Jesus Christ. Because he did, some of its mystery of death has been uncovered. We can know more about death because Jesus defeated it by raising to life again after being crucified.

We learned that just like Christ, we will live again after death and we will be changed. Listen to the words of the Apostle Paul again:

1 Corinthians 15:51 MEV

51 Listen, I tell you a mystery: We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed.

Paul tells us that in the life to come, we will be changed.

Remember when your children were small and they would go to sleep in the car, on the floor, or in your arms? You would take them to their room, change them into their pajamas, and they would wake up the next morning, they were same person but in different clothes!

So it is for the Christian when they pass from this world to the next. They fall to sleep, but when they wake, they have been changed. It’s like they put on new garments.

They awake in heaven the same person, but changed into a new and better body equipped for eternity.

Jesus defeated death and revealed to us part of the mystery of death, that we will be the same person, but our bodies will be perfected. All the suffering, pain, and sorrow will be gone.

Jesus Also Defeated the Finality of Death

In 1922 archeologist Howard Carter, who had been searching for the tomb of the Egyptian King Tut, finally found it. He said he was struck dumb with amazement. “It was the most incredible cache of ancient treasure that anyone could remember.” But with this discovery came good news and bad news. The good news was that the treasure and the wonderfully preserved mummy were still in the tomb. The modern world was able to behold the splendor of ancient Egypt! The bad news was that the treasure and the wonderfully preserved mummy were still in the tomb.

All those riches that had been originally deposited in that tomb to accompany the pharaoh on his journey through the underworld had not budged—and neither had the body! It was staggering proof that all the hopes of the ancient Egyptians were in vain. That religion—and others like it—are dead and offer no hope for the gripping embrace of death.

But Jesus does!

Death is a destroyer, but Jesus Christ is the great restorer of life.

Life starts out with the union of two invisible cells. They multiply. And in nine miraculous months, a human body is formed. Once outside the womb, that body continues to change and rearrange itself from baby to child, to youth, to adulthood, to senior adult, to death, to decay. Dust to dust. But Jesus came to“destroy death.” Death becomes not the beginning of the end, but the end of the beginning.

Listen to the words of

2 Corinthians 5:1 CEV

1 Our bodies are like tents that we live in here on earth. But when these tents are destroyed, we know that God will give each of us a place to live. These homes will not be buildings that someone has made, but they are in heaven and will last forever.

This tell us at least three things:

1. Our “tent,” our body, is the one we now possess.

2. Our new tent or body will be destroyed and we will receive a better one than we have now.

3. It will be a body that is going to be like Jesus’.

Scripture promises,

1 John 3:2 CEV

2 My dear friends, we are already God’s children, though what we will be hasn’t yet been seen. But we do know that when Christ returns, we will be like him, because we will see him as he truly is.

We have a hope that this life is not the end. Our current bodies are slowly dying, but we have the truth and hope that one day we will have a new body because we will be like Jesus.

Jesus has defeated the finality of Death.

Jesus also defeated the Power of Death

Hebrews 2:14 CEV

14 We are people of flesh and blood. That is why Jesus became one of us. He died to destroy the devil, who had power over death.

Why does death have so much power? Maybe because it carries with it the sense of the unknown, of separation from family, friends, and familiar surroundings.

Apart from Christ, there is the frightening reality of eternal separation from God and eternal punishment.

But Jesus Christ “destroyed” the one who had previously had death at his command. The word the writer of Hebrews uses here is powerful. To crush or destroy means to “render inoperative.” It’s like the removal of the battery from a car. It renders the car inoperative. So, too, with death for the believer.

Jesus has taken the battery out of death.

There was a Five-year-old named Jill. She had been at choir practice with her parents before the coming Easter celebration. Jill knew about Jesus’ dying on the cross and his dying for our sins. Referring to the choir’s song, her father asked her, “What does it mean, ‘after three days?” ’

The child replied, “It means he rose from the dead.”

“What does that mean? What does Easter mean?”

Her response was perfect: “We don’t have to be scared any more.”

Because Jesus overcame death, we live in expectant hope. This world is not our home. Death makes us absent from the body, but it also ushers us into the presence of the Lord. Paul stated it this way: “For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain” (Phil. 1:21). To live as Christ is to conquer death as he did. What Jesus did to death enables us to do the same thing. “We are more than conquerors through him who loved us” (Rom. 8:37).

Today I want to encourage you, Jesus has defeated the mystery of death, Jesus has defeated the finality of death, and Jesus has defeated the power of death.

But we must make it right with God. Just as Lonnie knew he needed to confess his sins and have a clean slate with God, we too, must be made right with God.

In order for us to walk in faith instead of the fear of death we must rightly place our faith in Jesus.

John 14:6 CEV

6 “I am the way, the truth, and the life!” Jesus answered. “Without me, no one can go to the Father.

Paul tells us in Romans how receive victory over death:

Romans 10:9–10 CEV

9 So you will be saved, if you honestly say, “Jesus is Lord,” and if you believe with all your heart that God raised him from death. 10 God will accept you and save you, if you truly believe this and tell it to others.

Today, as we look at death, I encourage you to choose life. Trust in Jesus and know that when you do, you will be united again with those who have gone before.

Song:

Stacy and Roger

Prayer:

Let us pray. Dear Lord Jesus, we confess you as our Lord today. We thank you that death is defeated and that we have a hope of eternity with you. Lord, I ask you for help today. Help for these precious friends and family who are grieving. Would you please comfort them, bring them peace in their time of loss. We are grateful that you draw near to those who call on your name.

Today, we commit Lonnie to your care. We trust that you have ushered him into eternal rest. Lord we look forward to the day when we too will be changed and will be united once again with Him.

Thank you. Amen.