Funeral Romans 8
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· 8 viewsFuneral Service from Romans 8
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Welcome
Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? As it is written, For thy sake we are killed all the day long; we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter. Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us. For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
The Funeral is a universal custom. It is our attempt to:
Remember
Honor
Offer Comfort
Prepare
3. Funerals remind us of:
The Certainty of Death (Ecclesiastes 9:5
The Shortness of life (James 4:14)
The Shortage of life (John 10:10)
The sovereignty of God and Reality of Eternity.
Text: Romans 8:31-39
Several years ago I heard about the story of the late, great pastor Adrian Rogers and his encounter with someone on an airplane. I quote:
I once met a lawyer on an airplane. We began to talk about what we like to read. I said, “I read newspapers, books, journals, devotional studies, but primarily the Bible.” He said, “If you don’t read any further than that, how do you know what to talk about when you speak to people?” I replied, “Sir, man only has three problems: sin, sorrow, and death.” My new friend answered, “There are more than that.” I replied, “No, only three.” “Oh,” he said, “there are other problems.” I said, “All right, tell me another.” He thought for a long time, came back, and said, “You’re right, everything I can think of fits in those three categories.”
Every problem you can think of into one of these three categories: Sin, Sorrow, and Death.
But the greatest news this morning is that Christ is the answer to ALL of these problems. Because Jesus rose from the dead, he defeated both the power of sin in the present and the penalty of sin in the future. Because Jesus rose from the dead, one day the sorrow of this earthly world will be replaced with the glory of heaven and eternity. Because Jesus rose from the dead, death has been defeated because for the Christian, and now death is simply the means to eternal life. And so in a very real sense, Easter IS the answer to the world’s problems.
For Michelle Fessman this was one of her favorite passages of Scripture because it communicates both the DEPTH and the WIDTH of God’s love for us (if you grew up in church, maybe you remember the song Deep and Wide).
Her words written in a testimony said:
“I Love this verse: God loves me and washes me clean. As I was once filthy with sin, I am now clean, white as snow because of what Jesus did for me when he took my place on the cross.”
And so this morning, I want you to see three powerful truths contained in these verses we just read…in fact, I believe they’re SO powerful that they can literally change your life. So what are they?
1. JESUS’ DEATH PROVES GOD IS FOR YOU – vs. 31-32
But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.
Maybe you have heard someone says something like I cant go to church the roof would cave in. A kidding aside. They are trying to express the idea that God is not for them. I tell you that this is not from Scripture.
You See Scripture tells us that the problem that mankind has is not that we have an unloving God that can’t like people rather it teaches that man has a Sin problem and doesn’t want a pure God.
For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God;
You and I are sinners you can look at your life and see the many times that you have fallen short of God’s holy standard. Sadly, some of you have done what I did before I came to Jesus.
I tried to Deny my sin.
I tried to Minimize my sin.
I tried to Pay for my sin.
Understand that Scripture has made clear that you are bound to stand before God one day and none of these exercises will save you.
No my friend it is important for us to take the Gospel solution to your sin problem.
That is to accept the payment that Christ has paid “FOR YOU”
All throughout the Bible Jesus is calling people to repent and believe…to turn AWAY from sin and self-righteousness and to turn TOWARDS Jesus in faith and total surrender.
In verse 31, when Paul writes, “what then shall we say to these things?” that is a clear reference to all that is written in the previous parts of this letter. Let me give you the Cliff Notes version of this letter.
In chapters 1-3 he is saying, “We are miserable sinners.” Thank God he doesn’t stop there because
in chapters 4-5 he says, “But Jesus is a merciful Savior.” And now,
in chapters 6-8, which end with the verses we just read, Paul is preaching that through salvation, we have become dead to sin and alive in Jesus. In other words, we don’t have to live like wicked sinners, because Jesus is a merciful Savior who offers us forgiveness. And now, because of Jesus, we don’t have to run away from God in fear, we can run towards him as a loving father (Romans 8:12-17).
So these verses are the crescendo of what Christ has done for us AND ALL that God offers us in Jesus…even though we deserve none of it. Look back at the first part of verse 32 again: “He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all.” Do you know who is included in “all?” You. Jesus Christ died for YOU. God is so FOR you that the text says he “gave him up.” That is an act of the will. The word “love” can best be described as a decision to self-sacrifice on behalf of someone else. That’s what God did for US when it says he did not spare his own son.
2. JESUS’ RESURRECTION GUARANTEES YOUR FUTURE – vs. 35-39
Salvation is not about what you can do for Jesus, it’s about what Jesus has done for you.” We don’t get to heaven one day because we held onto Jesus, we will get to heaven because he was holding onto us. And for those who genuinely become followers of Jesus Christ, there is not ONE SINGLE THING that can separate you from Jesus once you belong to him.
How do I know this? Look back at verse 35:
Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?
For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come,
I think the Apostle Paul anticipated that someone would read his letter about how NOTHING could separate you from the love of God and yet ask, “Yeah, but what about ___________ ?” And so the beauty of these verses is that Paul basically includes EVERYTHING imaginable by providing four categories of things that would fall into the “but what about…” category.
No physical thing can separate us from God’s grip (tribulation, distress, famine, nakedness, sword, life, death). I think Paul draws upon his own experience in this first category to think of all the things had ever caused him to question God’s love for him. And yet, Paul gives testimony here that in every storm in his life, God’s love proved unbreakable.
No spiritual thing can separate us from God’s grip (angels or powers)
No present of future action can separate us from God’s grip (things present nor things to come)
No individual can separate us from God’s grip (rulers, nor anything else in all of creation).
For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain.
From the testimony of the Apostle Paul, we learn two truths which I believe should comfort us today.
1. "To Die Is Gain"
A. Rest- Revelation 14:13
Life in this world is full of difficulty - Job 5:7; 14:1
But in heaven, the days of difficulty are passed -Revelation 21:4
B. Reward - Revelation 14:13
While, too often in this life, good things done are overlooked, God takes notice. And there, in heaven, everything worthy of commendation will be rewarded! Rest assured that this one who has passed into the presence of Jesus is receiving their reward.
C. Rejoicing - Ecclesiastes 4:2
As beautiful a description of heaven as we have in the Bible, the reality of it’s beauty will far surpass anything we read about in Scripture, because what we read in the Bible about heaven is but an accommodation to our level of understanding. It is God’s attempt to describe for us the indescribable. Just think ...
You can walk in this morning guilty and condemned and you can leave guilty but pardoned. And the reason I know that is possible is because God raised Jesus from the dead. And if you receive him today, then one day, God will raise you from the dead too.