Funeral

God’s perfect Creation

Genesis 1:26–31 “Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.” So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them. And God blessed them. And God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth.” And God said, “Behold, I have given you every plant yielding seed that is on the face of all the earth, and every tree with seed in its fruit. You shall have them for food. And to every beast of the earth and to every bird of the heavens and to everything that creeps on the earth, everything that has the breath of life, I have given every green plant for food.” And it was so. And God saw everything that he had made and behold, it was very good. And the evening and the morning were the sixth day”

Notes- God’s creation is perfect

Man is made in God’s image and in perfect harmony with him

Because it was very good, there was an absence of death and pain

The Fall

Notes-

Man is no longer in perfect harmony with God. He has shame and hides

Death enters the world

Hope in Christ

Promise is given in Genesis 3:15 “I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel.””

Notes- promise of future descendant of the woman that would crush the head of the serpent

Christ is fulfillment of biblical prophecy

Death burial resurrection

1 Thessalonians 4:13–18 “But we do not want you to be uninformed, brothers, about those who are asleep, that you may not grieve as others do who have no hope. For since we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so, through Jesus, God will bring with him those who have fallen asleep. For this we declare to you by a word from the Lord, that we who are alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, will not precede those who have fallen asleep. For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the sound of the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we will always be with the Lord. Therefore encourage one another with these words.”

Notes: We have hope because of Christ

We hope because of our belief (faith) that Jesus died and rose again

Because he lives, we have life

We will be caught up with the dead and the living to be with God

We are to be encouraged by this