Funeral - General Entering God's Rest

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Friends, have you ever ran in a race or even a marathon before? What about the 2.4km runs you do as part of your physical tests when you were in school or when you were doing your NS? How about other forms of races, such as sailing or swimming or cycling or skating?

Whether you take part in such events competitively or leisurely, one thing is common among all these experiences, is that all the participants of these races look forward to one thing… crossing the finishing line, more importantly, crossing the finishing line well…

Therefore, professional athletes would push their bodies to the limit, being willing to take harsh training, willing to experience pains as a resort of sores and blisters, broken bones and dislocated joints as part of the experience to get themselves ready for the race…

And during the race itself, they ignore the searing pains in their fatigued muscles as they push towards the finishing line, drawing whatever energy they have in their bodies have, to be able to finish well…

And soon enough, the finishing line appears and is crossed and the race is finally over…

The athlete is then able to give his or her fatigued body a rest, knowing that no matter what the outcome of the race is, whether the athlete is first in the race or not, his or her best was given and now is the time to just rest…

Friends, isn’t this also a picture of our lives?

Friends, we live in a fallen and broken world that is filled with sin and hatred…

We read about terrorist attacks in the world, we hear about how people groups are being mistreated and atrocities being done to one another, we know of injustice even within our neighbourhood – people being robbed of their life savings, people being scammed, people being bullied at work…

There is just so much pain in this world, and we are trying to push back all these dark forces of the world, and trying to bring God’s light into the world in our various ways…

We get bruised along the way as we run the race, we can hurt by people who are brash, we get thrown along by the tides of the world…

But we continue running the race as best as we can…

And why are we doing this?

Because we believe that we all fell away from God and God has extended an arm of grace for us all to come back to Him…. And we as God’s representatives in this world are being used by Him to reverse the dark forces one soul at a time…

And in some sense, this is already done, for reminds us that since the foundation of the world, the plan of salvation had already been set in motion, manifested in the history of the nation of Israel, that culminates in the climax which the work our Lord Jesus Christ had done on the cross, coming to earth in human form being subject to the torture and scornful behaviour of human beings and finally reaching the finishing line of His race on earth by dying on the cross and being resurrected on the third day, so that we already have the assurance that we will not die eternally, but have an everlasting life in Christ Jesus our Lord and one day all those who die will be raised together in Him, no longer subject to the forces of sin and death, but having a genuine an intimate communion with our Lord…

Therefore, while we are still alive our calling is to partner God in saving souls by sharing the good news with those who had not heard the Gospel, saving lives by works of social justice and social holiness, saving families by providing for the physical and financial needs as a community of faith, saving people by being with them when they are finding life difficult just like how the family of XXX is experiencing right now, having to say goodbye to a loved one…

And all these things we can do, making a difference in this world despite it being broken is because God had already finished his works from the beginning…

Yet on another hand, the very fact that we are continuing doing these things on earth is because the work is not completely finished…

In other words, while the race had been set before us, we are empowered to run the race, we still need to run the race…

And why has the race not been completed?

Verse 6 tells us that this is because we are in a period of grace… for there are still people who have yet to enter the Kingdom of God and in God’s graciousness, we have the opportunity to run the race on earth to do the good works and bring God’s love, joy and peace…

And this period is the present, called “today”, so that for us, we are still running and expanding God’s Kingdom…

However, the race is not perpetual for there will be a day in which we will cross our individual finishing lines, into God’s loving arms, being able to commune with our Lord…

Knowing that the work our Lord had commissioned us to do on earth has been completed…

That our race on earth had been completed…

This is what verse 9 and 10 talks about when we will enter God’s rest, with God, in God, after toiling the days of our earthly walk…

And this rest is not a metaphor for cessation of existence, but the end of our earthly race, but beginning of the rest of our journey with God, marked by a genuine and perfect relationship with our God and creator which the Bible describes as being without pain and tears…

This is a state of perfect joy and peace and this is where our brother XXX is right now…

Having finished the race that the Lord had marked out for him, he has now crossed the finishing line and is now enjoying the perfect rest with our Lord Jesus Christ, having been freed from the clutches of sin and death, having a perfect communion with God, having completed the work that the Lord had called him to…

Friends, one last point before I end… is that in a race there are also spectators…

And on one hand, we are participants in the race, we are also watching the races of others….

And just like how when spectators at the grandstand cheer the participants on, during the race and when they are on the podium, getting their medals, this is where we are right now, being friends and family members who had known XXX, journeyed with him in life and finally are together here, while being sad, because we miss him but are assured that he is now in the arms of our Heavenly Father, having completed the race that our Lord had marked out for him, cheering him on, as he stands on the podium, having now been liberated from the pains and tears of this broken world, and entering God’s eternal rest, having run the good race. Amen