Buddy Biggs Funeral - March 21, 2021

Death is not extinguishing the light from the Christian; it is putting out the lamp because the dawn has come.

http://www.sermonillustrations.com/a-z/d/death.htm

We come today to celebrate Son, and the rising of the Son that conquered sin and death.

The Son gives us HOPE that does not disappoint, cannot be shaken, and cannot be destroyed. The HOPE found in Christ Jesus ENDURES!!

2 Corinthians 4:6 “For God, who said, “Light shall shine out of darkness,” is the One who has shone in our hearts to give the Light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ.

Buddy Biggs had that knowledge

2 CORINTHIANS 4:7-9

7 But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, so that the surpassing greatness of the power will be of God and not from ourselves;

8 we are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not despairing;

9 persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed;

10 always carrying about in the body the dying of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our body.

11 For we who live are constantly being delivered over to death for Jesus’ sake, so that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our mortal flesh.

12 So death works in us, but life in you.

13 But having the same spirit of faith, according to what is written, “I believed, therefore I spoke,” we also believe, therefore we also speak,

14 knowing that He who raised the Lord Jesus will raise us also with Jesus and will present us with you.

15 For all things are for your sakes, so that the grace which is spreading to more and more people may cause the giving of thanks to abound to the glory of God.

16 Therefore we do not lose heart, but though our outer man is decaying, yet our inner man is being renewed day by day.

17 For momentary, light affliction is producing for us an eternal weight of glory far beyond all comparison,

18 while we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen; for the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal.

It has been my great privilege to know Buddy Biggs for the last three years. BUT I didn’t get to know him like many of you did. Three years is a long time in some respects, but NOT COMPARED to 64 years of Marriage.

Man & Wife – Spouse & Helpmate through thick and thin, celebration and grief.

Mrs. Bettie – I salute you for 64 years together.

He was quite the fisherman, I understand – in fact that is one of the first things I heard about Buddy – that if I could talk him into taking me, he knew where the fish were.

I wanted to go fish with him. Those wily old fishermen have a way of casting the right place to catch the big one, and I didn’t think for a second that I outfish him, but I wanted to watch and learn. But Buddy was in a struggle the whole time I’ve known him. In the end, he was too weak to fish. And we never got to go. We talked of it time and again and I could see his eyes light up with a memory of a tug on a line.

Weakness is one of the ways that God displays His glory to the world. He uses the unexpected to reveal greatness!

Buddy Biggs was not a weak man – in fact, quite the opposite – he used his hands and his strength his whole life. He had that special brilliance that comes when a tool hits a hand or someone needs something tuned, or fixed, or put together and someone says, “Do you think you can fix this?”

Despite his strength, Buddy ended his life on this earth in frailty and fragility – But he always treasured the church and the message and purpose of the church. He held the treasure of Christ within him.

I pray that we grieve, that we will do just that – turn toward the treasure within – and show off Jesus as we continue this life.

This passage refers to “Not losing heart,” which is better translated “not being cowardly” or “not shrinking back” (4:1),

Buddy did not shrink from the Valley of the Shadow of Death, he faced it courageously as a man of strength.

The term earthen vessels (ostrakinoi skeuē) implies something fragile, inferior, and expendable.

Picturing himself as an ordinary, everyday utensil conveying an invaluable treasure is as striking an image as Paul’s picture of himself as a defeated but joyous prisoner marching in God’s triumphal procession (2:14). Such an image underscores his weakness. An earthen vessel is “quintessentially fragile,” prone to breakage, easily chipped and cracked.[2]

Humans are easily chipped and dented. But we do not lose heart!

16 Therefore we do not lose heart, but though our outer man is decaying, yet our inner man is being renewed day by day.

17 For momentary, light affliction is producing for us an eternal weight of glory far beyond all comparison,

18 while we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen; for the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal.[3]

[1] New American Standard Bible: 1995 Update (LaHabra, CA: The Lockman Foundation, 1995), 2 Co 4:7–18.

[2] David E. Garland, 2 Corinthians, vol. 29, The New American Commentary (Nashville: Broadman & Holman Publishers, 1999), 220–221.

[3] NASB, 2 Co 4:16–18.