Death’s Funeral
(Masterpiece of Hope Series)
Revelation 1:9-28
We can have courage because Christ is Eternal
Chapel Service of Plainfield Christian Church
Rob Hoos
The Finality of Death
When I was just around the age of five or six years old I attended my first funeral. They have since become something that I am used to, but this first time was something that was very memorable for me.
I remember standing there, barely able to see into the coffin, and thinking to myself how strange it was that everyone was so sad over one person sleeping, and yet wondering to myself how he was able to sleep in the midst of all the hubbub.
As I stood there next to this corpse, I decided that I was going to get everyone to stop crying and being sad by waking him up. So I began to shake this dead body that was lying before me. Once my dad saw what was going on he quickly snagged hold of me and brought me to the waiting room of the funeral home to explain what death was. I remember that it was a tough concept for me to wrap my mind around, but once I began to understand what he meant it rocked my world. I began to feel a sense of finality in this life.
Ecclesiastes 9:2-6 (Take special note of 5-6)
2It is the same for all There is one fate for the righteous and for the wicked; for the good, for the clean and for the unclean; for the man who offers a sacrifice and for the one who does not sacrifice. As the good man is, so is the sinner; as the one who swears is, so is the one who is afraid to swear.
3This is an evil in all that is done under the sun, that there is one fate for all men Furthermore, the hearts of the sons of men are full of evil and insanity is in their hearts throughout their lives. Afterwards they go to the dead.
4For whoever is joined with all the living, there is hope; surely a live dog is better than a dead lion.
5For the living know they will die; but the dead do not know anything, nor have they any longer a reward, for their memory is forgotten.
6Indeed their love, their hate and their zeal have already perished, and they will no longer have a share in all that is done under the sun.
Death happens to us all doesn’t it. It doesn’t matter who we are, or what we have done, death will inevitably find us. When death finds a person, all of his passions, his loves and hates, and even his memory will eventually fade away into nothing.
John’s situation
In my own life I have experienced the finality of death when it comes to loved ones. I still remember very well the day that my grandfather died. I remember the sting of that moment, when I realized that all hopes of him being baptized into the Lord, all hopes of him publicly proclaiming Christ were gone. Death stings, it hurts us, it hurts the people that we care about, and it ravishes this world in its cold embrace.
Then here’s John, being exiled on the island of Patmos because of his continuing faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. His is drawing near to the end of his life, being nearly in his seventies or eighties. Death is becoming a much more apparent conclusion to his story. Surely while suffering the hardships that came with life as an exile he couldn’t help but remember his friends, all martyred for the gospel message. Peter, John, James, Andrew, are all gone; now John is the only one left alive of the twelve.
Now this old disciple stands on this island, during an ordinary, run-of-the-mill kind of day.
All of the sudden, the ordinary, the temporal, the mortal, was shattered as the extraordinary appeared behind the aged disciple.
Christ Appears
Revelation 1:9-16 (Describing certain aspects as I go through)
9I, John, your brother and fellow partaker in the tribulation and kingdom and perseverance which are in Jesus, was on the island called Patmos because of the word of God and the testimony of Jesus.
10I was in the Spirit on the Lord’s day, and I heard behind me a loud voice like the sound of a trumpet,
11saying, "Write in a book what you see, and send it to the seven churches: to Ephesus and to Smyrna and to Pergamum and to Thyatira and to Sardis and to Philadelphia and to Laodicea."
12Then I turned to see the voice that was speaking with me. And having turned I saw seven golden lampstands;
13and in the middle of the lampstands I saw one like a son of man, clothed in a robe reaching to the feet, and girded across His chest with a golden sash.
14His head and His hair were white like white wool, like snow; and His eyes were like a flame of fire.
15His feet were like burnished bronze, when it has been made to glow in a furnace, and His voice was like the sound of many waters.
16In His right hand He held seven stars, and out of His mouth came a sharp two-edged sword; and His face was like the sun shining in its strength.
• Jesus appears to John with a loud command. Bright, shining like the sun at noon day Jesus stands amongst his churches as a high priest. His eyes aglow with zeal and jealousy for his people, his hair pure and white. His voice is weighty and demands attention, the same voice that spoke creation into existence now stands as a sword to judge the nations and comfort his people. He is the possessor of the church. He shines with an unapproachable light.
Jesus doesn’t just appear, but he appears in true form. The form that he left to descend to earth and live amongst us is now his once again.
At this sight, John does what any sensible person would do. He fell down flat on his belly at the feet of this Jesus. There he trembles.
The Everlasting
Jesus then encourages John in a strange way.
17When I saw Him, I fell at His feet like a dead man And He placed His right hand on me, saying, "Do not be afraid; I am the first and the last, 18and the living One; and I was dead, and behold, I am alive forevermore, and I have the keys of death and of Hades.
I am the first and the last, the living one.
Jesus is not just saying that he existed before we came to life. He is not saying simply that he existed before the world was made. Jesus is saying that there is never a time when he did not exist.
Colossians 1:15ff says:
15He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation.
16For by Him all things were created, both in the heavens and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities--all things have been created through Him and for Him. 17He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together.
Jesus has no beginning of life, nor does he have an end to it. He is the living one. It is a part of his being that characterizes who he is. He is the one who is alive, who has always been alive.
Therefore, as Paul said in Romans 8:31, “If God is for us, who can be against us.”
If man should come up against us, to threaten or oppose us, why should we be afraid? Just as John ought not to be afraid of the Roman government, nor of the people of the island where he was sent, so to we ought not be afraid of any kind of threat or plot perpetrated by man.
This gives us a new boldness as we live through our lives. This gives us a new boldness and strength as we try and be a witness to Christ in this world. We have no reason to fear what others think of us or want to do to us. Our God is bigger than they are.
As the psalmist has said, “The Lord is with me, I will not be afraid. What can man do to me?
We have also heard it said (by the apostle Peter) that the devil roams about us like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. It is true that the devil is a dangerous adversary, and that he is very deceitful and strong. Yet he is a created being. Jesus is eternal, he has no beginning and no end, in fact, he created the devil (it was the devil that first rebelled). The creator is easily stronger that the created. What have we to fear?
I was dead, and behold, I am alive forevermore, and I have the keys of death and of Hades.
The reality of the matter is this: The most Satan or another person can do to us is to kill us. When it really all comes down to it, death is all they have in their arsenal.
But Jesus died, and then overcame death and the grave by the very power of God, His power. Jesus is victorious over the grave.
When Christ resurrected, he claimed his authority. In Matthew 28:18 we read:
18And Jesus came up and spoke to them, saying, "All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth.
We also see this concept reflected in Romans 14:9,
9For to this end Christ died and lived again, that He might be Lord both of the dead and of the living.
Jesus says something very powerful to the apostle John in these passages. I died, but death could never hold me. Behold, death has absolutely no power over me, in fact, I am master over death!
Though death still hurts, and is still an enemy that is yet to be defeated (1 Corinthians 15:26), we have a promise from Jesus that we will be like him in overcoming the grave.
Romans 6:5
5If we have been united with him like this in his death, we will certainly also be united with him in his resurrection.
Death’s days are numbered, and death is not the final act in the plays of our lives.
One day, we will be raised victorious by the power and might of the Lord Jesus Christ. On that day, death will be defeated and we shall triumph over him just as Christ did. It is Jesus Christ who holds all power and might over the lives of people.
Though we may be killed for our faith, or we may suffer severely, the ultimate end of humanity, death, is no longer a threat. Not because Christ has already ultimately defeated it, but because he has showed us that he can defeat it, and then promised us that he will defeat it on the last day.
Christ’s victory is already decided, and he has promised us that we too will share with him victory over death in that day.
As Paul says in 1 Corinthians 15:
54But when this perishable will have put on the imperishable, and this mortal will have put on immortality, then will come about the saying that is written, "DEATH IS SWALLOWED UP in victory. 55"O DEATH, WHERE IS YOUR VICTORY? O DEATH, WHERE IS YOUR STING?" 56The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law; 57but thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.
The victory is this, that the temporal is consumed by the eternal.
To Jesus is the ultimate victory, and that is why we can have courage. Courage to live lives for the Lord unfettered from the fears and cares that accompany life.
• We can go the extra mile in our giving because we do not fear poverty.
• We can go the extra mile with our evangelism because we neither care what man nor Satan can do to us.
• We can go on that mission trip.
• We can quit the sins of life because of the Power God that dwells within us.
• We can live lives of reckless faith for God.
Our enemy death has long stolen that which we long for. We long for the eternal.
As Solomon says in Ecclesiastes 3:11
11He has made everything appropriate in its time He has also set eternity in their heart, yet so that man will not find out the work which God has done from the beginning even to the end.
Maybe you find yourself becoming wearied by life, and you feel that it is getting tough to keep on going. Remember that Jesus has overcome death. Remember that he has given us eternity with him. He has filled that longing that is in the heart of man by overcoming mortality. And now, we find ourselves longing, and waiting for that day when Jesus will return and take us to be with him.
One Kentucky Night
I think that God has given us these pictures of what we were meant for in nature as a testimony to our hearts cry for him.
And that’s why, one night my friends and I found ourselves where we did. On our way back from watching a basketball game in Kentucky, we found ourselves driving through the foothills of Kentucky at night. As we looked up in the night sky we realized that there was something going on in the sky that we couldn’t see to well from Cincinnati. The sky was clear, and there were almost no lights from cities or houses. Silently, as if in total agreement with what needed to happen, we pulled over to the side of the road and exited the vehicle. Then we all walked out into this grassy field near an abandoned barn and laid down on the cool grass. As we looked up at the night sky, we were struck by the sheer volume of stars that were out that night. We could even see one of the spiral arms of the Milky Way galaxy. The longer we looked, the more stars became visible. We were almost trembling as we sat there and looked into what seemed like an eternity.
He is the sum of all of our hopes, dreams, and yearnings.
He is the fulfillment of our life’s desires.
Let us then live in awareness of his nature.
Shall we pray.
