Lunn’s Colonial Funeral Home
Wichita Falls, Texas
September 26, 2011
Witness to the Resurrection
Stanley Ray Kennedy
(September 3, 1922 – September 23, 2011)
THE KIND OF FAITH
THAT BRINGS LIFE
Isaac Butterworth
1 Corinthians 15:12-22 (NIV)
12 …If it is preached that Christ has been raised from the dead, how can some of you say that there is no resurrection of the dead? 13 If there is no resurrection of the dead, then not even Christ has been raised. 14 And if Christ has not been raised, our preaching is useless and so is your faith. 15 More than that, we are then found to be false witnesses about God, for we have testified about God that he raised Christ from the dead. But he did not raise him if in fact the dead are not raised. 16 For if the dead are not raised, then Christ has not been raised either. 17 And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins. 18 Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ are lost. 19 If only for this life we have hope in Christ, we are to be pitied more than all men.
20 But Christ has indeed been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. 21 For since death came through a man, the resurrection of the dead comes also through a man. 22 For as in Adam all die, so in Christ all will be made alive.
I met Stan Kennedy at Presbyterian Manor. I conduct a weekly service in the day room at the Health Care Center, and, one day, I noticed a man sitting in a chair near the entrance. From what I could tell, he was rather tall and trim. One leg was crossed over another, and he was leaning back, with his arms resting on the arms of the chair. But there was nothing about him that suggested that he was withdrawn or even that he had come simply to rest. In fact, it was just the opposite. He was present, if you know what I mean. And what I mean is that he was fully engaged. He was there to worship. He was there to attend to God’s Word. And he honored me by giving me his full attention. He did this week after week.
On that first day, he introduced himself. ‘Stan Kennedy,’ he said. And he began to tell me a little about himself. He had taught Sunday School. I learned later that he had taught one class for thirty years. He had written an article or two for the paper. Did I want to read one of them? ‘Yes,’ I said, ‘I would like that.’ So, the next week, he brought me a clipping.
I had no idea at the time that I was meeting one of the most creative, gifted, versatile men I had ever known. I would learn that only later – and not, of course, from Stan. But what I did learn from him – although he never said a word about it; he didn’t have to – is that he was a seasoned and mature disciple of Jesus Christ.
Some people know their Bible – and Stan certainly knew his – but he knew more than what was in it. He knew its author – personally, intimately. And, therefore, it had power in his life.
He saw the world and everything in it through the lens of Scripture. He knew why it was written and what it could accomplish. ‘The word of God is living and active,’ the Bible says. ‘Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart’ (Heb. 4:12). What I could see in Stan is that here was a man who often submitted himself to the judgment of Scripture. And the thing about men like that is: They are humbled by their sin. They know their need of salvation. They cast themselves at the feet of Jesus. And, instead of being condemned, they receive mercy.
Jesus once said, ‘Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy’ (Matt. 5:7). And we could easily turn that around without doing any violence whatsoever to the Scriptures: ‘Blessed are those who are shown mercy, for they are the merciful.’ One is proportionate to the other; it’s a kind of biblical ratio. ‘He who has been forgiven little loves little,’ Jesus said (Luke 7:47). But those who are forgiven much love much.
Think about it. No one who has ever had the burden of his own sin lifted from him by the grace of God will be less than gracious with the sins of others. Karen Kramer, one of Stan’s daughters, shared with me a poem by Michelle Labbe, entitled ‘When I Say I’m a Christian.’ It has a line in that reads, ‘When I say…“I’m a Christian,” I do not wish to judge. I have no authority. I only know I’m loved.’
And that’s another ratio in biblical reasoning: Those who are most secure in God’s love for them are most loving toward others. You understand what I mean when I say that Stan looked at life through the lens of Scripture. Another way to put it is that Scripture forged his spirit. His understanding, his affections, his will – all three – were shaped by the gospel.
God’s great program with each of us is to shape us, to conform us to the image of his Son.
The Apostle Paul says to us in Galatians, ‘My dear children, …I am…in the pains of childbirth until Christ is formed in you’ (Gal. 4:19), and in Romans he says that God ‘predestined [us] to be conformed to the likeness of his Son’ (Rom. 8:29). The Apostle John says the same thing. ‘We know that when [Christ] appears, we shall be like him… (1 John 3:2). Paul, again, says that ‘we…are being transformed into his likeness with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit’ (2 Cor. 3:18).
And that’s what I witnessed in Stan: the Spirit of God at work to make him more and more like Jesus. That’s why I said that he was a mature and seasoned disciple of our Lord.
Maturity in Christ has nothing to do with thinking we’ve ‘arrived’ at some point of perfection. We’re not likely to meet many perfect people this side of glory. But what maturity does mean is to be steadily, over time in the millworks of the Spirit. It means, as Paul says elsewhere, to ‘work out your salvation with fear and trembling,’ knowing that ‘it is God who works in you to will and to act according to his good purpose’ (Phil. 2:12f.).
Stan’s life is God’s finished product now; he is in the Lord’s presence. We are still in process. We still have a part of the journey to go. But we may go the distance we have left in confidence. Stan and others like him are guarantors of a sort. They show us by their lives that there is not a moment wasted that is spent for God.
We read a few moments ago from 1 Corinthians 15, where Paul defends the doctrine of the resurrection. We ended with verse 22, where Paul says, ‘As in Adam all die, so in Christ all will be made alive.’ What Stan knew – and what you and I need to keep in mind – is that you can’t be in more than one place at a time. Every person is either ‘in Adam’ or ‘in Christ.’ There’s no middle ground, and there are no exceptions. You are either ‘in Adam,’ or you are ‘in Christ.’ I am either ‘in Adam,’ or I am ‘in Christ.’ One of them is my representative before God.
And my life will be weighed on the performance of one or the other. Adam heads up the old humanity; Christ heads up the new humanity. If I rely on Adam’s record, which, as you know, wasn’t that great, then my road leads to death. As Paul put it, ‘In Adam all die.’
But if I rely on Christ’s record, which, as you also know, was perfect, then my road leads to life. Again, as Paul put it, ‘In Christ all will be made alive.’ Relying on Christ is what the Scriptures call faith, and God requires of us that we abandon Adam’s way and put our faith in his Son, Jesus Christ.
That’s where Stan’s faith was. If you knew him at all, you know this about him. Of course, some people may think that Stan was mistaken. And he was if he trusted Christ for life and Christ is dead.
Paul says, ‘If Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile.’ There you have it! If Easter didn’t happen – if Jesus did not walk out of the tomb, if at sunrise, the Son did not rise – then, as Paul puts it, ‘you are still in your sins.’ And ‘those…who have fallen asleep’ – like Stan – ‘are lost.’ ‘If only for this life we have hope in Christ,’ Paul says, ‘we are to be pitied more than all men.’
So, what do you think? Do you think that Stan is to be pitied today because he put every ounce of hope he had in Christ? Do you think he ever for one minute thought his faith was futile? Do you think he had hope in Christ only for this life?
Of course not! Paul says, ‘But Christ has indeed been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep’ – of those, like Stan, who are no longer ‘in Adam’ but, instead, are ‘in Christ.’
The long and the short of it is: Whatever happened to Christ on the other side of death is what happens to those who are ‘in Christ.’ Whatever happened to Christ on the other side of death is what happened to Stan. Whatever happened to Christ on the other side of death is what happens to everyone who puts his faith in Christ.
Christ lives. He conquered death, and he lives. So…what? Stan lives. And so will all who are ‘in Christ.’ ‘We are more than conquerors,’ the Apostle says,’ through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord’ (Rom. 8:37ff.).
There’s nothing futile in that kind of faith. That’s the kind of faith that neutralizes death. That’s the kind of faith that brings life.
