Funeral Service: Jesus Is the Resurrection and the Life
John 11:25-27
Sermon by Rick Crandall)
(Prepared February 28, 2024)
BACKGROUND
*This message was preached for the funeral of a longtime Christian friend who was known for his kindness to others. I will call him John Smith.
SONG 1
WELCOME AND THANKS:
*On behalf of John's family, thank you for being here today. Thank you also for your prayers, food, and many other expressions of love for John and his family.
OBITUARY:
*We are gathered together this morning in loving memory of Mr. John Smith. John was born on January 1st, 1944, and last Friday, he was surrounded by his loving family when John went to his eternal home in Heaven. . .
*ONE OF THE MOST IMPORTANT REASONS WHY WE ARE HERE TODAY IS TO HELP FIND COMFORT FOR OUR LOSS.
*It is always hard for us to say good-bye to someone we love. But please know that our grief in times like this is not a sign of weak faith. It is simply the natural result of losing someone we love. We seldom have much sorrow over the deaths of people we don't know, but when we lose someone that we are close to, there will always be pain.
*An old friend explained it best to me after her godly daddy passed away. She said, "I know he's gone to Heaven, -- But he's gone." That's what hurts, -- so it's okay to grieve and cry. But where can we find the comfort that we need?
*Family and friends can help us in times like this. They are a gift from God. But our greatest source of comfort is God Himself. 1 Peter 5:7 tells us to cast all our cares on Him, because He cares for us. And God really does care. He knows what you're going through right now. He can relate to your pain.
*And you may wonder how the God of the whole universe could relate to the pain you are going through. But our Heavenly Father knows what it's like to go through the death of His only begotten Son. And Isaiah 53 tells us that Jesus was a man of sorrows, acquainted with grief. Also remember that when Jesus was here on earth, sometime along the way, His adoptive father Joseph must have passed away. The Bible doesn't give us the details, but we never see Joseph again after Jesus was 12 years old.
*God knows exactly what you're going through. He cares much for us much more than we can comprehend. And when His disciples were troubled on the night before the cross, Jesus comforted them with these words from John 14:
1. "Let not your heart be troubled; you believe in God, believe also in Me.
2. In My Father's house are many mansions; if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you.
3. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself; that where I am, there you may be also.
4. And where I go you know, and the way you know.''
5. Thomas said to Him, "Lord, we do not know where You are going, and how can we know the way?''
6. Jesus said to him, "I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me."
PRAYER: Let's trust in these words from Jesus today, as we go to God in prayer.
EULOGY: We are here to help find comfort for our loss, but we are also here to honor John's life. Romans 13:7 tells us to give "honor to whom honor" is due. And there is no doubt that John deserves our honor today. (Testimonies from John's daughter and a lifelong friend.)
SONG 2: "It Is Not Death to Die" (1)
MESSAGE:
*Family and friends: The best thing I can tell you to do today is trust in the Lord. Trust in the Lord, and keep trusting in the Lord Jesus Christ. In John chapter 11, one of Jesus’ best friends had died. His name was Lazarus. And Lazarus' two sisters Mary and Martha were going through the same kind of pain that you have today.
*When Jesus got close to their village, Martha went to meet Him and she said, "Lord, if You had been here, my brother would not have died." Martha said that because she knew Jesus could heal any disease. He had already done it countless times. But Jesus wanted Martha to keep trusting Him even when her heart was full of sorrow. He also wanted her to know that He is the only source of eternal life. So Jesus said this to Martha: "I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in Me, though he may die, he shall live. And whoever lives and believes in Me shall never die. Do you believe this?''
*Martha surely did believe. And hearing the words Jesus spoke to her that day, I urge you to believe in Jesus Christ.
1. FIRST: PUT YOUR TRUST IN THE LORD’S POWER.
*What kind of man in his right mind could say, "I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in Me, though he may die, he shall live. And whoever lives and believes in Me shall never die.''
*What kind of man could honestly say that? -- No ordinary man. But Jesus Christ is a man like no other. Before He humbled Himself to be born as a man 2,000 years ago, in all eternity past Jesus Christ was the Almighty Son of God. He is both the creator and the sustainer of all life. And Jesus has the power to give eternal life to everyone who will put their trust in Him.
2. SO PUT YOUR TRUST IN THE LORD’S POWER. AND PUT YOUR TRUST IN THE LORD'S PROMISE OF ETERNAL LIFE.
*Here, again in John 11:25-27, Jesus made this amazing promise to Martha:
25. . . "I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in Me, though he may die, he shall live.
26. And whoever lives and believes in Me shall never die. Do you believe this?''
27. She said to Him, "Yes, Lord, I believe that You are the Christ, the Son of God, who is to come into the world.''
*Martha did the right thing. She trusted in Jesus' promise of everlasting life. Think about this wonderful promise, living forever with God in a perfect place called Heaven.
*We can’t imagine how wonderful Heaven will be, but Revelation 21:2-5 tells us a little about it. There the Apostle John said:
2. Then I, John, saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.
3. And I heard a loud voice from heaven saying, "Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and He will dwell with them, and they shall be His people, and God Himself will be with them and be their God.
4. And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes; there shall be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying; and there shall be no more pain, for the former things have passed away.''
5. Then He who sat on the throne said, "Behold, I make all things new.'' And He said to me, "Write, for these words are true and faithful.''
*God has promised a perfect, eternal life in Heaven for everyone who will receive Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior.
*John Smith certainly believed in the Lord's promise of eternal life. And we all need to believe it, because at the best, life in this world is very short. Most older people will tell you that life goes by in the blink of an eye. And one wise man said, "We need to be living like we are leaving, -- because we are surely leaving this world. And we must get ready to go." (2)
*How can we get ready? There is only one way: Trust in the Savior who made this great promise to us.
3. PUT YOUR TRUST IN THE LORD'S PROMISE OF ETERNAL LIFE. AND PUT YOUR TRUST IN HIS PROOF OF ETERNAL LIFE.
*We find part of the proof later in John 11 where Jesus went to the graveside with Lazarus’ family and friends. There the Lord raised Lazarus from the dead even though he had already been in the tomb for four days. Jesus cried with a loud voice, "Lazarus, come forth!'' And that is exactly what Lazarus did. He was just as alive as we are today. And that was great proof of the Lord’s power and promise.
*But soon there would be much greater proof. It started with the love of God. As John 3:16 says, "For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life." And on the night before the cross, in John 15:13 Jesus said, "Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down his life for his friends."
*This great love led Jesus to die on the cross for all of us. And there on the cross, Jesus took the punishment for all our sins, for John Smith's sins, for my sins, -- and for yours. This is why Romans 5:8 says, "God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us."
*The only reason why anybody can go to Heaven is because Jesus took the punishment for our sins when He died on the cross. Then 3 days later Jesus rose again, in everlasting victory over sin and death. That's why the Lord's promise of eternal life is for you and me today.
*You see, God doesn't love us because we are good. He loves us because He is good. And He loves us so much that He wants to have a personal relationship with all of us. God wants to be our loving Heavenly Father, our brother, and our best friend.
*And John Smith is in Heaven with Jesus today. His earthly body may be dead, but he’s not dead! John is more alive than ever before. But it's not because he was a good husband, dad, grandfather, brother-in-law, neighbor, and friend. John was surely all of these things, and more. But it is never our righteousness that takes us to Heaven, it's the Lord's righteousness. It's not our goodness that gets us to Heaven. It's God's amazing grace. And John is in Heaven today because He received Jesus Christ as his Lord and Savior.
CONCLUSION:
*Now, more than anything else, John wants us to be ready to go too. So put your trust in the Lord Jesus Christ. Call on the Lord to save you today. And keep trusting in the Lord. He will surely help you get through difficult times like this. Then, at just the right time, Jesus will take you home to Heaven too.
SONG 3
FRIENDS STAND
CLOSING PRAYER
GRAVESIDE SERVICE:
*Dear family and friends: The most important thing I try to stress here at the grave is that John is not here. Because of his faith in Jesus Christ, John is surely in Heaven right now. We know this, because in 2 Corinthians 5:8 the Apostle Paul tells Christians, "We are confident, yes, well pleased rather to be absent from the body and to be present with the Lord."
*For all Christians, "to be absent from the body" IS "to be present with the Lord," so John is present with the Lord right now. When he took his last breath in this world, John's soul flew up to Heaven to be with Jesus.
*My favorite testimony about this truth came from one of our longtime friends. She was a dear, Christian lady that Mary and I knew for over 40 years. Her name was Ann Smith, and she went home to Heaven in September 2018. It was on Ann's 90th birthday, and she had been praying to go for weeks.
*Years ago, Ann wrote this testimony about her parents. This happened back in 1969. And Ann said, "My Dad went home to be with the Lord (while he was) in the hospital on the same floor as my Mom, who was in a room just around the corner.
*(Mom was) in a coma as she had been for several days. We were not able to tell her about Dad until some days after the funeral, when she regained consciousness. And when we told her, she looked at us with the most serene, peaceful look and replied, 'Yes, I saw him take his flight.'"
*Ann said, "I never doubted for a moment that she did. She never shed a tear."
*John Smith has also taken his flight home to Heaven. He is not here. We are here to lay his body to rest, and this is partly out of respect, because our bodies were created in the image of God. They are a gift from God for us to use in our time down here. But we also lay this body to rest because this is not the end of the story for John's body. When the Lord comes back, John is coming with Him, and this body will be raised again from the dead. It will be transformed into a perfect body, like Jesus' resurrected body. Then John will move back into his resurrected body to live in it forever.
*This is the sure hope for everyone who has received Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior. And it is one of the greatest comforts we can ever have in times like this.
*The Apostle Paul explained all of this to us 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18. There, Paul was speaking to all Christians, and he said:
13. . . I do not want you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning those who have fallen asleep, lest you sorrow as others who have no hope.
14. For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so God will bring with Him those who sleep in Jesus.
15. For this we say to you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive and remain until the coming of the Lord will by no means precede those who are asleep.
16. For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first.
17. Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And thus we shall always be with the Lord.
18. Therefore comfort one another with these words.
*Make sure you are ready to go to Heaven by receiving Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior. And Christians take comfort in the truth that we will surely see John Smith again.
CLOSING PRAYER
(1) "It is not death to die" Author: César Malan (1832); Translator: George W. Bethune (1847)
-https://hymnary.org/text/it_is_not_death_to_die
-https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/blogs/justin-taylor/it-is-not-death-to-die/
(2) Original source unknown
