One of your friends just died. You are at his funeral. This was one of your friends from work, who had no time for church or religion. That one who openly admitted to you that he did not believe in God. The way he lived his life confirmed that was true. He felt he had no need for a Savior. He would take his own responsibility for his sins, which he did not take too seriously. So, as you saw him lying there in the casket, you knew that his sins were still held against him by God. He had refused to accept the payment that Jesus made for them. Sadly, you're not able to hold out any hope for him, because he is now going to have to answer to God for his sins alone. Without Jesus.

You see a friend of his at the funeral. She says she is an atheist. This funeral is a horribly frightening thing for her! She has no more hope for her deceased friend than you do. But this funeral scares her so much worse because it reminds her of her own end that will come someday. And that is scary if you think death is the end! If you don=t know what comes after death, you make yourself believe that nothing comes after that! This atheist girl is also angry. She thinks life is unfair. She has no way of dealing with death! She is overwhelmed by the meaningless of life, that with everything you work for, once you are dead, you are dead. Game over. Her world has collapsed! She has no answers.

You see another friend of his at the funeral. This one does go to church. But from what you know about what his church teaches him, you know that he feels he has to take some responsibility for the welfare of his soul. He thinks that he has to live his life in such a way to please God if God is going to let him into heaven. And he is standing there at the casket looking worried. He is wondering about what might happen if he hasn=t led a good enough life when he is dead and lying in a casket! Because he is pretty sure that death is not the end. What if he doesn=t Apass the test@? What if he gets to the gates of heaven and he is told that he wasn=t good enough? And right as he is looking over his friend=s casket, he realizes that death terrifies him! He has no sure hope for those who have passed on before him, and he is worried about what is going to happen to himself! He believes in God, but he doesn=t know if he has pleased God enough!

The people at this funeral are grieving because they have no sure hope. This funeral is sad. It is more than sad. It is hopeless. The Apostle Paul didn=t want the Thessalonians in our reading to be ignorant and grieve like that. And he assured them that they had good reason not to! God doesn=t want us to have these horrible fears either, and He assures us that we have good reason not to!

Now imagine that you are at another funeral. But something is very different about this funeral! The hymns the group is singing strangely sound grand and triumphant, instead of mournful and sad! The tears that the family is shedding are the kind that you shed when you say goodbye to a loved one for a while, not the agonizing, traumatic tears of hopelessness you saw at the last funeral. After the funeral, you overhear the little girl whose father just died ask her mother where her father had gone. ATo be with Jesus,@ replied the mother. Then a friend with good intentions approached the widow and said, AI am so sorry that you lost your husband.@ But the daughter, who heard this, asked, AMother, is a thing lost when you know where it is?@ ANo, of course not,@ said her Mom. AWell, then, how can Daddy be lost when he has gone to be with Jesus?@

This funeral is as different from the other as night from day! There is some sadness, because you will miss the man who died. He was a friend of yours. But there is no question as to where he is. He is not lost. You, his family and his friends know without a doubt that he is with his Savior! He is with the Lord forever! He committed the same sins that are going to send the man in the first funeral to hell. But unlike him and his atheist friend, this man admitted he was sinful and knew he had to answer for his sins to Almighty God! And unlike his other friend, he knew that there was no way that he could pay for his sins. He relied solely on Jesus to take his sins away! And Jesus died for his sins and rose again so that death would be defeated, and so this man, and many others, would not have to fear death, because they know that it is merely their passageway to their true home - heaven! That is why this funeral is so different! These people are not ignorant like those who have no hope! They have a sure hope, because they know that Jesus died and rose for them!

You are all going to die someday. Which funeral would you want to be yours? You know that you have sinned. If you aren=t sure about that, go through some of the thoughts and words you have had already today. And yesterday. You know you have sinned. You know there is an Almighty God who punishes sin. So picture yourself in a casket. When you die, do you want to die claiming that sins don=t matter? Or die wondering if you did enough to make up for them? Or do you want to die trusting solely that Jesus has forgiven your sins by dying for you? And that He has given you that forgiveness and your faith in it as a free gift? Because Jesus rose from the dead, this is the hope that you and I are going to die with. This is the hope that Paul wanted the Thessalonians to have. This is the hope that God wants us to have and has given us! You, the members of Cross of Life, are reminded every day, that because of that cross, you have been given life!

I had a friend named Jason Brucker. He was in my class at the Seminary. We played in a band and had a lot of fun together. Our birthdays were only one day apart. But Jason has now celebrated five birthdays in heaven! Five years ago, he was killed in a terrible accident while driving to preach at a church one Sunday. But when we had a memorial service for him back at the Sem, was it sad? Hardly! We sang loud triumphant hymns as we encouraged one another with the same message that Jason was driving somewhere to encourage others with, the message that Jesus died and rose again! We sang the very hymn we are singing today, Jerusalem the Golden, complete with pitpe organ and kettle drums. Encourage each other with this great hope! Encourage others so that you don=t have to go to sad funerals for friends and relatives! And if the Lord returns before we die, think how awesome it will be to get to see Jason, your friends, your grandparents, parents, and brothers and sisters who have died before you, risen from the dead, and gone on ahead of us when we go to be with the Lord forever! Amen.

Back to the End Time page
Back to the Pastor's Messages page