Requiem for a Brother

Yesterday, there was a memorial service for a brother in Christ who had died unexpectedly and suddenly at age 64.  Occasionally, there is time at a memorial for those in attendance to share their remembrances, and so, as is my custom, I had prepared brief remarks.  The service was more scripted with appropriate music, a solid message sharing the gospel, and one eulogy that captured the deceased’s life in Christ.  That being the case, I decided to share below what I had.

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I served with Steve Ball on the deacon board, and what I most noted of him was a constant refrain from all who remembered him: he was a servant.  Every willing and ready to help where needed, he was a tireless worker when the need arose.  He did his work without fanfare and exemplified the Biblical standard to do everything

not by way of eye-service, as people-pleasers, but with sincerity of heart, fearing the Lord.  Whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men, knowing that from the Lord you will receive the inheritance as your reward.  You are serving the Lord Christ.  (Col 3:22-24)

That will be sorely missed.

I was also in a small group that Steve and Coleen were part of, and since his death, I have had multiple conversations in which the subject was broached that our study group was literally dying off.  You see, in less than a year and a half, three of our number have left this life and entered the presence of their Lord.  In a way, we are getting used to it.

As I considered this more, I could not help but be glad for those who have gone before.  Even now Steve and the others are joining angels, archangels, and all the company of heaven in praising God for all He is and all He has done.  What joy for them, but not just for them, because each Sunday morning, we get to join our voices in the chorus of all who have died in Christ.  We look forward to a day when we shall also be with those who have gone before, not simply to reminisce or enjoy each other’s company, but to join with the throng in giving all glory, laud, and honor to our King.

Until that time, we await—sometimes patiently, sometimes not—to be with our Lord Jesus.  We long for the day of His return, but we may die instead.  Either way, we look forward to a resurrection and eternity with the One who died to save us.  And that is worth waiting for.

It Is Finished

I had the privilege of writing a piece (based on Romans 10:5-8) for Grace for Sinners in their Ascension Series. My thesis was that we try to add works of faith to gain more righteousness before God, but nothing more is needed. The work is complete in Christ.

This morning I learned that the piece had been posted. You can read it here.

To Die May Be Gain, but It Hurts

For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain. (Phil 1:21)

If you pay attention at a visitation or funeral following a Christian’s death, the above verse gets used regularly—and for good reason. Death, for the believer, does not end at the grave. For a time, the spirit departs and is with Christ in heaven (Phil 1:23) until the time when the body is resurrected on the last day, and even then, there remains the promise that we will ever be with the Lord (1 Thess 4:17).

While this promise is a glorious truth, there remains another facet of that same believer’s death. Someone is left behind who grieves. That’s right—Christians grieve. Death hurts everyone involved. Consider what was going through Paul as he wrote of Epaphroditus who did nothing but be the deliverer of what the church in Philippi had sent:

Indeed he was ill, near to death. But God had mercy on him, and not only on him but on me also, lest I should have sorrow upon sorrow. (Phil 2:27)

“Sorrow upon sorrow”—that’s pain; that’s anguish. The one who dies has his spirit unnaturally removed from his body. Spouses, family, and friends suffer the unnatural separation of their relationships. There is pain that must be endured in order to move forward with life. Paul fully expected the worst but was overjoyed that the Lord reversed what seemed to be the inevitable.

While we are not like those who have no hope (1 Thess 4:13) and are able to rejoice in the present state of the believer before Jesus, we long for death to be thrown into the lake of fire at the last judgment. There will be a final reconciliation of all things in Christ, but until then, we move forward longing for our own final existence with Jesus.

… And He Died

When Enoch had lived 65 years, he fathered Methuselah. Enoch walked with God after he fathered Methuselah 300 years and had other sons and daughters.  Thus all the days of Enoch were 365 years. Enoch walked with God, and he was not, for God took him.  (Gen 5:21-24)

People often look at chapter 5 of Genesis and are amazed at how long everyone lived. Yet the point of the chapter is not the long lives, but the death which man cannot avoid.  Even though men lived much longer, death reigned over them.  Men still pursue long life but cannot avoid death.  God had created men to live but human rebellion brought only death instead of a better way of life.

Why does death hold us so fast?  We are bound fast by God’s that we are dust and to dust we shall return.  What is to free us from this sentence of death?  Our only hope is in the Word made flesh, Jesus Christ, who was willing to become one with us to free us from the curse of the Law.  Jesus subjected Himself to the power of death that through Him death might be destroyed.  No descendant of Adam could free himself from the power of death, yet Christ, the Second Adam, came to give us life.

In the midst of all this death, Enoch is born in the seventh generation as a message of hope.  In this “generation of the Sabbath,” God gives rest to a son of Adam who is under the curse.  Enoch, whose name means “one trained up” (like a child in Prov. 22:6) or “dedicated” (like the temple in 1 Kings 8:63), has been taught to trust in  the Promise.  Enoch walked with God, that is, he lived by faith in the righteousness of the coming Savior, as did Noah (6:8-9) and Abram (15:6).  Enoch’s 365 years remind us of the days in each year and how quickly the days of our lives pass away.  Here God promises that the days of our lives are numbered and He will give true rest from all our labors.  God takes Enoch’s body away from the grip of death to testify that our bodies are His temple, set apart in Holy Baptism.  In this one man we see the abundance of the grace of God revealed.  This grace of God is now graciously extended to all men through the one Man, Jesus Christ.  The shortness of the days of Enoch reminds us that real life is only given through faith in this one Man who conquered death by His own death.

Enoch’s son, Methuselah, is not to be envied.  The length of his days only returns him to the burden of sinful existence and death.  Methuselah means “the sent male.”  Enoch had sent his son to proclaim the news of God’s grace, just as Jesus sent out his ministers of the Gospel to proclaim salvation by grace through faith in Christ alone.  The “good news” for Methuselah was not his 969 years but the saving grace of God in Christ for eternity.

Karl Fabrizius, Gottestiendst, Vol. 22.1

Having Been Baptized, Walk in Newness of Life

Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death?  You have renounced sin, and have become dead to it, and were buried with Christ; how is it possible then that you should allow this same sin?  We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.  The very sacrament of baptism has taught you to flee from sin, for baptism carries in it the representation of our Lord's death, for in it you have shared both in the death and in the resurrection of Christ.  It becomes you therefore to lead a new life, as it were, and one suited to Him in whose resurrection you have partaken.

Theodoret of Cyrus, "The Letter to the Romans" on Romans 6:3-4

Zombies and the Art of Negotiation

Halloween is nigh, and American culture turns to the macabre with its multiple fictional creatures including the zombie.  Watch B movies with a "living dead" plot, and you notice a recurring theme: be gone or be lunch.  There is no reasoning with zombies because they no longer have the capacity.  Driven entirely by instinct, they are dead and walk around with a single, voracious, insatiable purpose—self-satisfaction.  So as I was pondering the advertisements being displayed during this time of year, it struck me like an old Norm Crosby line:  I resemble that remark!

And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience—among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind.  (Eph 2:1-3)

That's right: people come into this world as zombies—spiritual zombies.  We are dead and do not realize it.  (Bruce Willis was not the only one who had to figure this out.)  Everything we do in this world is for our own appetites being guided by depraved thoughts.  For the majority, the only difference between real people and movie zombies is that the former dress better, but inside both are dead men's bones.

Jesus told one particular story about a father with two sons that described how dead men acted.  The younger son demanded his share of the estate and squandered it all on reckless living and ended up slopping hogs and going hungry (Luke 15:11-16).  Why did the son act so foolishly?  Because he was dead: the father said as much (Luke 15:32).  This sad state of affairs finally brought the younger son to his senses, and he said to himself:

But when he came to himself, he said, "How many of my father’s hired servants have more than enough bread, but I perish here with hunger!  I will arise and go to my father, and I will say to him, 'Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you.'"  (Luke 15:17-18)

The son is absolutely correct in everything he stated.  He recognized the sin and against whom it had been perpetrated, then made a definite plan to make a confession.  But then he tried to concoct a plan:

I am no longer worthy to be called your son.  Treat me as one of your hired servants.  (Luke 15:19)

The son sounds very humble and pious, but what is really happening?  He is trying to concoct a bargain.  He wants to negotiate a deal.  The problem is that he is dead.  There is nothing to bargain with.  This is exactly how the walking dead negotiate with the living, but the very attempt is ludicrous.  For instance, how could someone present his righteous thoughts and deeds before the living God, when they are in actuality polluted items being presented by the unclean (Is 64:6)?  Zombies are terrible negotiators, but they try anyway.  They just don't know any better.

You may not realize that there is another zombie that is less prominent in the story Jesus told.  He is called the older brother.  He does not appear to be as bad off as the younger, but he is.  The only difference is that his self-satisfaction was derived from the long-term prospect of a future inheritance rather than short-term wonton living.  But he was still dead as evident by the reaction to his father and the brother he refuses to acknowledge.

Is there a cure for the zombie condition?  Yes, it is life.  The younger son had planned to proffer a deal.  After he confessed his son, the father refuses to allow him the chance to deal.  Instead, he bestows extravagant grace on his son.  The one who was dead is now declared alive and welcomed into the family (Luke 15:32).  No amount of bargaining can gain this.  It must be freely given by the One who alone has the authority to give it.

But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved—and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.  For by grace you have been saved through faith.  And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.  For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.  (Eph 2:4-10)

Life was made available by virtue of Christ, the only living one, coming into this world and dying on the cross for those who were dead in sin in order to make them alive.  Believe it.