Death and Funerals

Thank you again, Mr. Warren. Well, to say the least, this has been a very difficult time for us all, with major losses in two of our congregations. And, of course, I think being nearby, most of us are a new Rick better than the butchers, but it's still a pretty big hole to lose someone who'd been in the church for, I think, Gene and Patty were both baptized nearly 40 years ago, and long-time members. So we've got big holes. And at times like this, it's important to remember what we know, what we believe about God's plan, because that knowledge affects all that we do. In this case, one of the things we do is we mourn. I find it interesting, actually. Well, I had a sermon that I was planning on giving today, and I said, I'm going to set that aside. That's not quite, you know, I wouldn't be right to not address what we're going through. And interestingly, I remembered that a sermon that I'd started a couple of months ago and did a little work and then put it aside. At that time, I was kind of inspired by the memorial that we were seeing about the JFK assassination 50 years ago. And it struck me that they kept showing film footage of the memorial services, a public state funeral, of course, and a state funeral is a big deal. And it was very soon after that that Nelson Mandela died in another major state funeral. And that's what got me thinking along those lines. And there have been some, maybe one or two examples in the Bible of state funerals. And now that's of limited use to us because none of us are likely to be involved in a state funeral anytime soon. But a normal private funeral or memorial is something that most of us will be involved with. We all have to face it one time or another because all of us have to face death at one time or another. Interestingly, in the church, we talk about life after death and about the resurrection is a great deal. But as I gave it some thought, I thought, you know, we don't talk about death itself and funerals nearly as much.

And that's not a big surprise, though. People in general tend to avoid these subjects. We don't like death. It's a very unpleasant subject. And as we know, the Apostle Paul called it an enemy. And he said the last enemy that would be destroyed will be death. Well, we look for God's word for guidance in everything we do and how we live. So it's appropriate for me as a minister of the church to ask and to try to answer, what are funerals really? And I want to go from there to what we know about that, but how do we conduct them? And these questions are closely tied to more basic questions that we usually address at funerals, including what exactly is death? How does it? How should it affect us as Christians? We claim that we really understand the basic issues of life. We know what God is really doing, so we should be able to answer these questions. And we should know the answers, and I think we do. I don't think I'm going to tell you much that's new today, but it is, I think, appropriate for us to review these things. As I'm sure many of you have heard, one of the old adages says there's nothing certain but death and taxes. And another one that for some reason seems more amusing to me, they say, the one thing we can be sure of in this world is that no one gets out alive. The Bible verifies that. I'm not going to turn there, but Hebrews 9, 27 is where it says, it's appointed for all men to die once. After this, the judgment. As I said, we often focus on the after this more than what comes before that. Likewise, in Ecclesiastes chapter 3, a very poetic chapter of the Bible that we often cite, is where Solomon wrote that there is a time for everything. There is a time to be born, but there's also a time to die. Now, I don't need to explain to you that when someone we care about dies, it makes us sad. That hurts. And I'll add this, sometimes it makes us angry or very frustrated. And I saw that this week. And, you know, this is one of the cases where I don't think God condemns us for being a little bit angry. He's got broad shoulders. Now, He does tell us we need to get over that in time, but He built these emotions into us. God made us empathetic beings so that even if we don't know someone personally, we might be moved or saddened by their death. Especially if it occurs in a tragic or untimely way. And I know it's not uncommon even for some people to be moved to tears, watching a news report and hearing of such things. I thought of that because I see it happen on my own couch fairly often. Sue will suddenly start tearing up over a very sad news report. And we know fictional deaths. If they're portrayed in a way to play on our sensibilities, they can have a really strong emotional impact. And for most of my life, I've heard about the movie Old Yeller. And the thing is, they say, well, who can't cry when Old Yeller dies? I did find a way around it. I've actually never seen the movie. But it's so legend in our culture, I know about it. I think we've got a more modern version, in my opinion, if you've ever seen the movie Up. You know, when I watched that, I thought, how can anybody not be moved to tears at certain scenes? Some people feel that this is a weakness. Some might even call it a spiritual failing, since we know God's plan.

They might reason that we have no need to cry or be sad about death. Well, no, we do understand God's plan, and we understand that it's for everyone. But I do want to say strongly that it's not wrong to be saddened by a person's death. Crying and mourning is certainly okay. It's normal. When I think about our emotions, God created emotions in us. We see in the Bible that He laughs, that He gets angry. And it made me wonder if He gets sad, if He ever weeps. I think He might, because He made us in His image and after His likeness. Now, we can find several examples. I say, I can't find you a scripture that shows God crying. Well, unless we count Jesus Christ in the flesh, which that's another story. But we can find examples, one including Jesus Christ, the shortest verse in the Bible that says, Jesus wept.

But we can go earlier than that. We can find examples of many righteous people crying. Let's go to Genesis 23, verse 1. We'll start with the Father of the Faithful, Abraham. If there's anyone that I wouldn't mind being like, He's one. Genesis 23, beginning in the first verse. Here we see, Sarah lived 127 years, and these were the years of the life of Sarah. So Sarah died in Kerjath Arba, which is Hebrew, in the land of Canaan. And Abraham came to mourn for Sarah and weeped for her. This is a man that God loved, but, as I said, and I believe Abraham probably knew, he knew God's great plan, but he weeped and mourned for Sarah. And the rest of this chapter recounts how Abraham went and purchased a burial place, a cave and a field, and that burial place is a recurring theme in the rest of the book of Genesis. Later on, Abraham was buried there by his sons Isaac and Ishmael, and then Isaac was buried by his sons Jacob and Esau. Jacob made it clear that he wanted to be buried there. If we go to Genesis 49, early on in the chapter, Genesis 49, Jacob is telling his 12 sons what will befall them in their last days. Or, I'd say more likely, he was telling what would befall their descendants many years in the end time. And when that was finished, in verse 33, he says, When Jacob had finished, commanding his sons, he drew his feet up into the bed and breathed his last, and was gathered to his people.

And then in the next chapter, we read that Joseph fell on his father's face and wept over him and kissed him. Joseph is one of the few people in the Bible you never read any major flaws in his character. Maybe some small, minor ones, but Joseph, I'm sure everybody sins, so he must have, but he's paragon of virtue. But he shows us there's nothing wrong in being virtuous and righteous and weeping and crying.

We can see another righteous patriarch weeping for a departed loved one here, and we see a public funeral. We go down to verse 10. Then they came to the threshing... Well, I skipped over where it said that he had Jacob's body embalmed so that it would be preserved for transportation, because Jacob wanted to be buried in that cave. And then in verse 10 it says, They came to the threshing floor of Etad, which is beyond the Jordan, and they mourned there with a great and a very solemn lamentation. He observed seven days of mourning for his father. And when the inhabitants of the land, the Canaanites, saw this mourning at the threshing floor of Etad, they said, This is a deep warning of the Egyptians. Therefore the name of it was Abel Misriam, which is beyond the Jordan.

Now, public funerals and mourning periods tend to have set specific times. For people to do things together, you have to set a time. And they might be significantly longer than in some other cases. You know, for a private funeral, you don't have to set a time, but always try to remind people that you don't need to hurry. A period of grief and mourning can last a good while, or a shorter while, depending on the person.

Let's look at another example in Deuteronomy 34. Deuteronomy 34 and verse 7.

This is recounting the end of Moses' life. Deuteronomy 34 and verse 7, Moses was 120 years old when he died, and his eyes weren't dim, nor his natural vigor diminished. And the children of Israel wept for Moses in the plains of Moab, 30 days.

And so the days of weeping and mourning for Moses ended. Thirty days is a pretty significant time.

And I've wondered, do you suppose God was weeping and mourning at this time, too? Maybe it's not an appropriate question to ask. I mean, God knows about the resurrection. Obviously, he's the one that does it. He knows, but he also knew that it would be thousands of years before he would enjoy Moses' company again. And there are few people that God was closer to. So I just wonder about that. I suspect that God perhaps did more in some. One thing I am certain of, God respected this period of mourning.

He let the 30 days pass, and then he told Joshua, if we actually turn the page, Joshua 1 and verse 1. After the death of Moses, the servant of the Lord, it came to pass that the eternal spoke to Joshua, the son of Nun, Moses' assistant, saying, Moses, my servant, is dead, now therefore arise and go over this Jordan, you and all the people, and the land which I am giving them.

I think, as I said, God waited that 30 days. He didn't say, cut this out, you don't need to be crying and mourning, you've got work to do. I don't want you to get into the Promised Land. I think God approved of a certain period. That's perfectly right. We can also see in Ecclesiastes chapter 3, if you'll turn there. I referred to this earlier. Ecclesiastes 3 and verse 4.

As I said, there's a time for everything, and a time for things to come to an end, of course, eventually. Ecclesiastes 3 and verse 4, we're breaking in. There's a time for all these things, but there is a time to weep, but also a time to laugh. There's a time to mourn and a time to dance, and that's significant for us. We're sad now. And, of course, I think of Carol and Leigh Ann and Joe and Randy. Their grief is probably more than most of us can feel at this time. But there will be a time when they'll laugh.

That time is coming, but there's no reason to hurry it up or try to rush it. In the United States, when a significant death occurs, the government might order flags to be flown at half staff for a set number of days. As I said, public grief is mandated. Somebody has to set the standard. But for individuals, our own personal grief, there's not a set time that it's supposed to last. And I think that's for the best.

It's entirely appropriate. We're all different. We feel and express our grief in different ways, and it might last for varying amounts of times. So that's where I always urge people we shouldn't judge or look down on someone else because they grieve differently. And a person shouldn't feel guilty about that. Now, this isn't to say that we shouldn't exercise any self-control. We want to make sure that we control our emotions rather than let them control us.

As I said, there's a time to mourn and a time to laugh and dance. At some point, if a person just cannot end the morning, sometimes it's worthwhile seeking some professional counseling to help them do that. I'm not a person really trained for that type of counseling. As I wrote that, I thought, that's sort of my job to counsel, but there are some things where people with proper training are best involved. And I don't know, I'm not anticipating that in anybody that we know now, but we just know almost nobody can turn their grief on and on like a light switch.

I think of that from a personal example. I think I've shared some of this story before, but it was very early in my sophomore year at college down in Texas when my mother was dying. She'd been sick for a long time. It wasn't as sudden as what has just happened. But I remember talking to my sister and saying, if you want to see her alive again, you'd better get home now. I went and told the Dean of Students, I've got to leave. I jumped on my motorcycle and drove. Drove all night. And I found when I got there, I'd missed it.

I was a little too late. Now, I'll say, fortunately, I'd been there two weeks before, so it's not like I'd been gone all summer.

But what I was getting at, I was physically exhausted, emotionally wrung out. And I just came in and blah, and everyone kept telling me, go ahead and cry. Don't hold it in. Let it out. Well, I wasn't holding it in. I just wasn't ready yet. Later on that day, I remember I was clear as anything. I was in the shower, and suddenly I broke down and started crying like a baby. And that's the way it is for certain people. It'll come when it comes.

I didn't do a whole lot of crying over the next few days at that point. I'm not a person that cries a whole lot, really. But at the funeral, one of my best friends' dads told me something. And I didn't realize this before. He told me that he'd lost his mother when he was fairly young. And he said, you know, you're sad now. You're going to get better. But he also said, be prepared. In the years ahead, it's going to come back sometimes. At significant moments, like when you get married, when you have children or graduate, you'll think of your mother. And he was right. I'm glad he shared that with me. He learned it the hard way. And I want to share that with some of the Rick and Carol's children. It'll come back, but it's okay. That's a good thing.

Now, what I'm not saying is that being sad or downright grief-stricken because someone we loved has died, what I'm saying is it's normal when we're like that. It's a proper Christian reaction. There are some other feelings that we may have when a person dies, and that's something we shouldn't feel guilty about either. Sometimes we feel a sense of relief. And, you know, if you're caring for someone who's sick for a long time, there's a little bit of relief when that pressure is lifted because caring for someone who's, you know, got a long-term illness can be very just strenuous. And I only had a small taste of that in caring for my grandmother. But when I moved back to Columbus, it was about nine years of her health steadily deteriorating. And I remember those when she, her life came to an end, there was a little bit of relief. I'm like, oh, this is terrible. I shouldn't feel this way. But then I remembered how many times in the last couple years she'd said that she wanted to die. You know, when you get to a certain age where you don't feel good and you hurt and, you know, life just doesn't have a lot of pleasure in it, it's okay, you know, to feel that relief. And she was very converted. I know I'll see her again. And I mentioned also sometimes the feeling we feel is anger. You know, sometimes we get angry at God. Why did you let this happen? As I said, I think he's got broad shoulders. He doesn't want us to stay angry, but he can understand that it might take us a while to see it in the right perspective. I'm getting off my notes here. I said sometimes I still miss my grandmother, but I'm happy for her sake that, as I said, her next moment will be coming up in the resurrection with a spirit body that's not hurting and aching. So I've alluded to our understanding of what death is and what happens afterwards that makes our morning different from that of most people. So I want to shift gears and talk about that for a bit. As I said, this is review, but let's talk about what is death. What do we know that a lot of people do not? And we can start by turning to 1 Thessalonians 4.

1 Thessalonians 4, and we'll start in verse 13.

1 Thessalonians 4 and verse 13. Paul's writing to the congregation in Thessalonike. He says, I do not want you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning those who have fallen asleep, lest you sorrow as others who have no hope. That's important. He doesn't say that you shouldn't sorrow at all, but don't sorrow like people that have no hope. He said, for if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so, God will bring with him those who sleep in Jesus. For this we say to you that by the word of God, that we who are alive and remain until the coming of the Lord will by no means proceed those who are asleep. For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with a voice of an archangel, with the trumpet of God, and the dead in Christ will rise.

They'll rise first. Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together into the air, and thus will always be with the Lord. And he says, comfort one another with these words. So I said, there's a difference. He didn't say, don't sorrow. Just don't sorrow like those who have no hope, that they don't understand. We consider this passage most often in light of the prophecies about Christ's return.

One thing this tells us that that's when the resurrection of the saints is, when Christ returns on the day that's symbolized by the Feast of Trumpets. Christ returns to take rulership of this earth, and those who are the dead in Christ rise. Now, I want to emphasize that here Paul says the dead in Christ, and he also calls those who are asleep, they're the same people. The exact same.

So Paul was referring to death as a type of sleep. And what's interesting, I think that seems odd to our modern society, but that wouldn't have come as a surprise to Paul's readers, because at that time that was the prevailing belief. And throughout the Bible there are references to people at death being asleep. We read about it, especially in the Kings. When David died, he was put in a tomb to sleep with his fathers. And the same for Solomon. And we see all of the kings, speaking of them sleeping with their fathers, or the new King James uses the word resting. Jesus Christ himself called death sleep. Let's turn to John 11.

John 11 will begin with verse 11.

This is of course the case where Jesus's friend Lazarus had become sick, and somehow, well, because he was God, I guess, Jesus knew that it was happening, and he knew how long it would take before his life would end. Beginning in verse 11, these things he said after that, he said to them, Our friend Lazarus sleeps, but I go that I may wake him up. And his disciples said, well, Lord, if he sleeps, he'll get well. They might have been thinking, well, don't wake him up. When you're sick, sleeping is one of the best things you can do. However, Jesus spoke of his death, but they thought that he was speaking of taking rest in sleep. Then Jesus said plainly, Lazarus is dead. But this makes it clear to us, in the Greek that this was written in, the word sleep can apply to either thing.

But sleep and death aren't exactly the same thing. I wanted to clarify that, because if death were truly like sleep, there'd be probably a lot of tossing and turning in cemeteries, and people talking in their sleep. I guess I'm familiar with that, because I've learned, starting about three and a half years ago, that babies are very restless sleepers, and make a lot of noise. It's funny, this morning, Connor came and crawled in bed with us, like he often does, and then later Sue got up, and I was in the room, and I heard him say, Oh, Mommy's changing the channel! He was all upset he was dreaming that she was switching the channel to somewhere she didn't want it. Well, that's not what it's like when someone is truly dead. Other scriptures will show us plainly that the sleep of death is a completely unconscious state. There is no dreaming, no thought, no communication, no awareness of the passing of time.

And that's pretty significant. I was having a discussion with some of the fellows in Athens about what would be your thoughts in the resurrection. If you'll turn to Ecclesiastes 9, I don't want to get too ahead of myself, but we sometimes wonder, will you be thinking of what happened last? If you were about to be in an auto accident, will you remember skidding towards a wall or something? Or will it be, I've talked to people who have passed out or have been knocked out who don't remember.

It might have been Denby Bledsoe speaking, too. He had a wipeout on a dirt bike. And he said the last thing he remembered was starting to fly through the air, but he didn't remember hitting whatever it was he hit. And the next thing he knew, he was walking away, and he'd been out for a little while. So who knows, when we rise, where will be our thoughts? But we know that until then there will be no thoughts. Ecclesiastes 9 and verse 10 says, So Solomon's saying, you better do your best now, because it all stops at death. You can't do things. You can't even think about things. But of course, as we're going to get to, that's a temporary thing. But that matches. I'm not going to turn to the 196th Psalm.

It says, Now for a young person who's full of activity, hustle and bustle and energy, and a desire to go and do and experience things, they tend to see the stopping of all thinking and doing as this terrible thing. But I think all of us have known people, I mentioned about my grandmother, an old person whose body tends to always hurt and who can't remember very well, and for a young person who worries too much when they do, for a person like that, death doesn't sound so bad.

Sometimes they're relieved at the thought of the rest. And as I said, I know my grandmother thought of it that way. And that's part of why we can consider it a relief for some people when that happens. In death, there is no suffering. There's no worry. There's no more pain. And contrary to many religious teachings, and to, I don't know how many movies and TV shows I've seen, there's not a soul or something where a person comes up out of their body and looks down, and then tries to figure out what's going on.

The dead don't go to heaven, and they don't go to hell or purgatory. And they certainly don't go on as ghosts and haunt houses or cemeteries or anything like that. Because if that happened, it wouldn't be death. It'd be continuing life. And what we know from Romans 6.23, most of us have that memorized, the wages of sin is death. But the gift of God is eternal life. And of course, Romans 3.23 reminds us, all of us have sin. We all have death coming. That death is the result of sin as described very early in Scriptures.

God told Adam and Eve, don't eat the fruit from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, because if you do it, you're going to die. Satan came along and said, no, you won't. He said, you won't surely die. But he was telling a lie. Because not dying is eternal life. And that's the opposite of death. It's worth us knowing death is something that we can bring on ourselves. We have the power to take away our life, but only God can give it.

Only God can give life. And the most exciting thing is he wants to give that gift. He wants us to have that. And as I said, if we carried on, as some religions teach, in another way or place, that would be the opposite of dying. And I realize you all know this. This is something that we teach and learn.

But I wanted to be completely clear in saying what death is. And that we understand this. As I said, it's not being alive. It's not thinking, not doing. But that's not all there is to say on the subject. If that's all there were to it, we wouldn't be any different than the ones Paul spoke about in 1 Thessalonians 4, when he said, those who have no hope. To refer back to that story of Lazarus, we read, when Jesus told the disciples that Lazarus was asleep, and he really meant he was dead, I always love the fact that Jesus says, I'm going to wake him up.

God has the power to do that. And I try to always cite that anytime I do a funeral service. And Jesus said, yes, sleep is, you know, death is like sleep, but I can wake them up. And along those lines, we often read Job 14. If you'll turn there. Job 14, we'll begin in verse 13. Job 14 in verse 13, he says, oh, that you would hide me in the grave, that you would conceal me until your wrath is passed, that you would appoint me a set time and remember me. And it's important he's speaking to God rhetorically here, but we need God to remember us and set the time, because we can't wake ourselves up.

And he asked a rhetorical question, if a man dies, will he live again? The answer is, all the days of my hard service, I'll wait until my change comes. And then, you shall call and I will answer you. You'll desire the work of your hands. And this is showing that God can bring the dead back to life. God delivering mankind from death is one of the major themes of the Bible. We call it salvation. He saves us from death. And even those who died, he'll save from death. That's the exciting thing. God's salvation isn't to prevent us from ever dying, it's to bring us back after that happens. Jesus summed that up in John 5. John 5, beginning in verse 25.

I apologize again. I don't think my voice sounded quite like this this morning. It's just getting rougher as the day goes by.

But if there's any consolation, I ended a little early this morning. John 5 in verse 25.

Jesus said, Most assuredly I say to you, the hour is coming, and now is when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear will live. For as the Father has life in Himself, so He's granted to the Son to have life in Himself. And He's given Him authority to execute judgment, also because He is the Son of Man. Do not marvel at this, for the hour is coming in which all who are in the graves will hear His voice, and come forth, those who have done good to the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil to the resurrection of condemnation.

As I was preparing this, I thought some people might see that as a contradiction. I have been saying that the dead have no knowledge, that there's no thinking, but this almost makes it sound like they're waiting and listening. But that's not the case. Someone whose dead isn't waiting and listening for that voice, it's when God wants to make them alive, then He'll bring them back and make sure that they do hear the voice.

When God is ready, at His set time, He'll bring the people out of their graves.

Now, it's not necessarily my point to discuss the different resurrections and the timing, but Jesus here referred to that possibility. Some to a resurrection of... those who have done good to a resurrection of life, those who have done evil to a resurrection of condemnation. It shows that it's not determined when this physical life ends.

And that's what Ezekiel 37 gives us a good description. I'm not going to turn there. We've read it many times, but as you remember, Ezekiel has shown a vision of a valley full of dry bones. And he's asked, can these bones live? And he gives the best answer. Well, you know. And then he's told prophesy, and all the bones come together, and sinew and flesh and skin comes on them. And then he's told prophesy to the wind to come in these bodies, and the breath of life comes in them, and they stand up.

It's a physical resurrection for these people, and we believe that will be for the majority of people who have ever lived. But the Apostle Paul wrote of flesh-and-blood mortals being raised to a spirit body. If we go to 1 Corinthians 15, we'll see, as I said, that there's different types of resurrection in God's plan. 1 Corinthians 15 and verse 35.

And he makes the point. Someone will say, How are the dead raised up? With what body do they come? Well, foolish one, what you sow is not made alive unless it dies. This is an important thing for us to remember concerning some potential questions. God doesn't raise the actual body that we had. Rather, we know from 1 Corinthians chapter 2 that we have a spirit. There's a spirit in man that allows us to think and reason, that animals don't have.

When God calls us, He gives us His spirit so that we can understand spiritual things. And the Bible says that when we die, the body decays, but God takes back that spirit. That's what records our personality, our memories, all those things. Now, it's not thinking and reasoning. I know in the past, Mr. Armstrong used to liken it to having a tape recorder or a recording that you could put in a different machine, play music, take it, put in another. Now, I think a better example is a computer program. I can have a flash drive. That flash drive can't do anything. But if I plug it into the right machine, boom, up on the screen comes whatever I have. And I think that's the way it'll work. When God resurrects us, He can put that spirit that He saves into whatever new body He chooses to create. Let's go to 1 Corinthians 15 and verse 42.

So also is the resurrection of the dead. The body is sown in corruption, raised in incorruption. Sown in dishonor, raised in glory. Sown in weakness, it's raised in power. It's sown in natural body, it's raised in spiritual body. There is a natural body and there is a spiritual body. And that's where it's important for us to remember it's going to be a new body, because some people said, well, if you get burned up, can God resurrect you?

Well, yeah, of course He can. And all the sailors who have ever drowned at sea and been eaten by fish, as gruesome as that is to think of, God doesn't have to gather all those parts and put them back together. Likewise, the people that lived thousands of years ago, they might be buried, and the bodies totally decompose, and then later plants are planted there. Some of the very atoms and molecules that were part of one person's body might become a part of another person's body later on.

God doesn't have to track down the particular molecules that I had. I'm going to trust Him to give me, hopefully, a spirit body. That's what I want. Verse 53, This corruptible must put on incorruption. This mortal must put on immortality. So when this corruptible was put on incorruption, this mortal was put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that's written, Death is swallowed up in victory.

How exciting that is! Death is going to be swallowed up in victory. What a great hope! What a future we have to look forward to. And of course, that's the understanding behind the meaning of the eighth day of the feast in the fall, that we commonly have called the last great day. And we're not concerned that if a person doesn't understand God's truth now in this life and doesn't get with the program that they're going to be burned up, you know, they're not going to be tortured forever or die and stay dead forever, they're going to have an opportunity to learn.

We see God's plan of salvation outlined in the Holy Days. All who have ever lived will live. They will live again. Every single person will have a legitimate, free, and open chance to embrace God's way of life. Now, as I say that, it's easy for us to say, well, yeah, of course, I've known that for years.

It's just amazing that we know that, and so many people don't. Of course, that's not their fault, unless God's spirit comes in us and He opens our mind. Most people don't understand. Everyone is encouraging. As Paul said, we don't have to sorrow as those that don't have that hope. Now, that does bring back the question, though. I want to turn from that to, okay, then people might ask, well, why should we grieve at all when someone dies?

Why do we bother to have funerals since we know all about the resurrection? Well, an important thing is, you know, the obvious corollary to this, the understanding that when a person dies, he has no conscience. No awareness of what's happening to their now lifeless body. That means the funeral can't be for that person. I mean, they're not getting a particular benefit from it, is what I mean. Despite what, you know, some other preachers might say, Grandma's not watching down from heaven and smiling. That's a nice sentiment, but, you know, the Bible doesn't support that view.

The one way I can imagine a person would benefit from their funeral is hearing the stories about it later. And actually, I don't know, I didn't mean it to be irreverent, but I think it was Thursday night when some people started telling some stories about Rick, and I thought, you know, when he hears about this later on, he might find it pretty entertaining. It's a lot easier looking back, you know, many years later, and the hurt's gone, because I'm sure he's going to want to hear about this thing Wednesday and all the stories people told, and, you know, that's a benefit you can have.

Although when the resurrection comes, we're probably going to have a lot of things we want to talk about and learn. It might take many years before we get around to talking to our loved ones about what happened at a funeral. But leaving that aside, we come to the conclusion that funerals and memorial services are for the living, and that's entirely appropriate. That's not wrong, but I will say it's also not wrong if a family decides to not have a funeral. That's also perfectly fine. You know, we discussed earlier, it's natural and proper to feel grief when a person dies, and you miss them.

You know, it's sad when someone you love can no longer be active in your life. And a funeral or some type of memorial provides us a formal way to express that grief and to share it and try to comfort each other who you know are feeling that grief. You know, we speak often of paying our respects. You know, we come and look at the person, but it's much more for the living who are there, that they comfort to know how many people cared about this loved one.

And as I said, I saw that yesterday evening when I was in Paintsville, all the people coming to pay their respects to Gene, and that meant a lot to Patty, that all those people were moved by him. I found it interesting. Many of you probably know he's got famous relatives. I think one of his cousins was Loretta Lynn and the other, Crystal Gale. And Patty pointed out there was a flower arrangement that Loretta Lynn had sent to his funeral, which shouldn't be that surprising if she was his cousin, but still, I thought, man, that's kind of nice she still has that touch for her family.

Anyways, psychologists also tell us that a funeral is good for helping us to find what they call closure. It gives the living the sense that they've said goodbye and that they've completed their relationship with the deceased person for now until the resurrection. And in many senses, a funeral or memorial is an opportunity to celebrate the life's accomplishments of that person.

In some cultures, that's the main reason. And some of them really emphasize the celebrating. When I first started researching this, as I said, when I was thinking about Nelson Mandela's funeral and others, I did some research about how funerals are done in other areas. It's interesting that there's various ways. As I said, an official state funeral can be very elaborate, and it's designed to serve the needs of the nation, not necessarily the family.

When it comes to private funerals, the family can decide what to do or what not to do. And I thought, as Christians, if we ask, what does the Bible tell us about if or how to conduct a funeral? When I looked into it, what does it tell us? Not much. It doesn't really tell us a lot about that.

That's okay. We conduct a number of ceremonies that the Bible doesn't tell us specifically how to do it. We do a blessing of little children once a year, but all we know is we're following an example where Christ picked up little children in his arms and blessed them somehow. And the Bible doesn't tell us how to perform a wedding. That's one of the things when I realized that. I said, that's pretty amazing, because of course you go to a church, but you can go to a justice of the peace.

I think I pointed out last week when Isaac married Rebecca, it just says he took her into his mother's tent, and they were married. And funerals are similar. Now, we can find some examples, though not many. We read in Genesis that what Abraham did for Sarah is go out and buy a burial place. Although there's no description of a particular service. When Jacob died, Joseph had him embalmed, and then there was a great processional. And that's something we see recurring. Processionals are fairly common. Most of the kings of Israel and Judah were laid to rest in a crypt, but we don't know if there was any type of service, word spoken, or what.

Now, the common practice in Hebrew culture seems to be that normally the body would be wrapped in cloth, usually without embalming, and then buried either in a grave in the ground or in a cave, which, of course, the Gospel accounts tell us that's what happened with Jesus. There are some other examples in the New Testament that give us an idea of somewhat of how it was done. Luke 7 has one. Luke 7 beginning in verse 12.

I shall start in verse 11. It happened the day after that he, that is Jesus, went into a city called Nain, and many of his disciples went with him, and a large crowd. And when he came near the gate of the city, behold, a dead man was being carried out, the only son of his mother, and she was a widow, and a large crowd from the city was with her. And, of course, the story goes on that Jesus said, Not that he's saying weeping was wrong, but I think he was moved with compassion, seeing the sadness, and he went and touched him and said, Young man arise. But I wanted to focus on the processional, a great throng gathered together to go and pay the respects. And that seems to be something, at least if news clips of the Middle East are similar, it seems like that's still done. At least in the Arab cultures, if someone dies, you'll see pictures of people carrying a casket and throngs of people following and making noise and such. The public expression of grief in the days of Jesus sometimes was very loud and boisterous. We see that in the story of Jesus going to heal the daughter of Jairus. That's in Matthew 9, Matthew 9 and verse 18.

While he spoke these things, once again, that's Jesus. Behold, a ruler came and worshipped him, saying, My daughter has just died, but come and lay your hand on her and she'll live. So Jesus sent it to go with him. And in verse 23, When Jesus came into the ruler's house, he saw the flute players and the noisy crowd wailing. And of course he said, Well, make room, the girl's not dead, but she's sleeping. And they ridiculed him. But this was a common practice. Actually, if you'll turn over the account in Mark, it's in Mark chapter 5. We can see that it could be very loud and boisterous. It seems to have been common, at least for those who could afford it, to have many people come in and play music and sometimes hire professional mourners to wail and make lamentation. Mark 5 and verse 38. Then he came to the house of the ruler of the synagogue and saw a tumult. And those who wept and wailed loudly. So there's a tumult with people weeping and wailing loudly. So we've seen, throughout the Bible, some differing examples and no specific instruction. There's no place where it says, when you want to have a service for someone who's died, do this, don't do that. And that can lead us to see that, in many cases, these are examples of specific cultures, not necessarily instructions for what we must do or not do. With that in mind, I think as long as we don't include anything in the service that's contrary to God's word or use practices, as long as we're not violating God's word and instructions, it's fine for us to use practices that come from our culture. Or we can devise something unique if we want. Or we could choose not to have a funeral. The Bible doesn't tell us we have to do it one way or not do it another. And a look around the world would reveal a variety of different funeral customs and even surprising diversity within the United States. When I looked into this, I thought I might spend a fair bit of time in the sermon describing them, but there was quite a few. But I did think of, you know, one of the oldest and most flamboyant is if you go back to ancient Egypt for the Pharaohs. They built these huge pyramids to put the bodies in, and then they furnished it with clothing and money and tools, supposedly for the next life. And in China, there have been similar tombs, full of stuff. But it occurs to me, in addition to supposedly paving the way for the next life, I think these large monuments were an attempt to overcome one obvious fact about death. We all know that when a person dies, he can no longer influence anyone or anything else. And in a surprisingly short time, the memory of that person could fade away. I hadn't thought about this some years ago on an eighth-day sermon. I heard someone mentioning his great-great-grandfather, and he'd found a record of it, but he said, I don't know anything about this man. He's my family, but there's almost no record. And in time, the memory fades, and we just don't know. But it's encouraging to know that God the Father never forgets. He has that spirit.

So we don't build pyramids, but we do put up grave markers. I think that's an appropriate thing. Usually of marble or some other stone, and we engrave the person's name and the dates of their life. I think that's a nice thing to make sure that we help preserve those memories. Of course, some societies didn't develop monuments or even bury their dead. There had been a number of cultures that practiced cremation normally.

That practice goes far back in India and parts of Asia. And we may have seen depictions of the Vikings. I've always thought that very picturesque that in a fallen warrior, they'd put him on a boat and set it afire and send it out to sea. And studying this, I learned that the ancient Greeks actually practiced cremation for their soldiers, and at first, so did the Romans. And in time, actually, later years of the empire, they stopped doing that, but not because there was any opposition to it, but because it turned out they were having a shortage of firewood. So they turned to burial instead. And as I mentioned, some people have believed that God forbids cremation. And even that someone who's cremated can't be resurrected, but you can't support that view from Scripture. It's not there. And actually, there's a favorable example. In 1 Samuel 31, I won't turn there, but if you remember when King Saul and his son Jonathan were killed in battle, and it says, "...the Philistines desecrated their bodies, cut off the heads, and they pinned them to a wall. And some of the men of Benjamin were outraged at this, and they went by night and took the bodies down, and then they burned them. And David didn't write and say, Well, you can't do that. That's evil. He wrote a letter thanking them, telling them they did good service to their master." And as I said, no, I'm not saying that the Bible promotes cremation, but it also doesn't condemn it. In some cultures, the uncertainty of medical knowledge gave way to the practice of holding awake. And that was because there was a time when a person died, and they wanted to make sure that he really was dead before they'd bury him. So the practice was, have him laid out there, and the friends and family would gather and spend a day or two or three, and of course, during that time, they'd start telling the stories and recounting things. I think that's where the origin of the eulogy probably came from. Now, we should note, some cultures, these celebrations of life developed into raucous parties, too often fueled by too much alcohol consumption. You know, we think of that with the old-fashioned Irish wake. That's one thing I'd say the Bible doesn't condone excess in any time. And apparently, the jazz funerals of New Orleans are similar to that. I've seen that depicted in movies of the parade and the slow jazz music, and then kicks into high gear, and the music is upbeat, and it turns into a bit of a party.

So, the practices that are common in our own culture echo elements of various parts of these. And I think as long as, as I said, we're not doing something that violates God's direction in Scripture, we're fine. You know, we know what we normally do for funerals. Most families choose to have the body embalmed and then have visitation hours, and then conclude with a formal ceremony.

Usually that includes some inspiring music, and then an oration, and then a procession to the cemetery. As I said, cremation is becoming more and more popular, whether it's accompanied with a memorial service of some type or not. But when that's the case, that gives you the option of it being at a distant time or place, and sometimes that's necessary.

Within the Church of God, we've long tended to emphasize the speaking portion of the funeral. And that shouldn't surprise us because we do that in our worship services. We tend to not be liturgical as much as educational. And that's something we've seen as an opportunity when preaching a funeral. You know, it fits in with our general purpose for a Church of preaching the Gospel. It might be a chance to, to some degree, and I always say it should be within limits, of reaching an audience that normally wouldn't be. It might be people who would never think to turn on our TV program or read our magazines. You know, I've learned, and it's funny, I've heard some stories that I hadn't heard before I was in the ministry, but in the past, some of our ministers, I think, went a little overboard in that. I heard a story of a minister who gave a two-hour funeral sermon and went into great detail explaining, you know, what death was and all the resurrections and Christ's return and the Great White Throne Judgment.

Well, we don't know, we don't, I think we found a little more balance since then. I'll try to make some, to cover the basic truths in a funeral. And these truths are intended to be comforting even for people who already know them. As I said, most of you know this, but it's good to hear it and read it and know again, or be reminded again. Hopefully it'll encourage a hope and a desire to learn more about these things and people who haven't heard them. You know, I found it sort of evolved over time, but most of my funeral messages last about 20 minutes, and they cover pretty much the essentials that I've been covering in this sermon. You know, I explain that death is a part of life, it comes to all people, and that because of that grief and sorrow over the loss of a loved one is a normal thing. And it doesn't have to be any source of shame or anything like that. And then I explain what death really is, and that God will bring back to life all who have ever lived. The church asks ministers to cover these basic points. They give us a lot of leeway in how to present them. And there are differences sometimes, like if there's very unusual circumstances, you might dwell on some things more than others. But no matter the circumstances, I always like to end with one scripture. Turn to Revelation 21. I usually like to read this and then close in prayer because it's one of the most inspiring passages of the Bible. And it's very appropriate to think when we're grieving over the loss of a loved one. Revelation 21, verse 1, says, That's something God doesn't condemn, the crying, but He'll wipe away the tears. And there'll be no more death. That time is coming when there'll be no more death. Nor sorrow, nor crying. There shall be no more pain, for the former things have passed away. We have that future coming, and that's something we always want to keep sight of. So as I said, I could sum up all of this pretty easily. So as I said, if we look at funerals in general, we could say, knowing the truth of God, we don't have to have funerals, and we can shape them in the desire we want, because they're for the living, to comfort them. Funerals have a beneficial function for us in many ways. They give us a means to honor and respect the passing of a person who's died. And we get to some degree to celebrate that life. And I said, I'm looking forward, Wednesday especially, to celebrating a life that touched all of us. And like I said, we've got a very big hole in this congregation.

So we want to think about that. And funerals can provide the formal means for us to share our grief and say goodbye. But they also remind us that it's not a permanent goodbye. We remind ourselves of the great, wonderful hope of eternal life that God gives us. We look forward to the Kingdom of God.