John MacArthur- funeral message

On Monday coming I will be conducting my Gran's funeral. This provides me with the awesome privelege of preaching the Gospel to an assortment of family and friends with the prayer that through preaching the cross those gathered might find both comfort and new life in Jesus Christ. Today we are helped by this funeral message by John MacArthur (HT Monergism).

'In going back to 2 Corinthians, one of the things that comes through that letter is Paul continually refers to the fact that he was on the edge of death all the time; he knew that every day could be the last day that he would live. He said, "I die daily." What he meant by that was not anything mystical, but every morning when I wake up I realize that between the plots of the Gentiles and the plots of the Jews, this could be it. And so he lived with the imminent reality of death constantly in his life. And he refers to it repeatedly in 2Corinthians. But he sums up his perspective in the fourth chapter in Verse 16 by saying: "Therefore ... we do not lose heart."

If there's anything that should cause you to become ultimately discouraged or to lose heart, it would be to face death every day; to realize that even though you may have been healthy, that this could be your last day; even though you had great plans and you felt like there were things to do and there was some measure of necessity for you being around, and there was the possibility of some pain and some suffering and the infliction of some -- some severe wounds, et cetera, that could cause your death -- to be able to look death in the face and say, "We do not lose heart," is to have ultimately conquered the greatest enemy. The Bible tells us in Hebrews 2 that Satan holds men bondage to the "fear of death" all their life long. It is the greatest fear. It is the ultimate fear. And when you come to the place where you have conquered that fear, you have conquered the ultimate enemy. And the apostle Paul could say that: "We do not lose heart."

And the reason he could say that is very important. It's important for us today. He said this: "We look not at the things which are seen; but at the things which are not seen, for the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal." Now, the way you ultimately conquer death, the way you ultimately triumph in the face of death, the way you ultimately do not lose heart in facing death is to see it not from a physical perspective, but from a spiritual one. Right? It's to see beyond what is visible to the eye and perceive the great spiritual reality...

And then there's one final thing that Paul talks about in the eternal scale. He says, Verse 10: "We must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that each one may be recompensed for his deeds in the body, according to what he has done, whether it is good" or worthless. Then he goes on to describe those kinds of things. There are things we've done in this life that are worthless. He's not talking about sin; sin's been dealt with. But there are things that don't have any eternal value. Now, you know what those things are. I mean they don't make any difference in the kingdom ultimately. They're not wrong; they're are just there. But there are some things that have eternal value. They have a direct impact on the kingdom. They have an indirect impact on the kingdom. And in the end, those things are going to be evaluated. And whatever we did throughout our life that was sinful has already been paid for. Whatever we did that's sort of in the gray category of not having any real impact on eternal things just goes way away and disappears. And what is left is what directly impacted the kingdom. And on the merit and basis of that work wrought in our lives by the power of the Spirit of God, we will receive an eternal reward. And I dare say that only God knows the reality of that. Because praise is part of that; faithful prayer is part of that; a pure heart in terms of motivation is part of that. And who knows that but God? That's why Paul said in the prior chapter you can't really know how you're going to be evaluated, because only God knows the "secrets of the heart."

So when we look at someone's death, we don't feel like we have to -- you noticed that, I am sure, this morning -- we don't feel like we have to muster up some great, long parade of every achievement they ever did. Have you ever noticed that at a Christian funeral? Very little is said about a litany of achievement. Compare that, when you look at the funeral of a non-believer, and watch people almost frantically trying to put meaning into that life by picking out all the myriad of milestones, and giving somebody some kind of accolade for everything they achieved in this life. The only real reward that matters is that which we did for the King in his kingdom. And He's the one who knows that, and eternity will reveal that, and that's the reward that believers look for. It's enough, really, it's all that ever would need to be said about Don to say he was faithful. Right? Because it's: "Required of stewards, that a man be found faithful." And we'll leave the eternal reward to God, who knew his motives and knew his heart far better than even we do. We have a pretty good inkling. We are certainly on the right track, because we know the sweetness of his soul and the faithfulness of his life. That God will give him his reward.

So we come to an occasion like this and we don't lose heart, because we see what is eternal. We see what can't be seen with the eye, but it can only be perceived through an understanding of the word of God. We see eternal glory, an eternal body, eternal purpose, eternal fellowship, eternal fulfillment and an eternal reward. And we do not lose heart. In fact, just the opposite. We rejoice and we thank God for this wonderful life, and for God bringing this life to its great coronation, because that is what has happened in heaven.'