Funeral Service For Sandra Bailey Doster
Genesis 1-4; John 1:3-4; Revelation 1:17-18; John 10:14-18; 2 Corinthians 11:24-25a; 2 Cor. 5:8; Philippians 1:21-23
On behalf of Larry and the rest of the Doster family, I want to thank you all for being here today and for all of your displays of love and compassion not just during the past week, but for the past two years as Sandra and Larry have gone through such trying times.
Back in November, our extended family gathered to celebrate my mother’s birthday. We all surprised her by showing up for church and sitting with her. Afterward the service, we all took my Mom and Dad out for dinner.
At that dinner, I sat beside Sandra. It was the first time I had seen her since long before her transplant surgery, but I had been following her progress from a distance through email and phone calls with Larry. I was quite pleased to sit with her and see how well she was doing. At one point, I leaned over and with some hesitation, I said to her,
“I don’t want to upset you at all, but I do want to tell you how glad I am to be here celebrating Momma’s birthday. I am very happy that the Lord has done such a wonderful work in you.” She and I both wept, I gave her a hug, and she expressed her gratitude to God for His kindness to her. I said, “I am very glad I didn’t have to come here for a funeral.”
I suppose it goes without saying that two of the major subjects discussed in the Scriptures at length are the subjects of life and death. If you begin reading the Bible on page one, the subject of death quickly shows up on or around page two. It is first mentioned in Genesis chapter 2 where God warns Adam that in the day he eats of the fruit of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, “you shall surely die.” (Genesis 2:17). In chapter 3, Adam eats that very fruit and as a direct consequence of that one sin, death enters the world.
By the time we get to chapter 4 of Genesis, on about page three of the Bible, Adam’s son Cain murders his own brother, Abel. So within the first few hundred words of Scripture, we have sin, death, and the occasion for a funeral. That first death, and every death since, has been the result of one sin against a good and kind Creator. The constant reality of funerals are a perpetual reminder of the power of sin and death.
But in those same pages in Genesis where we read of Adam’s sin against God, and of Cain killing Abel; before we read anything concerning sin or death, we read much concerning life. In fact, that is THE topic of Genesis chapter 1: God creates the world and fills it with life--plant life, animal life, and human life. In the beginning, God created life.
In the Gospel of John we read that it was Jesus Christ who created the world:
All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made. In him was life, and the life was the light of men. (John 1:3-4 ESV)
It was Jesus Christ who created life because the text tells us “in Him was life.” All life resides in the Person of Christ. He is the possessor and the giver and the sustainer of the life we all have. But not only does our life come from Jesus Christ, we also read these words from John’s in the Book of the Revelation. John is speaking and he says:
When I saw him [Christ], I fell at his feet as though dead. But he laid his right hand on me, saying, “Fear not, I am the first and the last, and the living one. I died, and behold I am alive forevermore, and I have the keys of Death and Hades. (Revelation 1:17-18 ESV)
In Jesus Christ is life and death. He is the creator of all life and in His hands are the keys of Death. He possesses both. He is the sovereign ruler over all of life and, consequently, over all of death. As we read through the New Testament, we see Christ prove His power and authority over life and death repeatedly. He raised numbers of people from the dead, Lazarus being the most familiar one. After he had been dead for four days, Jesus spoke the word and a dead man woke from death and walked out of his tomb. Jesus Christ has absolute power and authority over life and death.
But ultimately, the Lord Jesus proved His authority over life and death by rising from the dead Himself. In speaking to the Pharisees, He said
[14] I am the good shepherd. I know my own and my own know me, [15] just as the Father knows me and I know the Father; and I lay down my life for the sheep. [16] And I have other sheep that are not of this fold. I must bring them also, and they will listen to my voice. So there will be one flock, one shepherd. [17] For this reason the Father loves me, because I lay down my life that I may take it up again. [18] No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down, and I have authority to take it up again. This charge I have received from my Father.” (John 10:14-18 ESV)
God the Father gave the Lord Jesus authority to lay down His own life in death, and to raise Himself from the dead. This is the extent of His power. He has all power and all authority over everything, but in particular, Jesus Christ has power and authority over life and death. Now He is alive forever, death has no power over Him, He cannot die again, and even as we speak, Jesus Christ sits at the right hand of His heavenly Father interceding for all His people as their great High Priest.
Sandra Doster died Wednesday morning. When those words fall on our ears, it sounds terrible and shocking. We think, “How can this be true?” And unlike the triumph of the Lord Jesus over death, and unlike the Lord Jesus who was seen alive three days after His crucifixion, it would seem that Death has triumphed over Sandra. We have no reason to expect that Sandra will rise from the dead on this third day like Jesus did. From all outward appearances, it would seem that Sandra is gone from us forever, and there is nothing we can do to bring her back.
Well, it is true that there is nothing we can do to bring her back. Everything humanly possible has already been done to prolong Sandra’s life and to save her from death. But all of it ultimately failed. That is the power of death over us.
But despite all appearances, and in spite of our powerlessness to prevent or avoid the power of death over us, this is not the end for Sandra. We have real reason to hope. Even though her earthly life has ended, we know there is life beyond this life. The proof of that is Jesus Christ. Through His own death and resurrection, He has proven there is a spiritual and a physical life beyond this life.
One day, because He possesses all power and authority over life and death, the Lord Jesus will return, all the dead will be raised, and Christ Himself will sit as judge over all of humanity, both those who are living and those whom He will raise from the dead.
But until that final day when Christ raises the dead and judges the world, the apostle Paul gives us a very encouraging word concerning the death of a Christian, those whose faith is in Christ alone for salvation and life after death. He tells us in very clear terms what happens when a Christian dies.
Paul himself suffered greatly. Not in the same way Sandra did. He suffered much, as a result of preaching the gospel. In his second letter to the church at Corinth, he tells the Christians there:
Five times I received at the hands of the Jews the forty lashes less one. Three times I was beaten with rods. Once I was stoned. (2 Corinthians 11:24-25a ESV)
In case you weren’t counting, that’s 195 lashes with a whip, three beatings with rods, and he was stoned so severely on one occasion that his enemies thought they had killed him and they left him for dead. That is a nearly unimaginable amount of pain without so much as an aspirin for relief. So Paul understood pain and suffering very well. It is hard to imagine the physical ailments he must have endured for much of his life because of the lingering effects of such abuses.
But even though his circumstances were far different than Sandra’s, he and Sandra have shared in a common misery of bodily pain because of the reality of sin. We all have that in common. We all suffer in these bodies in various ways and to various degrees because of sin, and we all eventually die.
But Paul also said that for the Christian, as long as we are in these bodies, we are away from the Lord. For the Christian, there is a real disadvantage being in this life, in these bodies. Yes, we get sick, we have accidents, we get injured, and we suffer in many physical ways. But Paul said that the greatest disadvantage to remaining in this life in these bodies, is that we are not in the presence of the Lord. He said he “would rather be away from the body and [be] at home with the Lord.” (2 Cor. 5:8 ESV).
In other words, if a believer is thinking correctly about himself, and about Christ, and about his own salvation, he would rather die and be at home with the Lord than to live here and be apart from Him. Once again, in speaking to the Christians at Phillippi, Paul said:
For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain. If I am to live in the flesh, that means fruitful labor for me. Yet which I shall choose I cannot tell. I am hard pressed between the two. My desire is to depart and be with Christ, for that is far better. (Philippians 1:21-23 ESV)
Paul couldn’t decide if he wanted to continue living in service to his fellow believers, or to die and be with Christ. Because being with Christ is far better than living here and being separated from Him. To be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord. That, my friends, is far, FAR better than being here in this life, even on a good day.
As good as this life may be from time to time, when the Christian departs and goes home to be with the Lord, the Scriptures tell us we go to our rest. And when we have bad days, and bad weeks and months, that rest from all the woes of this world looks very inviting. Because of her trust in Jesus Christ, Sandra’s body and soul are now at rest, and I am certain she is glad to finally be at rest.
All of this to make one point: The true believer in Christ need not fear death. A 17th century Scottish minister by the name of Robert Leighton wrote these words concerning the Christian’s attitude toward death, and I am paraphrasing slightly:
“There is a spiritual desire of death, which is very becoming [of] a Christian. For Jesus Christ [has] not only [taught us] very clearly the doctrine of eternal life, but He Himself [has] passed through death, and [laid] down in the grave: He [has] perfumed that passage, and warmed that bed for us so that it is sweet and [pleasant] for a Christian to pass through [death] and follow Him, [in order to] be where He is.
"It is a strange thing, that the souls of Christians [do not] have a continual desire to go to that [assembly] which is above . . . ; to go to the spirits of just men made perfect, where there is light, and love, and nothing else; to go to the company of angels, a higher rank of blessed spirits; but most of all to go to God, and to Jesus the mediator of the New [Covenant].
"And to say nothing [with certainty] of that glory [above] (for the truth is, we can say nothing of it), the very evils that death delivers the true Christian from, [should] make him long for [death]; for such a one may say--I shall die, and go to a more excellent country, where I shall be happy forever: that is, I shall die no more, I shall sorrow no more, I shall be sick no more, and [even more importantly], I shall doubt no more, and shall be tempted no more; [but most importantly], I shall sin no more.”
In other words, the prospect of being in such a glorious place where Christ is, and where sin is not, should cause every Christian to have a continual desire to be absent from the body and to be present with the Lord. And it should also cause those who do not yet know the Lord Jesus to want to know Him. Only when a person is in Jesus Christ does death become a friend.
This sure hope of eternal joy after death was Sandra’s hope. This is not the end for her. On the contrary, through His own death, the Lord Jesus perfumed that passage, and warmed that bed for her so that it was sweet and pleasant for her to pass through death and follow Him, in order to be with Him where He is.
And so we say, rest in peace, Sandra. Rest in peace.
No
No
