Excerpt from a Funeral Sermon

Resurrection life isn’t only for the future, not only for the end. Because Jesus rose on the third day, and because He poured out His Spirit on us, resurrection life has already begun to spread throughout this world of Sin and Death. Through Jesus and His Spirit, we already live the life of the resurrection in the body, even as we look forward to the resurrection of our bodies.

Hope in the resurrection means hope for the future; it also means hope in the present, in this life. At the center of our faith is the hope that death will be fruitful. Jesus said, Unless the seed falls into the ground and dies, it will not bear fruit. For Christians, death in all its forms is never merely an end, but a beginning; it is never sterile, but fruitful in Christ.

Your husband and father is dead. But his death is not pointless or fruitless, and it should bear fruit among you. By faith in Jesus and the God of the resurrection, make his death an opportunity for renewed life. As you mourn, learn to say with Moses, “Teach us to number our days, so that we may apply a heart to wisdom.” As you mourn, make his death as an opportunity to renew your life in Christ, your life in your family, your life in your church, your life among your friends.

Today is Holy Saturday. On this day two millennia ago, the Lord Jesus, the Son of God in human flesh, lay in the grave, waiting between death and resurrection. And on this day, your husband and father also waits between death and a future resurrection. On this day, your husband and father enters into Holy Saturday.

Jesus went to His grave in hope that His body would be a seed planted in the ground. By faith in the God who raised Jesus, and on this Holy Saturday, consider your husband’s and father’s death a seed, planted in the ground not only to die but to bear abundant fruit.