Following On

For the next four weeks, I want to describe to you the sermon pastors do not preach at a funeral. We don’t preach it because people attending a funeral are there to say goodbye and don’t want to be lectured or confronted with reality.

Some years ago, I was contacted about the possibility of conducting a funeral for an elderly man who had passed away. The family wanted a traditional service with assurances that grandpa was in heaven with Jesus. They asked whether I would preach that message and so I asked them questions: Did grandpa attend church?  Did he read the Bible? What was grandpa’s favorite Christian song? Their answer was “Oh, well grandpa didn’t do any of those things, but he lived a good life and we loved him.”

I told them that I couldn’t say grandpa was in heaven, because I didn’t know. I told them God knows and that God would do what was right. However, what I knew to be true was that, “Nobody goes to heaven without purposefully making preparation to go there.” 

Listen to what the Bible says in Matthew 7:13, “Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it.  But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it.” In John 14:6 Jesus said, "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” And in Matthew 7:21 he said, "Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of my Father.”

So the way to heaven is by “entering through the narrow gate which only a few find,” by “doing the will of the Father” and by “believing in and trusting Jesus.”  So my question to this family was, “Did your grandpa do any of these things”…because Jesus is the door into heaven and we only go there by trusting him.”

Pastors don’t preach this at a funeral.   It would be a disaster if we did and yet the truth stands.  However, the good news is this - from John 1:12, “To all who receive him, to those who believe in his name, he gives the right to become children of God.”