Dr. Bradford Reaves
Crossway Christian Fellowship
Hagerstown, MD
www.mycrossway.org
As we gather at the graveside service for [NAME], on behalf of the family, I would like to thank you for joining us today. We commit Robert Krempels to his final resting place, knowing there is still a resurrection yet to come and eternal life beyond this life for those who have put their faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.
Let us pray:
Heavenly Father, we gather in the name of Your son and our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. We thank you for the great consolation we have concerning all who sleep in Jesus, including our beloved Husband, Father, and friend, [NAME]. At his grave, we have the assurance of his eternal life granted to him by you through his faith. Watch over his family and friends as we continue to live each day. May everyone here uphold the same assurance Bob had in you. In these moments of sorrow, give us strength, give us peace, and give us hope. Amen.
Words of Hope – The Resurrection
Death reminds us that we live in a fallen, imperfect world. This committal service to the grave is not an eternal commitment to the ground, but rather, it is an interim placement of the body as we await the rapture and resurrection of the saints, where the sinful will be made sinless and the imperfect will be transformed without blemish. [NAME] would want us all to be reminded of and comforted by this truth.
The Bible says, “To be absent from the body, is to be present with the Lord.” (2 Corinthians 5:8). [NAME]’s spirit is in heaven now; however, only temporarily parted physically. The resurrection is yet to come.
51 Behold! I tell you a mystery. We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, 52 in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we shall be changed. 53 For this perishable body must put on the imperishable, and this mortal body must put on immortality. 54 When the perishable puts on the imperishable, and the mortal puts on immortality, then shall come to pass the saying that is written: “Death is swallowed up in victory.” 55 “O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?” 56 The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. 57 But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. (1 Corinthians 15:51-58).
13 But we do not want you to be uninformed, brothers, about those who are asleep, that you may not grieve as others do who have no hope. 14 For since we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so, through Jesus, God will bring with him those who have fallen asleep. 15 For this we declare to you by a word from the Lord, that we who are alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, will not precede those who have fallen asleep. 16 For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the sound of the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. 17 Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we will always be with the Lord. 18 Therefore encourage one another with these words. (1 Thessalonians 4:13–18).
Ray Steadman makes this observation: “I have stood at the gravesides with families who knew only the stuff of this life. They cared little for the news of the next. And it shows in their grief. There was a hardness, a harshness, hopelessness to the whole thing. Without a future to look to, the grief easily turns to anger and frustration with one another. Grief without hope is never a pretty picture… But I have stood at the gravesides where the tears were tinted with hope. Friends and family wept. But a light shined in the darkness. They confidently talked of a future reunion.” Let us be comforted that we stand at the graveside of [NAME] with tremendous hope and assurance. I would be remiss not to (and Bob would want me to) share the words of hope that every believer knows.
Because sin was introduced to the world through Satan’s deception of Adam and Eve, we are all born sinners. We are spiritually dead and eternally separated from eternal life in heaven. But God, being rich in His love and mercy, while we were sinners sent his son Jesus to die on the cross, receiving the punishment for all our sins. He was the first to go to the grave and he defeated death in the grave, that whoever will call upon the name of Jesus as their Lord and Savior in faith will receive the hope of eternal life. We are reborn spiritually as a new creation and awaiting the resurrection of saints and the imminent return of our Lord Jesus Christ as the victorious Lord of all. That begins with the Rapture (as we read) where the dead in Christ shall rise first and those of us who are still alive will also be caught up to join Christ around the throne of Heaven.
[NAME] knew that, he believed it, he lived out that faith in Christ better than anyone I know. He would want all of us to live in that assurance and hope today. Our hope is not based on wishful thinking, but it is built on the steadfast assurance of Jesus Christ. Jesus said, “I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live, even though he dies; and whoever lives and believes in me will never die.” (John 11:25).
19 “Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal, 20 but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. 21 For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. (Matthew 6:19–21)
Do you believe that Jesus is the Resurrection?
Do you believe that Jesus is the way the truth and the life?
Do you believe that Jesus is the only way to eternal life?
Jesus said, because I live, you shall live also (John 14:19)
Fear not, I am the first and the last, 18 and the living one. I died, and behold I am alive forevermore, and I have the keys of Death and Hades (Revelation 1:17b–18).
Prayer of Committal:
For as much as it has pleased you O God in your perfect will and infinite wisdom to take [NAME] soul from this earth to eternity in Heaven, we hold fast to the hope given to us through your son, Jesus Christ our Lord. We, O Lord, commit his body to the ground, knowing the day of resurrection is coming soon. We await the glorious appearance of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ when at his coming the earth and sea will give up those who sleep in Christ and shall be transformed into the likeness of the body of our Lord. Amen.
The service is over. Go in peace. Go with hope.
