Jesus said "Do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God; trust also in me. In my Father's house are many rooms; if it were not so, I would have told you. I am going there to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am.” He also 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.”
I have known Jeanette for quite some time, our children went to school together, we attended Church together right here in this building, and a friendship grew between the two families that has been an absolute blessing. The one thing that has been constant throughout our 16 odd years of fellowship, is the fact that Jeanette loved her Lord, she had a relationship with Jesus and it shone through her life. She understood His Saving Grace and that flowed into her relationships with others and she has been both a friend and an example of the Love of Jesus in both my life and the lives of my family.
“If we walk in the light, as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another” one of Jeanette’s favourite scriptures, you will find it on the front of the bulletin this afternoon and it’s a testimony to the way she walked through her life.
We are going to look at 1 John 1 this afternoon, I have chosen this particular scripture because portion of it was some of Jeanette’s favourite scripture but also because it really does epitomise her life.
1 John 1 – 2:2
These are the words of the last remaining of the original twelve disciples, John, now an old man and living in Ephesus. He starts out with a reminder that this message, the message that “God is Light”, he had heard directly from the mouth of Jesus, he and the other disciples had been eyewitnesses and had heard it first hand, he is telling us that what he is teaching is not something that he made up, but these are the words of our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ Himself. He is saying, hey folks, I was there and these are His words, Jesus said it, not me.
John spent his life testifying to the fact that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, he was one of the first to follow Jesus and he has seen the miracles that Jesus did, he was there for the feeding of the 5000, there when Lazarus was raised. He saw the blind see, and the crippled walk, and he was in the garden the night that Jesus was taken and he watched the next day as Jesus died on that harsh Roman cross.
He watched as they entombed Him and was the first of the disciples to reach the tomb on the morning when Mary had said that the body was gone. He saw the empty tomb and the burial cloths. He was there when Jesus appeared in that locked room, they saw the wounds in his hands and feet and side. He was there when Jesus ascended into heaven and was present on the day of Pentecost when the Holy Spirit came upon them, the day 3000 came to know Jesus. John knew with absolute certainty that Jesus is the Son of God and he watched as all the other disciples, including his own brother, were martyred, murdered because of their faith in Jesus and testimony about Him. He was exiled to the Island of Patmos and even that couldn’t quieten him down. John had experienced the light and love of Jesus and all he wanted to do was tell people about it.
David told me of a time while he and Jeanette were at Nazarene Theological College, there was a compulsory practical evangelism assignment to be done and they were taken out to a really poor area in Krugersdorp and were sent from house to house, the idea was to collect people to meet for revival services that were to be held in the evenings.
With some trepidation the students went about the task of going door to door and that evening the venue was buzzing. The service however was anything but what they had expected; the preacher proceeded to give a real Hellfire and brimstone sermon.
In the vehicle on the way back to college David sat open mouthed as his sister, Jeanette, tearfully told the Principal of the college that she would not be doing that again irrespective of the fact that this was a compulsory assignment. When asked why she told the him that what had happened that night was not a reflection of the Jesus that she knew and there ensued a discussion between Jeanette and the principal about the Grace and Love of God which brought about a re-evaluation in the minds of those who were listening. Jeanette knew her Lord Jesus intimately, and was not afraid to take a stand when it came to the Grace and Love of God.
John uses light and darkness as images of good and evil, of living for God and living for the world, and it reminds me of the first chapter of his gospel which is one of my favourite pieces of scripture and starts out in a similar vein to this letter. “In the beginning was the Word and The Word was with God and the Word was God.” Just a couple of verses later John says (John 1:4-5) “In him was life, and that life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, but the darkness has not understood it.”
John tells us that “If we claim to have fellowship with Him, Jesus, yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not live by the truth. But if we walk in the light, as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin.” This relationship with Jesus brings about change in our lives and that change is visible, it means that we have a different set of goals and values to those that are on display around us in the world and if that is not the case John says that we live a lie and are not in fellowship with Jesus.
The thing is that when we are in fellowship with Jesus, when He is alive inside of us, the fellowship that we have with one another is so much sweeter because He is in the centre of it. So many times in my life I have felt that confirmation of another person inside and we have been able to communicate on a different level, His Spirit enabling the fellowship in both parties. That’s the kind of fellowship that I found with Jeanette and John teaches us that when we have this kind of fellowship with Jesus and with one another, the blood of Jesus, God’s Son, purifies us from all sin.
Hang on a minute here, does that mean that we are perfect and never make mistakes?
Jeanette had many roles in life, she was a daughter to Bill and Theresa, sister to David, Brenda and Bryan, she was a wife to Paddy and a mother to Jenny and Michael, she was also their teacher as she home schooled them. Jeanette would have told you that she was not without fault, not perfect, that she did not always get it right, that she often made mistakes but that she was forgiven. Purified by the blood of Jesus through the confession of her sins.
Jeanette would have told you of The One who sits at the right hand of God, even now, and prays for you, the one who speaks in our defence because “He is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only for ours but also for the sins of the whole world.”
I see Jeanette in the writings of another disciple that we discussed together even while she was in hospital and I want to read the beginning of Peter’s first letter to you today, 1 Peter 1:3-9
“Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade-kept in heaven for you, who through faith are shielded by God's power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time. In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. These have come so that your faith-of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire-may be proved genuine and may result in praise, glory and honour when Jesus Christ is revealed. Though you have not seen him, you love him; and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy, for you are receiving the goal of your faith, the salvation of your souls.”
Jeanette knew her Saviour personally and trusted Him totally. Her life helps us to look within and ask the difficult questions of ourselves. Questions like, do you really know Jesus, do you have the assurance to face life and death in the sure knowledge that you are in the hands of the Living Son of God, Jesus Christ. Are you truly fellowshipping with Jesus today? You can be, Romans 10 teaches us that if you confess with your mouth, "Jesus is Lord," and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you confess and are saved. As the Scripture says, "Anyone who trusts in him will never be put to shame."
There is a song that speaks of that assurance that Jeanette sang recently, it was also sung to her last Sunday morning, please remain seated as we sing it together this morning.
I’ll Fly Away
We would like to have a short time of silent prayers of thanksgiving for Jeanette’s life. This is a celebration of her life so think about the happy times that you have shared together and give thanks to God for her life, for the good times that we have spent together……. Father we stand before You today filled with memories of our time here on Earth with Jeanette and we thank You for her life. Now whether you stand here as friend or as family, we each have memories of Jeanette that are both unique and precious to us. Lord thank you for the time we had with her, for her witness in our lives. We also want to pray for the family today, Father that Your peace which transcends all understanding will envelope Paddy, Jenny, Michael, Theresa, Bill, David, Brenda, Bryan and the family and that they will take comfort from the fact that You are their Refuge today, Lord you said blessed are those who mourn for they will be comforted. Lord Jesus you are the great Comforter, please make that so in Your Wonderful Name Lord Jesus I pray. Amen.
