She Now Fully Hears and Fully Knows :: John 5:24 :: Funeral of Sandra Huey
[Jesus said] Amen, Amen, I say to you that the one hearing my Word and having faith in the one who sent me will have life eternal (v24)
Dear Michael, Mark, Christine ... dear friends and extended family of Sandra ... dear brothers and sisters in Christ ... Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Your mother, grandmother, great-grandmother, and sister in Christ ... lives, though she has died (Jn 11:25). In her earthly life, she knew the Beautiful Savior. She knew that her Redeemer lives. She knew What a Friend She Has in Jesus. Therefore, we can say with confidence that Sandy Huey has eternal life. We can be sure and certain of this declaration because the Word Made Flesh has promised.
God can’t change his promises. You heard this Word of our Lord himself. Again, Jesus said, Amen, Amen, I say to you that the one hearing my Word and having faith in the one who sent me will have life eternal (v24).
Our heavenly faithful Lord ... who was born without sin and lived without sin ... sealed that guarantee by suffering and dying for your sin ... for Sandy’s sin ... for the world’s sin. He did this so that God could deliver the forgiveness of sins ... all sins ... yesterday’s sins, today’s sins, tomorrow’s sins ... to all of creation. The one who hears and has faith in Jesus will have eternal life. God poured out of his wrath for sin upon the cross of our Jesus. As Saint Paul tells us in Romans chapter 8, there is therefore no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus (8:1). The Word of God cannot and will not break this promise ... his promise. It is impossible for God to lie (Hb 6:18). The Word of God is faithful and just.
1.
As you all know so well, Sandy definitely heard and continued to hear the Word of God all the way to the end of her days on earth. I remember well the very last meeting I had with her in Lee’s Summit ... just before she returned to Warsaw for her final days of life. She seemingly was asleep when I arrived. She had become so much weaker than she had been just a week earlier. So I started to share the Gospel with her one more time. You can never hear it enough.
As Jesus said, Amen, Amen, I say to you that the one hearing my Word and having faith in the one who sent me will have life eternal (v24).
Suddenly, Sandy joined me in the confession leading to absolution. We spoke the 23rd Psalm together. We heard reading from Paul and Christ, and Sandy found the strength to smile. She most certainly has eternal life.
2.
Hearing the Word of God is the key here. Sandy didn’t just listen to God’s Word. She actively heard it. She actively received it. She actively knew it. She actively loved it. She loved reading it and singing it. And it’s no wonder. She was baptized on September 1, 1944, just shy of a month after her birth. As Peter declares: This baptism now saves you (1 Pt 3:21).
Sandy then confirmed the faith God had given her through baptism on March 30, 1958, the day she made our passage from John 5:24 her own, taking an extra measure of comfort in the promise of Jesus. Amen, Amen, I say to you that the one hearing my Word and having faith in the one who sent me will have life eternal (v24).
We cannot otherwise by our own reason or strength believe in Christ or come to him, but the Holy Spirit called her by the Gospel ... this word of God ... he enlightened her with his gifts ... the gifts she employed with the Lutheran Women’s Missionary League ... quilting, sewing, studying, teaching the very Word of God she loved. In this Christian faith, God daily and richly forgave all her sins on account of Christ.
She couldn’t go to God, so God came to her, by grace through faith in the Word she heard and is still hearing ... And that gave her peace.
3.
Brothers and sisters in Christ, it was Sandy’s prayer, that you too would have this peace by hearing about God’s peace. Not to hear and not to believe is to be in death. To hear and believe is to have life. Eternal life is thus defined in Jesus’ word as the state of hearing and believing. In our passage from John chapter 5, Jesus does not speak of a future, but a present reality. He speaks of the meaning of his own presence.
Take comfort as well in this revelation given to Saint John in our epistle reading. That’s the vision Sandy undoubtedly has now. That’s the word she undoubtedly hears today ... presently.
Behold, a great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands, and crying out with a loud voice,
Salvation belongs to our God, who sits on the throne and to the lamb.
4.
With that in mind, I want to draw your attention to Psalm 23, which Sandy said was her favorite ... yet another of God’s promises to us ... that describes the eternal life above that awaits those who hear God’s Word.
Listen carefully again to Psalm 23. Most people know this Psalm very well, especially the KJV. But Hebrew is a very expressive language in its own right. Hear how it emphasizes that we who hear are God’s own. Listen to who is doing what.
The Lord is My Shepherd ... I will not be in lack.
He causes me to stretch out on new green grass; he guides me alongside calm waters. My soul, he refreshes. He leads me in paths of righteousness for the sake of His name.
Yea, though I walk in the valley of the shadow of death, I will not fear evil, because you are with me. Your rod and your staff, they console me. You set the table before me in front of my enemies. You anoint with oil my head; my cup is saturated.
Surely, goodness and mercy will pursue me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.
Isn’t this imagery magnificent?
It’s no wonder Psalm 23 was such a favorite of Sandy’s to hear and speak, as she did from memory in Lee’s Summit. Green grass. Calm water. Refreshing life, abundance, joy, goodness, peace, patience, kindness ... these she knew she had ... even as she struggled with illness the last couple years.
For nearly eight decades on earth God gave this to her through hearing. He gave her Michael as a husband for just shy of 58 years. He blessed their union with three children, seven grandchildren, and eight great-grandchildren. Most importantly, he gave her the good shepherd.
And you can have that too. Jesus says, I am the good shepherd. I know those who are mine and they know me ... They will hear my voice (Jn 10:14-16). ... And those who hear will live (5:25) ... because he lives, as we just sang
He lives, all glory to his name.
He lives, my Jesus, still the same;
Oh, the sweet joy this sentence gives;
I know that my Redeemer lives (LSB 461:8)
In Jesus’ name.