If the Dead Could Speak
Rex Yancey
Luke 16:19-31
Jim Futral will speak tomorrow at five o’clock at Falkner. He was my pastor back in the 60’s. Pleasant Ridge was founded in 1842. The pastors of that church through the years have preached many funerals of people they did not know. They had moved away and perhaps out of state, and came back to the Ridge to be buried.
Jim had a funeral like that where a pastor from Arkansas accompanied the corpse back to the Ridge to be buried. Jim read scriptures at the graveside and called on the dead man to pray. The pastor quickly corrected him. Jim said if that man had prayed he would have run out of the cemetery.
-What if the dead could speak? There are those in our world who believe in spiritism. They believe they can communicate with the dead. There are Chinese, Hindus, Babylonians and Egyptians, plus people in our nation who believe in séances. People want to keep in touch with departed loved ones to find out about life beyond the grave.
¬-Now I don’t believe in séances, but the mere existence of such a thing is evidence of such a delusion since the beginning of time where people have wondered if the dead could speak what would they say.
-The Bible answers that story for us. What we have before us is a parable. It is a life story like the story of the prodigal son. We have a contrast between two men, one rich and one poor. One lived flamboyantly and the other lived in abject poverty.
-One died and was likely carried to the city dump and made his grave with dogs and cats, and garbage. The other likely had an expensive funeral, attended by a large crowd, and had an embellished eulogy.
-But death comes to both men and the scene shifts in the life beyond. There was a total reversal where the poor man goes to the presence of God, and the rich man goes to hell.
-When Jesus preached a funeral he told it like it was. Here was a big family, a rich family, a family death had visited, a family with one memb ...
Rex Yancey
Luke 16:19-31
Jim Futral will speak tomorrow at five o’clock at Falkner. He was my pastor back in the 60’s. Pleasant Ridge was founded in 1842. The pastors of that church through the years have preached many funerals of people they did not know. They had moved away and perhaps out of state, and came back to the Ridge to be buried.
Jim had a funeral like that where a pastor from Arkansas accompanied the corpse back to the Ridge to be buried. Jim read scriptures at the graveside and called on the dead man to pray. The pastor quickly corrected him. Jim said if that man had prayed he would have run out of the cemetery.
-What if the dead could speak? There are those in our world who believe in spiritism. They believe they can communicate with the dead. There are Chinese, Hindus, Babylonians and Egyptians, plus people in our nation who believe in séances. People want to keep in touch with departed loved ones to find out about life beyond the grave.
¬-Now I don’t believe in séances, but the mere existence of such a thing is evidence of such a delusion since the beginning of time where people have wondered if the dead could speak what would they say.
-The Bible answers that story for us. What we have before us is a parable. It is a life story like the story of the prodigal son. We have a contrast between two men, one rich and one poor. One lived flamboyantly and the other lived in abject poverty.
-One died and was likely carried to the city dump and made his grave with dogs and cats, and garbage. The other likely had an expensive funeral, attended by a large crowd, and had an embellished eulogy.
-But death comes to both men and the scene shifts in the life beyond. There was a total reversal where the poor man goes to the presence of God, and the rich man goes to hell.
-When Jesus preached a funeral he told it like it was. Here was a big family, a rich family, a family death had visited, a family with one memb ...
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