AT A BURIAL
(i) Eric Burr
I am encouraged to read this scripture by the prayer. Paul does not speak here as an apostle, he speaks as a simple Christian, but all the characteristics of which Paul speaks here as having been found in himself by way of witness I think we could identify in our beloved brother.
It says, “Having therefore met with the help which is from God”. None of us who knew our beloved brother would deny that that was true of him, “Having received the help which is from God”. Our brother had received this help circumstantially, as all of us have; from day to day, we receive the help which is from God. But our brother had a history with the Lord which led him out of the Church of England, from which he was brought into fellowship with us, and none of us can deny that, not only had he received help which was from God, but we have received help through him. That continues even with ourselves with the exercises and sorrows, and on the other hand the joys and celebration, which mark the company of Christians. They had marked our brother and he had received the help which is from God. Even in his last illness in the home where he was cared for – and we give thanks to God for the care which is available and which our beloved brother received in the home where he was – he was still receiving the help which is from God. Many among us are infirm and experience the frailties which go especially with old age, but the help which is from God is there. What our brother received is available to you, available to me, the help which is from God. Everything that is available to one simple Christian is available to every simple Christian. Paul is not here as an apostle, he is here as filling the place of a simple Christian.
Then he says, “I have stood firm unto this day”. That is another characteristic of our brother. He stood firm to the end; the days go by one after another, but our beloved brother stood firm unto this day. I cannot recall, and I have known our beloved brother for a very long time, an occasion in which our brother had not stood firm; he stood firm until the day the Lord took him. May that encourage us to stand firm as long as we are here.
Then he says, “witnessing both to small and great”: that is our brother. It did not matter to whom he spoke about the gospel, it did not matter who they were, he would speak. Hardly would you enter into conversation with him than he was speaking about Christ, “witnessing both to small and great”; it did not matter who they were. Let these characteristics mark us all, “witnessing both to small and great”. Then Paul says, “saying nothing else than those things which both the prophets and Moses have said should happen”. Another characteristic of our brother was that he would not go outside the scripture. Paul here is referring to the Old Testament scriptures because they fitted the circumstances, the environment and the day in which he was speaking, but he says; I will not go outside the scriptures. It is another characteristic – let these come out in us - nothing outside the scriptures. Ministry we value, the truth as it has been brought out by one and another, but nothing is to be outside the scripture, “saying nothing else than those things which both the prophets and Moses have said”. And then he says, “whether Christ should suffer”. That is the basis on which we are here, that Christ suffered. He did not have the path of honour and distinction and promotion in the world, He came in order that He might suffer. He bore our griefs and He carried out sorrows, but He carried them in suffering. That was the testimony of our brother, that Christ suffered, and above all that He suffered for our sins, He suffered from God’s hand for our sins. He suffered from man’s hand by His rejection, but He suffered from God’s hand for our sins. May it be true of us all that we know that and that we believe it. Paul was concerned that his gospel should reach into everybody. The truth of the gospel was developed by Paul more than by anybody else; if you go through Paul’s ministry you will find one reference after another to aspects of the gospel. Then he says, “whether Christ should suffer; whether he first, through resurrection of the dead, should announce light both to the people and to the nations”. Our brother entered into that too. Our brother preached the gospel, he preached if formally in a meeting room, but he preached it in his life, and he preached it every day. He preached to everyone with whom he came in contact, but what he was doing was announcing light both to the people and to the nations, no discrimination of race or nationality, or anything like that – “announce light both to the people and to the nations”. That is our brother. I find our brother in this verse, and I find him because Paul is not speaking as an apostle, Paul is filling the place of the simple Christian. You may fill it and I may fill it, and on the line of our beloved brother’s prayer we would be strengthened in an occasion like this by committing ourselves to the pattern that has been set out in one amongst us whom we loved and in whom the light of the Lord shone, but, beloved, the word is for us. Paul was going on and he was going on to prison: our beloved brother has gone on, and he has gone to be with Christ which is very much better. But, beloved, what Paul says before Agrippa here, just as I say as a simple Christian, is open to every single one of us. May the Lord encourage us to take in on.
For His Name’s sake.