For Always And Forever
Nearly two thousand years ago Mary Magdalene, Joanna, and Mary the mother of James, stood with others, before a huge, rock cave which was being used as a tomb – and found it empty. Already they had suffered extreme grief and misery, and then an added disappointment. But soon they, and millions of others since, learned that their dis appointment was not another cruel injustice by men, but rather the greatest event in his tory: the resurrection of Jesus Christ.1
As they stood wondering what had happened to the body of their Master who just hours before had been crucified, two angels appeared and said unto them, “Why seek ye the living among the dead? He is not here but is risen.”1 And later Christ did appear as a resurrected being before His disciples. So, for the first time, mortal men knew that life
did not end at the grave, that life is eternal, and that this earthy existence is only another step along the eternal path of progression.
When we lose a loved one, close friend or associate, we are sorrowed at the immediate loss, but we can find peace and comfort in knowing that this is not the end, that separations are not permanent, that life has only arrived at another milestone; that life goes on.
Not many months ago this broadcast lost a long-time associate, one responsible for this sermonette for over forty years. Just three months before Richard Evans’ death, he spoke at the funeral service of a dear friend – one who, for over half a century, was a member of the Tabernacle Choir. On this occasion, Richard L. Evans expressed his great feeling of the resurrection and everlasting life.
“If I thought,” he said, “that at some moment of accident or illness all would be as if it has never been; if I thought that each morning would bring me one day closer to the end of associations with our four sons and their beautiful mother, I would wonder if life meant much; I would wonder if the Creator knew His business? But blessedly, He hasn’t planned that way for us, but has given us the assurance that life, and loved ones, and truth and intelligence, personality, and the sweetness of association with loved ones, and with our Father, are planned for always and forever.”2
Indeed, the eternal life of man is made by the gift and sacrifice of Jesus Christ.
“I am the resurrection, and the life:
he that believeth in me, though he were dead,
yet shall he live:” And whosoever liveth and
believeth in me shall never die.”3
1See New Testament, Luke, Ch. 24
2Richard L. Evans, Address at the funeral service for Jessie Evans Smith, August 5, 1971
3New Testament, John 11:25, 26
April 02, 1972
Broadcast Number 2,219