This recording was made at the funeral of Brother Austin-Sparks on 19 April 1971. We apologise for the noise on the tape.
After the service, the recorder was taken to the graveside. The tape ran out just before the end of the prayer. This was followed by the singing of the chorus, “Living, He Loved Me.”
Always, Jesus, in Christ.
Shall we look at Revelation 1?
John to the seven churches that are in Asia: Grace to you and peace, from Him Who is and Who was and Who is to come; and from the seven Spirits that are before His throne;
and from Jesus Christ, Who is the faithful witness, the firstborn of the dead, and the ruler of the kings of the earth.
Unto Him that loveth us, and loosed us from our sins by His blood;
and He made us to be a kingdom, to be priests unto His God and Father; to Him be the glory and the dominion for ever and ever. Amen.Behold, He cometh with the clouds; and every eye shall see Him, and they that pierced Him; and all the tribes of the earth shall mourn over Him. Even so, Amen.
I am the Alpha and the Omega, saith the Lord God, Who is and Who was and Who is to come, the Almighty.
I John, your brother and partaker with you in the tribulation and kingdom and patience which are in Jesus, was in the isle that is called Patmos, for the word of God and the testimony of Jesus.
I was in the Spirit on the Lord’s day, and I heard behind me a great voice, as of a trumpet, saying, What thou seest, write in a book and send it to the seven churches.
And I turned to see the voice that spake with me. And having turned I saw seven golden candlesticks;
and in the midst of the candlesticks one like unto a son of man, clothed with a garment down to the foot, and girt about at the breasts with a golden girdle.
And His head and His hair were white as white wool, white as snow; and His eyes were as a flame of fire;
and His feet like unto burnished brass, as if it had been refined in a furnace; and His voice as the voice of many waters.
And He had in His right hand seven stars: and out of His mouth proceeded a sharp two-edged sword: and His countenance was as the sun shineth in His strength.
And when I saw Him, I fell at His feet as one dead. And He laid His right hand upon me, saying, Fear not; I am the first and the last,
and the Living One; and I was dead, and behold, I am alive for evermore, and I have the keys of death and of Hades.
But thanks be unto God, Who always leadeth us in triumph in Christ.
—2 Corinthians 2:14
O gracious and merciful God, we are all here gathered now for a time which, for every one of us, is a moving one.
We thank Thee that, though there can be few of us who are not conscious also of a triumphant note, this is a time of real thanksgiving. We are gathered because one who served Thee, and who was to many a spiritual father and servant, is at rest now with the Father.
We thank Thee for Thy servant’s faithfulness and Thy servant’s trust in Thee. So it is a note of thanksgiving which we would celebrate now in life, and we ask that in the days ahead it may continue so.
If the sparrow can find a resting place in Thy house, what then is the rest for those whose hearts are toward Thy heart, whose home is there? We praise Thee that they go from strength to strength; every one of them appeareth before God in Zion.
Grant that it may be true of every one of us. Thou hast turned the valley of weeping into a place of springs, and given the living water.
We commit one another to Thee. Amen.
I want to express, at this time, to Mrs. Austin-Sparks, to the sons and daughters, the grandchildren, and the wider family, our great appreciation and thanks to God for Brother Austin-Sparks and for the long years of fruitful ministry which he had by the grace of God.
It is some forty-seven years since I first met and heard him speak. It was at an Overcomer meeting in Eccleston Hall. While I am not able to repeat to you now all of the message, I can assure you that, characteristically, it was one stressing the battle and the conflict of the Christian life.
Again, it was with the words which I now read from 2 Peter 1:11: an entrance should be ministered abundantly into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.
That is for those who have obtained and made use of those exceeding great and precious promises. I think he would have been surprised to know that he had to wait forty-seven years for his abundant entrance. He never reckoned to go much beyond fifty, but the Lord is so much better than what we think.
By the infinite grace of God, he came up the way from the thirteenth of April, and then, at the moment of his departure, we thank God that we know where he is, and we know that we are going to see him again.
Our brother’s heart was not for writing. It may surprise you to hear that, but it was not. He had many books under his name, and for very many years the magazine went out; but they were all expressions of his gifts as a preacher.
Those messages came out of his heart, from his experience, his prayer, and his travail. If you run your eyes down the list of the books—which you may easily do if you wish—you will have an excellent idea of the driving force, the overwhelming heart ambition, of the brother whose body today we shall lay to rest.
I think first on that list I would put one of the very earliest: The Centrality and Supremacy of the Lord Jesus Christ. Christ is all and in all.
Early, he yielded to the Lordship of Christ. But there came later, when he was in the ministry of the Word of God, a time when life was such a problem and had come to such a crisis that he felt he needed something altogether new—and he got it.
What came was an altogether new revelation of the greatness and the glory of Jesus Christ: that Christ is indeed central, not only for the individual believer’s life, but for the Church as a whole.
This became his great theme: Christ. This had captured him. This was his purpose: to see more of Christ, and to make that Christ known to others, that they might see more of Him.
I am sure there are many of us here who can point to some particular occasion—a conference here, a gathering in many places—and say, “I was never the same after I heard that message on whatever it was.”
But when we have got them all together, trying to decide what it was, we find it could be summed up in the same way: “I found anew the all-sufficiency of Christ.” So that was the work to which he was given: the glory of God—Christ central and supreme.
I am not sure that many in the Christian world would consider it a great thing. Yet in some sense, spiritual success and achievement is to have been able to communicate something more of the wonder and the glory and the power and the purpose of Christ.
There are people here today who will stand up and attest to the fact that his life was a success. That was what he set out to do before God: to bring us, in measure, into that place.
But we must remember that there are many, many people with whom there is no outward contact—some who would not know the name, some who would not know anything about him—who, through speaking, through writing, through the ministry of other brethren, have come into a new measure of knowledge of Christ. May God make it true in the experience of each one of us here.
But I remind you of the next one, very similar to it, and very important: The Cross of the Lord Jesus Christ.
That is right, you say: the Cross. Everything is there at the Cross. How wonderful that the Lord Jesus Christ has provided for our every need.
The power of the love of Christ is to give forgiveness, to give life, to give victory. The Word was here never for one moment to be moved from this ground. Everything that God has given us through Christ comes by the way of the Cross.
I am very sure that those who attended the family meetings here will remember that, when our brother led the Lord’s Table, the Cross of our Lord Jesus Christ was always central.
No one could be present in those meetings without being reminded that there is no other ground of salvation, and no other place where that can be discovered, than at the Cross of the Lord Jesus Christ.
I must speak of this matter: he was in touch with the throne. This was surely one of the great features of our brother’s life and ministry from the first: the practical possibility of coming by prayer into the presence of the Lord Jesus.
In his last days, when he was not much in touch with this world, and you were not quite sure how much he understood, I testify to the fact that I never went in without seeing those lips moving. In a world which was becoming increasingly unreal, prayer remained real.
It was very beautiful. We remember his prayers, certainly; but he also prayed, and much of what has happened through the years, through him and through those associated with him, is a tribute to his prayer.
Many of us have read accounts of the circumstances through which he passed—apparently insurmountable difficulties and trials. Yet, in the midst of it all, the throne was still there. He was in touch with the throne.
Sometimes with much difficulty, for one of the great points which our brother helped us to understand was that there is warfare. But always, with the Word, there was prayer; and in His name, he would speak.
Now one more: the power of His resurrection.
Sometimes, when Christians die, it is said of them concerning the day on which they die, “So-and-so entered into life.” If I said that of Brother Sparks, he would say, “No, brother. I entered into resurrection life when first I came to Christ.”
He proved resurrection life through many things. It is true: we were never quite sure whether our brother would not be back again, even to the last, because earlier we had had so many surprises.
There came so many experiences of human weakness in which the power of His resurrection was proved. I say to the glory of God that I firmly believe that 1971 was a year of ministry for him.
Certainly, those who were in Switzerland at the conference testified that this was the best—just like that. It was as though he had come to a new opportunity to minister, and we praise God.
The Lord sustained our brother. He was a comfort for the family, and his ministry at that time was a happy one. Good to finish up with a note of real strength. But that is what we would expect, is it not, from one who had such implicit confidence in the power of Christ’s resurrection?
Which brings me to the last point. We cannot always understand things, and we give glory to God for many mercies through those difficult things. Some of us wondered, perhaps, and I think he did: “Why are You leaving me so long?” I am not sure that I know why, but I know where he went.
We have always had great new departures and special times of God’s blessing at Easter time. Throughout the years, there were special seasons and many memorable occasions.
At the last meeting of the Easter conference, each time we gathered around the Lord, he was always free to finish on the great note of the Lord’s coming.
There is much that we do not know about this present change in his life. We do know that he is enjoying the satisfying presence of the Lord, and that he is at rest.
And soon—we believe very soon—will come the great day of reunion.
A word for all our hearts, a parting word, perhaps, from all these precious words: the sweetest, brightest, clearest in the hope of His coming.
So, as we are going to commit the body of our dear brother to the earth, our thoughts are not to the past. There are some sweet thoughts in the past, but they are toward the future and the great day of resurrection.
I seem to hear a voice—not his; we shall never hear that voice again—but the voice of His coming, saying:
Behold, I come quickly.
Amen: come, Lord Jesus.
—Revelation 22:20
We thank Thee once again, our God, for these great realities which our brother so soberly and so vehemently proclaimed: the supremacy of Christ, the reality of the Kingdom, the reality of the Cross, the reality and power of prayer in touch with the throne, the wonder and reality of the power of His resurrection, and the blessed hope of His coming.
O our God, when all these things are before us, then at the same time we might sing a little of the glory of the Lord. So we say.
Now unto Him that is able to guard you from stumbling, and to set you before the presence of His glory without blemish in exceeding joy,
to the only God our Saviour, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, dominion and power, before all time, and now, and for evermore. Amen.
—Jude 24-25
O God, it has pleased Thee to take unto Thyself the soul of our beloved brother. We now commit his body to the ground, in sure and certain hope of the resurrection unto eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Who shall fashion anew the body of our humiliation, that it may be conformed to the body of His glory, according to the working whereby He is able even to subject all things unto Himself.
—Philippians 3:21
Shall we pray?
Ah, gracious God, we thank Thee that all Thy ways are right; indeed, they are perfect. We thank Thee that for so many years Thou didst lead Thy servant in Thine own right ways. For all that Thou didst grant to him, we praise Thee: for sustaining grace, for overruling providence, for the daily, hourly assurance of Thy presence, for all the rich and fruitful part of it all. We thank Thee in the name of them all.
Over it we write: “As for God, His way is perfect.” And this Thy servant would add, “He made my way perfect.”
We praise Thee that we are gathered here to rejoice in the fact of our brother being in Thy presence. We have read of the end of these troublesome things of our poor world. There shall be no more pain. Thank God, Brother Sparks will have no more pain, no more sorrow, no more night—only blessing, only eternal enjoyment of serving the Lord and seeing His face.
O how we praise Thee. O Lord, we feel the challenge of eternity.
Lord, we feel the challenge of eternity coming to our own hearts. As we stand around this open graveside, we are made to remember how frail we are, the fewness of our days, and the nearness of eternity for each one of us.
Our prayer would be, O Lord, that Thou wouldst lead us in Thine everlasting way, saving us from ways of grief and leading us up to that glorious holy city of Thine, where all is light and all is love.
We commend to Thee our mourning friends. Thou hast said:
Blessed are they that mourn: for they shall be comforted.
—Matthew 5:4
While we thank God for the comfort and help until now, we pray for the days that lie ahead: that goodness and mercy shall follow and surround them also all the days of their life.
We thank God that they, and our brother, and our dear ones who have gone before, and we here, by Thy grace, can say:
And I shall dwell in the house of the Lord for ever.
—Psalm 23:6
The memorial service for Brother Austin-Sparks was held on Saturday, 1 May. A large number of people from throughout Great Britain and the Continent were present.