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Good morning. The family especially welcomes you today as we're gathered to remember and celebrate the life of their beloved papa, Otis Gene Gibson, who is to many of us our elder, teacher, counselor, mentor, and friend, but mostly our brother Gene. Today we will remember this man who only left behind a few family members, but how many of us that he influenced greatly during sixty remarkable years of walking with the Lord Jesus Christ.
Only one life twill soon be past. Only what's done for Christ will last. And when at last I hear the call, I know I'll say twas worth it all. Several people will be sharing their special memories of Jean with us today, but at Jean's request, there will be no, no open sharing time during today's service. After the service, there will be ample time for fellowship, when you can share with others some of your favorite memories about Jean. We also want to especially welcome today those who are watching remotely.
You may not realize, but there are people who are able to watch this today, um, over the internet from people all- from areas all over the world, um, because they wanted to take part in remembering Jean Gibson. I'd like to ask you to stand with me now as Louis Freeman comes and opens this memorial service in prayer and reads from the scriptures. Let us pray. Lord Jesus, we thank you for your love. We thank you for your goodness and your grace towards us. And Lord, those of us who are saved by your matchless, marvelous grace, we would agree, Lord, if it wasn't for your love that our abode would have been in the blackest part of hell forever.
But oh, how we praise thee, precious Savior, that thy matchless love has laid hold on us. Lord, we would remember at this time our dear brother, remember his life. And Lord Jesus, it is very incredible how you took our dear brother from out of Waco, Texas, and placed him in the Bay Area. And Lord, we would remember so many lives that he touched, so many men that he has discipled. And Lord, we all would agree and said, Lord, because you use our dear brother Gibson so well, because he answered your call, we all could say, Lord, and we all would agree that you have used Gene, and Gene was used by your Holy Spirit, and we would say, because you use him, that he has depopulated hell, Lord Jesus, we could say by hundreds, if not
thousand. And Lord, that's a great day when we look forward, when we all, when all God's children will be together in glory, when the saints go marching in. And right now, Lord Jesus, I know the family hearts are heavy, the friends' hearts are heavy, but if you were to ask Gene right now if he would want to change places, I think he would say no. He's at the feet of the one that he loved. He's at the feet of the one that he adored. I know our dear brother sometimes, he liked to said there were singings up in heaven such as we had never heard.
And I know, Lord Jesus, that dear brother Gene is, is just basking in the glory of the slain lamb on Calvary's tree. Lord, we want to remember the family. Remember Kerry. Lord Jesus, I pray that you'll just put your loving arms around Kerry. I pray that you'll comfort Kerry, that you'll strengthen her. Lord, I pray that the paraclete will just soothe her aching heart. We pray for John also, Lord Jesus, that you'll be dear and near to John too, that you'll comfort him.
We pray for Alex, Lord Jesus, that Alex will hear your still small voice, and Lord, soothe her heart. We pray for Ariel, Lord, that you'll be gentle with Ariel, that you'll comfort Ariel, and we pray for Adriana, Lord Jesus, that you'll treat her as your tender lamb. Lord Jesus, it's a great honor and a great privilege to look at the life of our brother Jean, knowing that you have been good to him, knowing that you have been gracious to him, and knowing that he took up the mantle and heralded forth your word.
Lord, I pray that you'll just soothe us. I pray, Lord Jesus, that you'll just open our hearts to your voice, in your wonderful name. Amen. I think you could sit now. The scripture reading is from Romans, the book of Romans, Romans chapter eight, from verse thirty one to verse thirty nine. Beginning at verse thirty one, What then shall we say to these things?
If God is for us, who is against us? He who did, he who did not spare his own son, but delivered him up for us all, how will he not also with him freely give us all things? Who will bring a charge against God's elect? God is the one who justifies. Who is the one who condemns? Christ Jesus is he who dies, yes, rather who was raised, who is at the right hand of God, who also intercedes for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?
Just as it is written, for thy sake we are being put to death all day long. We were considered as sheep to be slaughtered, but in all these things we overwhelmingly conquer to him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, created things, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus, our Lord.
Thanks be to God for his wonderful word. Amen. Otis Jean Gibson. Known as Gene to most of us, but as Papa to his close family. He was born on October nineteenth, nineteen twenty one, in Waco, Texas. If you heard him talk, you knew pretty quickly that he was a Texan, both by his accent and by his witty expressions. As a boy, Gene grew up attending an Episcopal church and was baptized there, but he was not yet a believer in the Lord Jesus. In nineteen thirty nine, he graduated from Waco High School, where he was the sports editor for the weekly high school paper called the Wacohan.
Gene earned a bachelor's degree in journalism from Baylor University in nineteen forty three, where he also completed one year of law school. He supported himself in college with a full-time job as a cub reporter for the local newspaper, the Waco Tribune-Herald. He had a column entitled While Others Slept, which discussed the after-hours news in town. He became the managing editor of the Baylor paper called The Lariat, and also worked on the college yearbook, The Roundup. The day after Pearl Harbor, Gene volunteered for the United States Marine Corps.
He entered the Marines in March of nineteen forty two while still in college, and then after college served his country in the Pacific Theater during World War II. While there, he became one of the first people to receive a new drug called penicillin for treatment of scarlet fever, which he contracted in Guam. In nineteen forty five, his whole company took part in the attack to free the island of Iwo Jima from the Japanese forces. Just before they left for Iwo Jima, Gene was given orders to stay behind for training, which he was not happy about at the time. Had he been there, I can just picture Gene being one of the Marines who raised the American flag over Iwo Jima, or he might have been one of the thousands who were killed there.
Gene lost several of his close Marine buddies in that effort, and even as he spoke about this over fifty years after it happened, you could still see how much it affected him and how much he appreciated the Lord's hand keeping him from being killed in the war before he came to Christ. Corporal Gibson was honorably discharged in San Diego after the war in April nineteen forty six, having served four years. Gene planned to go back to Texas and become a lawyer. He never made it. First, he traveled north to the Bay Area to visit a Marine buddy. While here, Gene was invited to attend a Bible class which taught the gospel as well as messianic prophecy.
One night, in a hotel room in Oakland, California, Gene Gibson accepted Jesus Christ as his Savior and Lord. He was born again at the age of twenty five. Gene began attending First Presbyterian Church in Berkeley. That Marine buddy he came to visit, well, he had a sister, and that sister had a close friend named June Dale Smith. Gene began to take an interest in June, who fellowshipped at Bethany Gospel Chapel in Oakland. While he was courting June, Gene decided he wanted to be baptized as a believer. He saw that the scriptures taught we should be baptized by immersion, but his church baptized by sprinkling.
He discussed this dilemma with a new friend who worked at Western Book in Oakland over lunch one day. This friend, who had also just completed military service, encouraged Gene to ask the elders of Bethany to baptize him, and soon Gene was baptized by immersion there. The f- the friend who mopped the floor that day, Gene got out of the baptismal tank was William McDonald. Their friendship would endure for sixty years. Jean's conversion led him to abandon his desire to become a Texas lawyer.
He never moved back to Texas. He never sought another advanced degree, preferring to be called a bond servant of the Lord Jesus. He had a name for the degree he wanted, which he has now found, the AUG degree, approved unto God. Gene and June were married on September twenty sixth, nineteen forty seven, at the First Presbyterian Church in Berkeley. The ceremony was performed by Robert Munger, author of the booklet My Heart, Christ's Home. There was an enormous parade in Berkeley that day for Admiral Bull Halsey that nearly prevented guests from getting to the church on time.
The newlywed couple rented an apartment in Oakland for a few years, which was located close to June's family home in Piedmont. After short stints as a reporter for the Wall Street Journal and working for the US Veterans Administration, Gene began his twenty five year business career with pharmaceutical manufacturer Roam and Haas. There he rose to the position of western regional manager, responsible for managing and training their sales force all over the western United States. During this time, Gene studied the word of God and soon began teaching the Bible. It was also during these working years that Jean and June's only daughter, Carrie, was born living, and they lived in the Montclair District of Oakland.
In nineteen fifty four, Jean and June and several others founded a new church in East Oakland called Castlemont Bible Chapel. m Five years later, this church already needed a bigger building. An article about the church at that time described Gene as someone, and I quote, whose main objective is the testimony and who makes a living selling drugs. In nineteen sixty two, this group of believers sold the Castlemont building and moved into this facility, calling the new location Fairhaven Bible Chapel. In the early nineteen seventies, Gene made two decisions that would change the course of his remaining life and ministry.
First, after the nineteen seventy one Billy Graham crusade in Oakland left many young people hungry for God's word, Gene and June began opening their home every Friday night to all comers for a meal and Bible study, which came to be known as the Friday Night Thing. Their Montclair home was soon bursting at the seams, and soon they moved to June's family home in Piedmont. As many as one hundred young people gathered in their home every Friday night over a period of about twelve years. Many were saved and grounded in the word of God through Jean and June's ministry there. As tired as Jean was after teaching the study and counseling what seemed to be an endless line of young people, on many Friday nights, Jean would take June out to the Merritt coffee shop after the study was over.
Two decisions that would change the course of his remaining life and ministry. First, after the nineteen seventy one Billy Graham crusade in Oakland left many young people hungry for God's Word, Jean and June began opening their home every Friday night to all comers for a meal and Bible study, which came to be known as the Friday Night Thing. Their Montclair home was soon bursting at the seams, and soon they moved to June's family home in Piedmont. As many as one hundred young people gathered in their home every Friday night over a period of about twelve years. Many were saved and grounded in the word of God through Jean and Jean- June's ministry there.
As tired as Jean was after teaching the study and counseling what seemed to be an endless line of young people, on many Friday nights, Jean would take June out to the Merritt coffee shop after the study was over so they could spend time together. In nineteen seventy three, Jean's friend William McDonald, now the author of numerous books and Bible commentaries, invited Gene to join him in starting the Discipleship Intern Training Program. At this time, Gene was too young to retire, but chose to leave the business world and devote himself to full-time ministry. Fairhaven Bible Chapel became the hub for this powerful ministry from nineteen seventy three to two thousand and one.
Gene sacrificially poured his life into training over two hundred young leaders from many countries of the world to serve Christ. Quite a few of them serve today on foreign mission fields worldwide, and many others are leaders or teachers in their home churches. Over his lifetime, Gene was invited to teach at many Bible conferences all over the world. His gifts in shepherding and evangelism led to thousands of people coming to know the Lord personally, and to the strengthening of churches worldwide through mature Bible-believing saints that Gene himself taught. His efforts in training young men and women in spiritual reproduction have led to hundreds of churches being planted throughout the world.
Yet with all this going on, his shepherd's heart was never far from the sheep here at Fairhaven, where he served for over fifty years in the role of an elder. He prayed for many people regularly and believed God would answer his prayers. In recent years, he prayed fervently for his son-in-law John during a severe health crisis, and John had an amazing recovery at that time. Jean also wrote over thirty five books, including the Survey of Basic Christianity course taught here every Sunday. SBC has been translated into at least thirty three languages and has had a worldwide impact for the gospel.
Jean also wrote a series of manuals for Christian training, books called Living Discipleship Principles, The Dynamic Church, and a counseling course. He kept laboring earnestly, earnestly at this in his last few years, authoring and publishing books on his own, including Accuracy of Scripture, Answers to Bible Critics, and Creation or Evolution. Gene was greatly gifted by God and used all those gifts for God's glory. He recently told Carrie he was thankful that the Lord had given him tremendous reserves of energy to be able to do all he did. For most of his life, he lived at a pace that had everyone else running to catch up with him, but he accomplished much for the Lord.
Three of Jean and June's greatest joys were their three granddaughters, Alexandra, Ariel, and Adriana. This grandparenting phase added a whole new dimension to their lives in their later years. Being a big part of the lives of these three girls as they grew up brought Jean and June a special delight. The girls will miss their papa greatly, as will Carrie and John, in different and deeper ways than most of us will. Twenty months ago, June preceded Jean in death after fifty seven years of loving marriage, serving the Lord together as a team. Twelve days ago, on May first, two thousand six, our beloved brother Jean took his last breath here on Earth.
Now, although they are both absent from their bodies, the Bible tells us they are present with the Lord where they will be forever. Hebrews thirteen seven says, remember those who led you, who spoke the word of God to you, and considering the result of their conduct, imitate their faith. Gene told his family to tell us all today how he wanted us to remember him. Gene loved the Lord Jesus Christ and tried to serve him. Just a small taste of how, what Gene's love for Jesus was and is.
He's bowing and praising before his Savior right now. Over the years, he loved this one song that Nini and I are going to sing today. It's called More Than Wonderful. Must have incorporated it into three or four of his sermons over the last fifteen, eighteen years. And one thing that he did ask was that when it came that time for him, that we sing this song in his memory, and I always remember just watching him and hearing him while we sit over here for the sermons, and he would wind up being right behind me.
When something was said that was, was right on, you'd hear the emotions of his voice just saying, yes, praise you, Jesus. And how much he just loved the Lord, and you could hear it in every word that he spoke, and every prayer that he uttered. How humbled he was before a mighty God who would be so merciful as to adopt him and adopt us as his children. He promised us that he would be a counselor, a mighty God, and a prince of peace.
He promised us that he would be our father and would love us with a love that would not cease. Well, I tried him and I found his promises are true. He's everything he said that he would be. The finest words I know could not begin to tell just what Jesus really means to me.
For he. he's more wonderful than my mind can conceive. He's more wonderful than my heart can believe. He goes beyond my highest hopes and fondest dreams. He's everything. He's everything that my soul ever longed for. Everything that he's promised, and so much more.
More than amazing, more than marvelous, more than miraculous could ever be. He's more than wonderful. That's what Jesus is to me. I stand amazed when I think the King of glory would come to live within the heart of man.
Oh, I marvel at the thought that he really loves me when I think of who he is and who I am. For he's more wonderful than my mind can conceive. He's more wonderful than my heart can believe. He goes beyond my highest hopes and fondest dreams.
He's everything. He's everything that my soul ever longed for, everything that he's promised, and so much more, more than amazing, more than marvelous, more than miraculous could ever be.
He's more than wonderful, more than wonderful. That's what Jesus is. That's what Jesus is. To me. He's more than wonderful to me. Next, we're going to have several people who were very close to Gene share remembrances of Gene, and I'd like to ask them just to come up in the order that on the program, starting with Alex Malieris, followed by Carol Porter, Bob Bruton, and Ron Chin.
So, Alex. I'm Jean's Gib- Jean Gibson's oldest granddaughter, and I'm here to tell you a little bit about snails. Yep, snails. Some of my fondest memories of Papa were formed at the Trombus House, where the girls and I spent much of our time growing up. We were a pretty lively bunch, and it was up to Papa and Grammy to figure out creative ways to get us to spend as much of that youthful energy as possible. In an attempt to tire us out, Papa would often put Errol and I on what he affectionately referred to as snail patrol. Armed with our salt shakers, we were to exterminate as many snails as possible while he was counseling with someone in his room.
It was a perfectly brilliant plan. He got his peace and quiet, and we got to watch the little critters fizzle and bubble all over the garden. Grammy was never particularly fond of this exercise, but she put up with it because it kept us entertained and allowed Papa to do what he did best. When I think about it, many of my memories of Papa have something to do with salt. I'm not quite sure why, but he loved the stuff. I suppose, like everything else in life, that it had something to do with the fact that he grew up in Texas. Unfortunately, in the last few years, he had to cut down on the salt, but he continued to flavor his food with the fake stuff.
Real salt was still used, but now it was prescribed for sore throats, swollen feet, and congested nasal passages. Ah, salt, arguably one of his favorite things in life. You know, Jesus likes salt too. He referred to his followers in Matthew as the salt of the earth, saying, you are the salt of the earth, but if the salt has become tasteless, how can it be made salty again? Then he goes on to describe his followers in terms of light. You are the light of the world, he said. Let your light shine before men in such a way that they may see your good works and glorify your Father who is in heaven.
If there was anyone who let his light shine during his time here on earth, it was my grandpa. He would wake up at the crack of dawn to get down on his little blue prayer rug and pray for us. He spent tireless hours poring over books and articles to add to his already astounding knowledge of the Bible. Everywhere he went, he would witness to people. Papa's light shone with an incredible brilliance, and the torch that he bore for so long remains here for us to carry on. In considering my grandfather's passing, I am struck by the huge responsibility that is left with each of us. It is up to us now to carry on the torch that my grandfather left behind.
His work is not yet finished. We've not yet seen the answer to all of his prayers. What an awesome responsibility we have, and what an incredible role model in whose footsteps we follow. It's good to be back here. This is my home church from nineteen seventy two to nineteen eighty eight. My adult formative years were spent here with many of you. Jean had a big impact on so many of us. I'd like to start by reading from Isaiah chapter six. In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord seated on a throne, high and exalted, and the train of his robe filled the temple.
Above him were seraphs, each with six wings. With two wings they covered their faces, with two they covered their feet, and with two they were flying. And they were calling to one another, Holy, holy, holy is the Lord Almighty. The whole earth is full of his glory. At the sound of their voices, the doorpost and threshold shook, and the temple was filled with smoke. Woe to me, I cried. I am ruined, for I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips, and my eyes have seen the King, the Lord Almighty. Then one of the seraphs flew to me with a live coal in his hand, which he had taken with tongs from the altar.
With it he touched my mouth and said, "See, this has touched your lips. Your guilt is taken away and your sin atoned for." Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, "Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?" And I said, "Here am I, send me. A week before Gene died, Mark and I were with Carrie at his bedside while he was waiting for surgery on the broken hip. Gene's entire attention was turned to the greatness of God. He is beyond understanding and incomprehensible. Over and over he was saying that.
This was the God he knew. This was the God he served with his whole heart in life. And then Gene's further comment, a touch of his humor. We are pitiful beside him, and yet he cares for us. Mark and I have enjoyed that word pitiful over the last couple of weeks. We are pitiful beside him, and yet, oh, how God loves us. Gene had been a big figure in the life of many of us, much as Uzziah was a huge figure in the life of Isaiah. Uzziah's death provoked a vision of the Lord seated at the throne. In the last few months, I have thought much about Jean's influence on my life, and by extension on the lives of many of us women, as we look back on his impact on us.
And frankly, it's been mixed. As our influence will be on people's lives. It's a mixed influence. Some is wonderful, some things, oh my goodness, I hope you erase them. But by God's grace, Jean has been a great positive influence on so many of us. In the winter of nineteen seventy three, five months after our family had arrived in the Bay Area and here at Fairhaven, I was coming up the back steps, um, over that, you know where they are over in that direction. I was going up, and he was coming down. Gene looked at me and he said, Miss Carol, you are still a drone. Now, a drone is a bee that lives off the efforts of others and contributes nothing to the hive.
I knew that Gene knew that I knew exactly what he was saying. Miss Carol, get going. You have ministry ahead of you. That was one of his first thrusts with the fireplace poker. Gene had a way of stirring up our fires. How many of you were poked by Gene? Aha, I'm in good company. Yes, I thought so. Some months later, due to that poke, I gave him an outline of a proposed Sunday school class for women attending Fairhaven, and by then we also had the intern wives among us. I was somewhat pleased with the outline. I had worked a lot on that thing.
I ran up the stairs to his office upstairs, presented it to him. Well, Gene took out his red pen. He crossed out this, squiggled out that, wrote something else in the margin, and handed it back to me. I blinked back the tears, walked down the steps, walked into Jack Davey's office, who put me back together. You've been there too. And I went home and reorganized that thing and taught the class. Also in that era, the mid to late seventies, he asked me to be part of Monday Night Visitation. Well, he didn't exactly ask me to be part of Monday Night Visitation.
He said, Carol, Miss Carol, we could use you. He told me to be there. I was there. And for those, many of you who've gone through Monday Night Visitation, you know it involved late hours, it involved homework, um, it involved some awkwardness sometimes, but I was there for a number of years. A similar situation occurred with the counseling training part of the intern program, which lasted two weeks back in that era. He said, Carol, you need to attend this. I was there, got my homework done, and then for several successive years, Jean would have me back, um, teaching a day of it about counseling and taking care of women. I lost significant contact with Jean, uh, for a number of years.
We were part of the church startup in nineteen eighty eight out in Pleasanton, but it was a growing friendship with Carrie that brought us back together. By the late nineteen nineties and into the early two thousand, Gene had changed and softened, and I had incorporated so much of what he taught by life and by word. In two thousand, I was more than grateful for his training, for his prodding, for the way he consistently raised the bar. Carol, can you do this? Carol, there. Carol, there. And yes, I went where he probed and pushed. I appreciate now his continuing to raise the bar. I could honestly thank him by word and letter.
He could honestly hug me and say how proud he was of me. He could ask me to stand by Carrie and her family, whom I, he loves so much and whom I love so much. In three weeks, I will be going to Hungary and Romania for the fifth time to teach and evangelize among some churches there. I know I go with his knowledge and with his blessing. Karen Flock, who with her husband was part of the intern program back in nineteen eighties, will meet me there. I will spend the three weeks. She's now a missionary with her husband in Graz. I was chatting with her by email and by phone a couple days ago about the impact of Jean on our lives. We agree that his impact is enormous, and in some ways, everyone we now nudge closer to the Lord is because he gave us such a strong poke.
Last night, I was reading this to one of my friends, who is here today. She commented, Carol, do you know that you poke now? And we usually benefit from it, so the pokey has become the poker. Thank you, Lord, for Jean's pokes. He has been a blessing in our life, and may we live to nudge people closer to the Lord because he nudged us. Thank you. I've been asked just to share a little bit more detail about the Friday Night Thing.
As I look around the audience, I see a lot of folks here today that I haven't seen in years, and I trace my acquaintance with you all the way back to those days in the Friday Night Thing. Kevin's already mentioned it a couple times, uh, the Friday Night Thing was a Bible study that met in Gene's home, first in Montclair and then in Piedmont for about twelve years, uh, starting in seventy one and lasting until eighty three. We call it a Bible study, but it was actually more than that. It was, it was an event. I mean, it was a happening. It, it was a place you had to be if, if you were a young person, a Christian young person in those days. At times, there would be close to a hundred people from all over the Bay Area, not just Fair Haven, but other churches as well.
We would all squeeze into their house. June somehow would make food for all of us, not knowing from week to week how many would, would show up or how hungry we would be. After spending an hour or so eating and fellowshipping, we would try to squeeze into the living room, and most nights there weren't enough, there wasn't enough room. We would sit on the floor and on the chairs, under the piano. Uh, some people would have to sit out in the hall. Gene used to refer to it as outer darkness, out- outside the living room. I remember on warm summer nights not having any room and standing outside the house looking in through the window, you know, listening to the teaching. We would sing for a long period of time.
I see some of the musicians here today that were part of that. You have to remember back in the early seventies, this was a time where a lot of people Gene's age, a lot of Christians, had not really warmed up to the idea of contemporary Christian music. Uh, it was loud, and at times it was fast, and it was different. And yet Gene would sit there and sing with us. He loved them. He would sing it like he believed it. Uh, it was a joy just to hear him sing. And then we would open the scriptures. We would look at a, a book. We would go through a book verse by verse. Sometimes only a couple verses a week. And Gene would not so much teach or lecture as draw things out of us by the way that he would ask questions.
I, he, he would lead us basically to, to teach ourselves. And you never knew, uh, week to week who was going to show up or what agenda they might have, and so occasionally people would try to push an issue, try to get us off track, and Gene was a master at making these transitions from some obscure point somebody was trying to make and getting us back, uh, on point and back on subject. And no matter what passage we were looking at, no matter where we were, no matter where we were, what we were studying, no matter what we talked about, the conclusion was always the same. We always ended up at the end of the night, we need to live for Jesus. We need to be sold out for Jesus.
That was the point every week. We taught on Sunday morning. It was the point every week. You knew what Gene's conclusion was going to be, uh, but he would do that. When the study would end it, as Kevin said, uh, the line would form. You know, Gene would sit there and you would just wait your turn, and people would take their problems to him, whether they were spiritual problems or problems in romance or whatever it was, you would go and Gene would, would help you. And, uh, people were helped, uh, people were saved, people came to know the Lord as a result of that. Then around ten thirty, Gene would leave the asylum to the inmates and, and take his, take June out for some quality time.
When most people would be exhausted after several hours of ministry, he would take his wife out and leave the rest of us in his beautiful home. And I remember, uh, sometimes sitting on the curb till late in the evening, talking with Jay or Eric or some of my friends about the things we had learned and how we were going to live in light of what we had heard. My father had a hard time understanding why I would come home from a Bible study at two o'clock in the morning. That didn't make much sense to him. I think many of us here today that were part of that, as we look back on it, we can say that these were very much formative years. The- this was a time in our life, uh, where Gene's influence and Gene's, uh, teaching helped shape us and helped mold us into the type of people and the type of Christians, uh, that we would be throughout our life.
My closest friends, even to this day, were met at the Friday Night Thing. The woman who became my wife, I met at the Friday Night Thing. I think my life as a young Christian was molded and established sitting on the floor, just listening to Jean, uh, teach us the word. We continue to have a Friday Night Thing up to the current day here at Fair Haven, and I see Rick here. There's other Friday night thing, kind of things going on all over the Bay Area, and in a large part, this is a tribute to Gene and an attempt by some of us to kind of give back to the young people today what Gene imparted to us back then. I want to share one story.
This isn't in my notes, and I didn't anticipate doing this, but some few things Carol said made me think of this. I just remember, uh, when I was still in college as a philosophy student, I went out to dinner with Jean and June one night. I've told this story to the family already. And, um, Jean and I were involved in some type of complicated thing. I don't even know what it was, and we were taking the salt shakers and the glasses and moving them around the table, making examples, and Jean got, or June got tired of it and went home and, uh, left Jean with me to get a ride home, and that was okay, except I forgot that I had driven my motorcycle that night. And so, you know, we left, it was cold, I put my jacket and my helmet on Jean, and we were driving home.
And any of you that have counseled with Jean or spent time with him know that he likes to look you in the face. When he talks to you. And so we were still talking, and he's on the back behind me on this motorcycle, trying to get around so he can look me in the eyeballs, and I'm, I'm trying to drive this thing and, and get Gene to sit on the chair. If you would come to Gene for counseling, it's the upstairs, the office to the right, for prayer, for counseling, for encouragement, for arousements, for rebuke, what you would see on his wall is a big picture of a cowboy, heavily dressed, in a blizzard, searching.
And on the caption of the picture, it said, looking for the strays. That is so distinctive of Gene's life and his ministry as a shepherd looking for the strays. The definition of a shepherd is that he feeds, he guides, he cares for the wounded sheep. He protects them, he comforts them for the ones entrusted in him, and he looks for the lost sheep. As a shepherd of God, of God's people, Gene did all of this and more. Let me give you some examples of Gene's shepherding the flock of God.
In nineteen seventy three, I was a young intern. I met Gene and Bill McDonald, and I was very impressed by both of these men of their knowledge of the word, their commitment to Christ. But what impressed me the most is their love for God and people. I had asked for extra assignments. Interns were assigned to Gene or Bill any given week to shadow them, to learn, to observe, pray, and keep your mouth shut. And I asked Gene for extra assignments. He called me one, uh, Saturday morning at six o'clock in the morning.
He says, get out of bed. I got an assignment. And, um, we drove, uh, to Hayward and went through a back alley to the back door of a house, and he knocked on the door. There, opening the door, was a beautiful young woman, and I could tell by the look of her face that she was sheepish seeing Jean. He asked her, where's the man that you're living with? He was in the next room. He said, I really need to talk to you. We sat in the kitchen, and he said, you know, I led you to Christ two years ago.
You're like a daughter to me. I love you. But you're living in immorality now, and God is not going to bless your life. You're on a one-way road to destruction, and I've come here not only to warn you, but to bring you back to the Lord. She broke out and cried. And Jean said, you know I love you, and I'll be with you. Break off this relationship. Turn to the Lord. She did that, and he counseled her, restored her back to the Lord.
I saw a shepherd of God who had love and compassion. He would say to the interns, when you graduate, you just started. That right, Rick? But if you need me, I will be there. A few months later, a young intern called Jean Long Distance. He said, Jean, my daughter, she suffocated and died in the crib. Can you come?
He got on the plane the same day to comfort that couple and do the memorial. And this was so depictive. I mean, every day, seven days a week, people would come. He often told me, he says, when you counsel people, make sure you have two things, the Bible and a whole box of Kleenex. Gene was a great encourager as a shepherd. And when I was invited to meet with the elders after three months, I told Gene, Gene, I can't be an elder. I'm too young, too inexperienced, and besides all these elders, they're older men, they're more experienced, they're godly.
I can't be an elder. He looked at me and he said, you know what your problem is? Your life goal is too lower than becoming an elder. You need to raise it up and become a man of God and let God decide where you're going to minister and how you're going to minister. Then he looked at me and he said, a shepherd is supposed to shep. Can you shepherd and care for people? Yeah, I said, I can do that. Can you lead people to Christ? He said, God's taught me how to do that. Can you follow them up in discipling?
I said, yeah, God's given me the training to do that. He says, then what's your problem? Start shepping. That was the last time I brought that issue to Gene. That was thirty years ago. As a shepherd, he was a great marriage and family counselor. I can't count the number of people that he has shepherded and counseled over the past sixty years, and he'd always take the hardest counseling cases. Ones that no one wanted because they were, as he would quote, a rolling bu- bundle of butcher knives.
But he was encouraging. Uh, he had a special care for embattled women and embattled children, having his own father an alcoholic. And, uh, countless times he would minister to them practically. If they need money, he'd give them money. Notice that I said he'd give it to them, he wouldn't loan it to them. He'd give them set up in an apartment, provide food for them, and the deacons were busy all the time. He encouraged good marriages, and certainly he had a model marriage having June by his side.
He helped Lorene and me through times of, of, uh, difficult times in our marriage. He gave practical help and special goals for us to reach. I remember one time, there was a wife that called from Europe. She was crying on the phone, and he says, my husband has left me for another woman. He was an elder and evangelist. Without hesitation, Gene got on the plane at his own expense just to minister to that couple in Europe. Stayed there for two weeks and brought them back together again, encouraged him to undergo the discipline of the elders regarding the scriptures to be restored unto the Lord.
But this was typical of Gene Gibson. When he said, I will be there for you, he meant it. Is that right, Kevin Moore? That's right. Not only was Gene a shepherd, but he was a mentor. A mentor impacts his life and the lives of others to affect the next generation. That's the difference between a trainer. A trainer will give you skills and equip you to do the things that he is expert in, but a mentor will impart his life to you. It impart his conviction, his compassion, his love. He led by example, not just teaching, but to show you the way.
And Jean was a great and visionary. He imparted his vision of the Great Commission to go and make disciples. I remember one time toward the end of the intern program, he drove us up to the, uh, to the hills to overlook the Bay Area. And he looked, we were looking at the Bay Area, and he he asked the interns, he says, what do you see? One guy said, well, I see a couple of ships out there, uh, you know, uh, San Francisco. He said, I want you to look harder. What do you see? Fred Colvin said, I see Germany and Austria and greater Europe.
God, give this to me, lest I die. Another said, I see, I see Asia, I see China and Japan. Another said, I see South America. God, give me Honduras. Give me Mexico, lest I die. He says, brothers, today you've made a covenant before God. From this day forward, you're going to be sold out for Jesus Christ, even if it means your life. And we made a covenant with God that day. He was my mentor for many years. We would meet weekly and review, um, discipleship assignments, Bible studies, Monday night visitation, and he really worked on my character because, you know, in nineteen sixty three when I came here, the brethren gave me a nickname, Sergeant Chin.
And it's taken a long time for God to work on the character of Sergeant Chen. We went over teaching lessons with the youth group that we had met on, um, on Saturday, and hot off the press, it was taught in the adult Bible schools. I said he was a great m- uh, visionary because after the Friday night thing, and after he would have his time with June, he would come over to the chapel, and we would meet about eleven or twelve o'clock in the evening in the fireside room to my left, and begin praying for the world until the following morning. And God gave him a vision that God would use Fair Haven beyond the four walls to reach the four corners of the world.
And that's how the training class materials began to start. God gave him a vision. I've met with him for many counseling cases as a trainee, as a mentor. You know, the success of a mentor is that the scripture says when your, his disciple is fully trained, he shall be like his teacher. It's kind of like a flight instructor, when he's trying to teach a student how to fly. After many hours of instruction, he takes that plane up, and while he's flying, he taps the student on the shoulder, and he does this. He raises his hands, and he says, OK, baby, it's all yours.
You take the stick. This is your plane, your solo. You fly the plane and bring us back safely. One Saturday morning, a wife called, crying to Jean. It was a rolling bun- bundle of butcher knives. This was a heavy counseling case. He called me, he says, meet me at the chapel, we'll go here. We came to the front of the house. We prayed. He says, well, look, if this was, uh, your call, what would you do? And we talked about the objectives, we talked about the scriptures, we talked about the key issues, how to bring them to the key issues by the grace of God, to bring them to the point where they wanted to respond.
And he said, well, you pray. Got out of the car, I was expecting to follow Gene to knock on the door, his standard mode of operation. He started the car and started to move out. I said, Gene, where are you going? He says, I'm going back to the chapel. I got work to do. And then he raised up his hands from the steering column. He says, this is your, this is your solo, baby, fight the pain. I said to him, I says, how am I going to get back to the chapel? He reached in his pocket and gave me twenty cents. He says, there's a public phone three blocks down. Give me a call after an hour, and I'll pick you up. And as he drove off, he kind of smiled, and he says, you can do this with God's help, and I'll pray for you.
He says it's fun being a shepherd. Well, God not only helped that couple, many couples, and from that day forward, I realized it was my time to fly solo, and it was my time to shepherd and mentor others. Gene was not only a mentor, but he was a spiritual father. As he's a spiritual father to so many in this auditorium, but beyond the four walls of Fairhaven, throughout the country, and even the world. I will miss his fellowship and co-laboring of the gospel together. He took a special interest in my family and led my daughters to Christ in many lordship decisions in their lives.
He even led my oldest daughter to Christ on Monday and led my mother to Christ on Friday. And Gene was a spiritual father to others more than time would take. I shall ne- off- I shall always be grateful and indebted to the Lord for Papa Gene. He left us a rich spiritual legacy and would challenge us to be encouraged to follow him even as he followed Christ. He certainly will be dearly missed, but never forgotten. Uh, before I close, I just have a word of comfort for the family.
Carrie, John, Alex, Ariel, Adriana. Papa would not want you to grieve because he's rejoicing in the Lord. Your mother told me before your papa died, he said to her, you know, when I go to the Lord, one of the first things I want to do is kiss Jesus' feet. And he's basking with the Lord now. Can't you hear Jean say, grieve for me if you need to, but not long, but rejoice with me because I'm in heaven with the Lord, and I've got work to do.
I'm praying for you. Now get up, get up, move forward, press toward the high calling of God in Christ Jesus, and get up. There's work to be done. There's souls to be saved. There are people to be ministered to. Now get up, and I'm praying for you. Can't you hear Papa say that? I can. And that's why I'm not grieving for him. I'm rejoicing for him. Because I know he would ask me, what are you doing here? Get going. Well, he fought the good fight. His work is finished.
To hear his savior say, well done, thou good and fa- faithful servant. Enter into the joy of your master. What a legacy. Money can't buy that, girls. Papa loves you very much. He's praying for you. And even as Apostle Paul would say to his son Timothy in the faith, he's saying to you and I and the rest of the people in this audience, you follow me even as I'm following Christ. Amen. I'm going to ask you just to take a moment.
Don't go anywhere, but just stand up. We're going to have something a little bit special now before Jim McCarthy comes. Just stand up in place to stretch your, you know, shake out your arms a little bit, just so I'll give a chance for the crew here to set up what's going to come next. Uh, due to the wonders of modern technology, we are going to be able to have some remembrances of Gene from Gene himself. So, as soon as they are ready, I know they got to switch a few things around. Says that he has plans for us. Have a seat, please.
They are for good, not for calamity. Many of you fear the will of God because you think it's going to make you miserable. You think the choice is between this, doing the will of God and being miserable, and doing my own thing and being happy. I tell you, dear friend, all you've done is believe the devil's lie. And I'm sure I can bring ten thousand witnesses to that effect. We could add three million more in New Zealand, couldn't we? That's not the choice at all. That his plans, the greenest plans, the best possible, most satisfying use of your life is when your life, you understand it, and you take the position and agree with God, my life is set apart to honor and please God, period.
That's why Jesus came to save me. Well, we have some strange books on the market. I noticed a book advertisement yesterday in a Christian magazine, I almost fell out of my chair. The name of the book is Entertainment Evangelism. I said, well, I- I've heard of beach evangelism and other kinds of evangelism and door-to-door evangelism, but here's something new. Here's a whole book on the subject of entertainment evangelism. Years ago, I used to go in a Christian bookstore.
I'm a great teaser, you know, and they had a lady in there that I liked very much, and I couldn't go in there without needling her a little bit about some of the things that were displayed, and particularly the one they had over there in the church help section was called, called this, Snappy Schemes for Church Finance. Schemes. And I walk in, I said, Hazel, how was that book going? She said, Jean, I'm sad to tell you it's a bestseller. Schemes. Is this the perspective that you display toward others in the community, a display of the holiness of God in connection with the church to which you belong?
Say that person is a holy person and they go to church at a holy church. That's an amazing thing that in the book of the Acts, so far from accommodating itself and wanting it to be user-friendly, market-oriented, consumer-driven, entertainment evangelism. It said, but of the church, dared, dared no one that is lightly to join themselves unto them. You better watch your step if you're with that group. Things can happen to you, like Ananias and Sapphira. Boom. You know? You get among those people, they got high standards.
I'm not ashamed if we're known as having high standards, and people say, well, you're too strict, you know? You need to lighten up. We want to go and feel good. Well, we want you to feel good to do it too, but at the same time, if you're not living it, we don't want you to feel comfortable in it. Is that wrong? And it's said these, these high being, high beings, the cher- cherubim, the guardians, incidentally, this high order of angelic beatings, their specific job are the guardians of the holiness of God, which is to make sure there is nothing unholy or unclean that ever comes near him. And they're saying, and it says they do not rest day nor night.
Holy, holy, holy. That's what they think about. That's what they see. And the impact on the prophet Isaiah, undoubtedly the most godly person of his day, is that he looks upon the holiness of God as he draws near to God very typically, he begins to sense how unholy he is in his life, and he says, woe is me. I'm a man of unclean lips compared to him, and I live in the people, amid of people of unclean lips compared to him. Because the closer you get to God, the more you realize the tremendous God gap that exists between God and his infinite perfection and holiness in our lives and your lives, which is good for us because we live in a day of very low standards.
We have a low opinion of the holiness of God, we have a low definition of sin, and therefore we have a disproportionate view of ourselves as living acceptable lives. Why are you a saint? Because you're in Christ, because God places you in his son, takes all your sins off of you and puts them on Jesus, and takes the righteousness of God and clothes you in it. Otherwise, you couldn't put one step into his presence, not one. Because nothing, nothing, nothing that is defiled comes into the presence of God. You gotta be.
The only one way you never wanna, you can huff and you can puff, but you're never gonna be perfect by your own efforts to get into the presence of God. You need the right clothes. You need to be clothed in Jesus. Now we're going to have the eulogy and gospel message by Jim McCarthy, who served for ten years here in the intern program teaching alongside Jean Gibson. Jim. You have a Bible with you? Would you please turn to Matthew twenty seven. and verse forty five. Matthew twenty seven verse forty five. I selected this passage because it's the passage that I first heard Gene teach on here at Fairhaven twenty six years ago.
Now, if you ask me what I preached on last week, I'm not sure I could remember. But Gene had such an impact on me that day, I'll never forget his message. And I'd like to share it with you. Start reading in Matthew chapter twenty seven verse forty five. Recounts the death of our Lord Jesus. Now from the sixth hour, darkness fell upon all the land until the ninth hour. And about the ninth hour, Jesus cried out and said with a loud voice, Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani, that is, my God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? And some of those who were standing there, when they heard it, began saying, this man is calling for Elijah.
And immediately one of them came, and taking a sponge, he filled it with sour wine and put it on a reed and gave it to him to drink. But the rest of them said, let us see whether Elijah will save him. And Jesus cried out again with a loud voice and yielded up his spirit. I think this passage, in many ways, summarizes the life focus of Jean Gibson. The Lord Jesus, his life and death and resurrection, that was the focus of this man's life.
He gave his life in a little office up there. Not a very prestigious place. The early years it didn't even have air conditioning. It was hot and small. Now that he's gone, his, uh, local news here, CNN, Christianity Today. He served in obscurity, but for the greatest cause and the greatest person of all time. And he didn't despise it at all, though Gene himself was a great man, an intelligent man, a man who could have given his life to many things and been very successful. He gave his life to us, in the service of Christ.
I think first and foremost, to Christ, because even if the rest of us had gone our separate ways and deserted Christ, he wouldn't have, would he? He didn't do it for the pat on the back. A- as Ron has pointed out, he was willing to take the criticism, take the hard jobs, and he often did. I- I remember in those years, uh, that I was here, calls coming in from around the world. It wasn't just the problems here at Fairhaven, the counseling cases that were difficult. It was leaders from around the world. Sometimes I'd ask Jean, I said, don't they even have Bibles of their own? I mean, they're asking the most simple questions. Why do they have to call you to ask what to do in a case like this? We all know why, because Jean would shoot straight with them.
Who would you avoid when you were in sin? Jean Gibson. And when you're in trouble, who's the first person you would seek out? Jean Gibson, because he'd shoot straight with you. He'd tell you like it is, as has already been pointed out by many others. People didn't like him at times, and later they'd love him. They'd come back and say, you know, thank you for saying what you did, loving me enough to say the hard thing. And it all goes back to this passage. The Lord Jesus dying there on the cross, giving up his spirit, giving up his life for, for us, and that, that so profoundly affected Gene Gibson, the only natural response was for him to give up his life for Jesus.
He couldn't go on just living the self life. He and June had a beautiful home up there in Piedmont. He had a great job, but he just couldn't live that life when Jesus was calling him to something else. How many times did he preach on this passage in Psalm twenty two that it quotes, written a thousand years before Jesus li- lived? My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? The opening verse of Psalm twenty two written by King David, a thousand BC, and there in Psalm twenty two, uh, David recounts the heart of the Lord Jesus as he's dying on the cross.
How did David do that, Gene would ask. And if you ask Gene, why are you a Christian? He'd point to biblical prophecy. He'd say, because the prophets foretold that these things would take place. And in the life of Christ they've been fulfilled, and he was so convinced that it was true, it affected his every day, his every waking hour. I saw Gene, uh, the day before he fell, a couple weeks ago, there at Bethesda. Jeff Land and I arrived, uh, there at Bethesda at about, oh, it might have been about ten o'clock, maybe eleven o'clock. Gene was asleep.
He had had a bad night. The nurse went in, could hardly wake him up. He came out, he had a black mask over his eyes. He said, you know, I had a really rough night, but I finally got to sleep this morning. I want to show you guys something. He pulled a page, this is the page, he took it off his bedside. Messianic prophecy summary, the beginnings of the Messiah, the name, the names of the Messiah, the office of the Messiah, the ministry of the Messiah, miracles, healings, signs, wonders, and the resurrection of the Messiah. As he said, this is a list of the prophetic prophecies of the life of Jesus Christ. I said, Gene, I'd like a copy of it.
He put that in my hand. He said, take it. I mean, if you're here today and you're not convinced that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, you call into the office Monday morning, say, I want a copy of that page of biblical prophecies that Gene Gibson prepared in the last days of his life, and they'll send you a copy, and you read it, and you explain to me how the prophets did this apart from the hand of God. That's why Gene was a Christian, because of the word of God. He d- he would never say to you, well, I just have this warm feeling in my heart that it's true. You know, I, you know, you just got some time in your life take a blind leap of faith and, and, and hope it works.
No, he'd give you chapter and verse. He'd give you reasons, as long as you're willing to listen, why Jesus Christ was the Son of God who came to give his life for sinners. He, he had a unique life, didn't he? Gene had a strong spirit. And guess why he rubbed some people the wrong way. He had a strong spirit. He was strong to them. What did he always say? He said, I didn't want to rust out. He said, I want to die where? In the saddle. I mean, we we, Jeff and I got him some lunch.
We went out and brought him some lunch, and we started walking him down to the dining room. There was an elderly lady there in a wheelchair. He paused, he starts talking to her. He says, you know, I've been thinking about you. You need to get baptized. I mean, this lady must be at least, you know, somewhere in her upper nineties. She seemed, she was, she said, what do you mean? And it's for I could, I was just over listening to the conversation. Apparently, Jean had led her to the Lord in recent days, and now he was instructing her in the Lord's command to be baptized in his name. That, that was between his room and the dining room, uh, the day before he broke his hip.
And I, I know from talking to, to others, even after that in the hospital, uh, he was still giving out assignments to those that visited him about things they need to get done for him in the ministry of the Lord. He valued every day. I was standing there last week, uh, at his interment service, looking up at the wall there at the cemetery where the caskets were going in. I found it interesting how many people listed the first, not not just the year, you know, nineteen forty three to two thousand six, but the day of their birth and the day of their death, down to the very day, as if it was important, as if anybody cared. But you know, Gene Gibson is someone you could put the day of his birth and the day of his death because every day counted.
Amen. Every day. Amen. He he would never use a term like, let's go kill some time, you know? Gene was squeezing every day for all it was worth, because he knew life was short, and he'd soon be gone, and he could no longer do what he can do here for the Lord Jesus. Draw your attention to verse fifteen. Jesus cried out. Noti- notice Jesus is here dying on the cross for sins. It's the ninth hour, darkness has fallen over the land, and he's cried out, my God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? Well, what's happening?
The Father has been pleased to put the iniquity of us all on his beloved Son and punish him in our place. He took our punishment. I don't know anyone who could teach that better than Gene Gibson. I remember one Sunday morning in an SBC class, not in this room, but over in the next building, what we used to call the Deaf House, and Gene teaching through sign language, SBC, and explaining the substitutionary death of Christ, that he died for us. Gene was a master teacher. He could take a topic and break it down into its pieces and and explain it even to people who had to go through his sign language, another sign, uh, language person next to him, continuing with interpretation.
And I was there listening to this whole thing, and and I I I was an intern at the time. I was learning myself the a deeper understanding of the work of Christ on the cross. He was a master teacher. There on that cross, as Jesus cried out, my God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? The Son of God became separate from God the Father as he became the bearer of our sins and was separated from a holy God. In verse fifty, he cried out again. Okay, this is not a, this is not a, the Lord Jesus in his weakness, but in his strength.
He cried out again with a loud voice and yielded up his spirit. They didn't kill him, he gave up his spirit, and he died. They didn't put him on that cross. That wasn't a matter of mob mentality. If your understanding of Christianity is television, the Da Vinci Code, and the movies, you are mistaken. He yielded up his spirit. How like this was, uh, our brother Gene, who fought and lived for every day, and when the time came, he was ready. He, he lived not for this life, but for the next.
He lived with this passage in mind, the death, burial, and resurrection of the Lord Jesus. If he was alive today, where would he be tomorrow evening? He'd be downstairs remembering the Lord Jesus. Where is he today? He's before the one whose hands are still pierced, the marks are still there, his feet still marked, the crown of thorns still visible, and he's worshiping. If he could be here today, he'd say, join me, trust my savior, for whom I lived and with whom I will spend eternity.
I wasn't there at the moment of Gene's death, but I've been told it was remarkable, just like his life. I've been told that, uh, leading up to it, as he realized his time had come, he was pleading with the Lord, please, please, please. It wasn't please extend my life, you can be sure of that. It was please, Lord Jesus, take me. I've heard that the nurse who was attending him, a Christian, said it was the most remarkable passing she's ever seen. Carrie came in and said, is it the time? And she said it is, and the nurse started crying.
And she said the genes, normally when a person dies, their their blood pressure just kind of slowly goes lower and lower and lower, and they fade away. His just dropped, and he was gone. He isn't dead. His body's dead. He's more alive than ever. He's with the Lord Jesus. You know, we're going to miss Gene. He was a witness to our lives. He's watched so many of us, the time we were young Christians, ten, twenty, thirty, forty years ago.
He's led many of you to the Lord, discipled, counseled, exhorted. He watched it all, and we knew it. You always knew when Gene was in a room. You always knew when he was traveling, he was away. It was a different feeling here, wasn't it? Now he's with the Lord. A great witness to our lives is past, has completed his ministry. Time of his departure has come. We're left with his memories, counsel, his literature.
We're also left with a solemn responsibility. He's not going to come to the door. He's not going to call you. But we must continue on with that which we've been taught, and follow his example, and be faithful, and pass on the things which we've heard to other faithful witnesses who will be able to teach others also. He has now joined that great cloud of witnesses surrounding us. Jean, we're gonna have to see one, one more time, aren't we? And we're gonna spend eternity with him, aren't we? I mean, it's gonna be wonderful to see the Lord, and it's gonna be wonderful to see Gene.
But I hope that we finish strong and faithful in all that's been entrusted to us. First time I ever heard Gene preach here at Fairhaven or teach, he was actually in the, in the overflow room there. I came up to visit the intern program in nineteen— spring of nineteen eighty, twenty six years ago. I was considering, uh, the program myself. Bill McDonald had invited me up to come see what it was all about. I remember sitting there, and and Gene was teaching from this passage. He came to verse fifty one. Verse fifty says, the Lord cried out again, a loud voice yielded up the spirit.
Verse fifty one, and behold, the veil of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom, and the earth shook, and the rocks split, and the tombs were opened, and many bodies of the saints who had been fallen asleep were raised. I remember it so vividly. These are two of the old chairs that used to be, uh, over here. They're da- they came downstairs now. They're kind of big, heavy, padded chairs, and Gene began to explain about the veil, and he and he set up a line of these chairs to represent the veil there in the temple, in the Jewish temple. And it was a barrier that separated the people and the priests from the Holy of Holies, where God himself resigned, it resided in his glory.
And that veil kept them out except for the high priests on the Day of Atonement. And Jean had them all set up, and he explained how at the death of Christ, that veil in the temple was torn, not from the bottom to the top, what a man would do, but from the top downwards, what God would do. And he took those chairs, and he threw them aside. I mean, they were cartwheeling across the room, the whole row of them. That doesn't surprise you, does it? Why? He went on to explain, you know, the churches have put up rails and barriers to keep man from God and to undo the finished work of Christ. That in his death, he's made a way through access for man to God, for sinful man to stand in the presence of a holy God through the blood of Jesus.
And it angered Gene, the false gospels that are preached today that keep men and women from Christ, trying to earn acceptance with God through their good works and measures. Gene Gibson lived for Christ, but he would be the first to tell you there wasn't a thing he did that made him right or fit to stand in the presence of God. It was Jesus, and Jesus alone. Jesus made that way through, through his death on the cross and the pouring out of his blood for us. Verse fifty three, and coming out of the tombs after the resurrection, they entered the holy city and appeared to many.
Now the centurion and those who were with him, keeping guard over Jesus, when they saw the earthquake and the things that were happening, became very frightened and said, truly, this was the Son of God. I mean, when we see a remarkable manifestation of the work of God, can we not see his hand and be strengthened in our faith? When we see what one life can do to affect so many people around the world, that should strengthen our faith, brothers and sisters. And if you're here today and you don't know Christ...
I know if Gene was here, he'd say, I'll stay here all day, as long as it takes. I'll talk to everyone who wants to line up like Bob was talking about, and talk to you about Christ. I'm sure the elders would be very happy to stay here, Ron and Roger, the other brothers, as long as it takes. If there's anybody here today who's still unsure, I want to tell you the transformed life of Gene Gibson is just one more reason why I'm a Christian. He didn't die a few days ago. Gene Gibson died in nineteen forty six when he surrendered his life to Christ and became a new man in him. He wasn't that drunken, carousing Marine. He was a man who cared about people because of the love of God.
A man who spent much of his life trying to teach other men to pastor and care for people. Because it doesn't come natural to us as men, does it? Teaching other people to, to share the gospel that they might hear. The first time I ever went out with Gene Gibson on a visitation, we visited four young adults. We're all young in those days. Roger and Beverly Cromwell, John and Jane DeLisi, led all four of them to Christ. I remember coming down the stairs of the DeLisi home, I'm thinking, is it always like this with Gene Gibson? You always see four people come to Christ? And he assured me that it wasn't. He said, this is a great night.
We've been blessed. God has blessed us. To know a great man of God. In the pamphlet there, you have the so- the song, When I Survey the Wondrous Cross. Shall we stand as we sing this, contemplate the wonderful cross of Jesus, the sacrifice that was made for you and me. When I survey the wondrous cross on which the Prince of Glory died, my richest gain I count but loss, and poor contempt on
all my pride. Forbid it, Lord, that I should boast, save in the death of Christ my God, all the vain things that charm me most, I sacrifice them to this blood. See from me.
his head, his hands, his feet, sorrow and love flowing down. It is such love And sorrow me, meet. or thorns compose so rich a crown. Were the home well of nature mine that were would an offer offering far too small.
Love so amazing, so divine. He thanks my soul, my life, my all. Please remain standing. Before we pray, I'd like to share something of my experiences with Gene as well.
I first met him in nineteen seventy three when he was preaching the gospel at a Christian businessman's meeting in San Francisco, and one of the last times is when I had the fortune to share the pulpit with him at our church rete- retreat a few months ago. And I'm not here today because Gene Gibson touched my life. I'm here because he changed it. If that's you, say amen. Amen. And in that intervening thirty three years, through public ministry and personal counseling and, and shepherding, I'm a different man because Jesus used Gene Gibson in my life.
And there are so many here, we could spend weeks, couldn't we? Telling the stories. I wish we could hear them. But you know what? Jesus knows. Jesus knows them all. And it's okay to cry, it's okay to weep, because we're not weeping as those who have no hope. We're rejoicing. I'm crying because I am rejoicing that our brother is seeing our Savior face to face. Let's pray. Lord Jesus Christ, we thank you today for the life and ministry of Jean Gibson.
And Lord, it's so appropriate that this meeting that was meant to focus on the life of a man has instead focused on his master. We have ended up not praising the man, but praising his savior. How fitting. How right. And we know Jean would have it no other way. That Jesus be the one that has the preeminence in all things. Lord Jesus, we come here today rejoicing. Hallelujah, our brother's race is over.
His fight is done, and yes, he kept the faith. And now he is experiencing that blessed promise, and they shall see his face. Lord Jesus, we love you. We thank you for the life of this man. And Lord, we cannot walk out today and just forget this life. But Lord, we do pray for your help, that we might make it the aim of our life, as it was the chief aim of Jean's, to be found well pleasing to the Lord.
Lord Jesus, you are worthy of it all. We sing again, as we did in that hymn, were the whole realm of nature mine, that were an offering far too small. Love so amazing, so divine, demands my heart, my life, my all. Thank you, Lord, for Jean. Now we ask that you'll part us with your blessing, and thank you, Lord, for a fresh vision of our Savior and how much he loves us.
In his precious name, amen.