“Enduring in Jesus to the End” (Matthew 24:13;
Isaiah
46:3-4; Matthew
11:28-30)
Clinton Bremer’s Funeral Sermon Aug. 29th, ’12
Rev. John M. Taggatz (St.
John Lutheran Church Baldwin, IL)
1.
May the words of my mouth and the
meditations of our hearts be pleasing in Your sight, O Lord, our Rock and our
Redeemer. Amen.
Dear family and friends of Clinton, today we grieve with you over his
death. Clinton will be deeply missed,
but we know that this day isn’t the end for him, but just the beginning of a
new life that he now shares with his Savior Jesus in heaven! For this reason we’ll be looking at Clinton’s
confirmation verse he received on April 3rd, 1938 here at St. John
Baldwin, which is Matthew 24:13. The
message is entitled, “Enduring in Jesus
to the End,” dear brothers and sisters in Christ.
2.
I myself will miss Clinton. He was a soft spoken man, but someone who had
lived a long and full life. The Lord had blessed him with a loving family
and he himself was very family oriented, being a devoted husband, father,
uncle, brother, and grandfather. He was
a very talented man too. I noticed that
when he was serving in the Navy during WWII that he was working on compasses
while he was stationed at a laboratory in New Orleans for several months. Clinton was a “jack of all trades” being an electrician, handyman, carpenter, a
devoted farmer, a mechanic, and avid gardener.
He was a quiet helper always being willing to lend a hand, but humble
while doing it. And, that’s not
all. He was also a wonderful public
servant— a member of our church here at St. John, the Baldwin American Legion,
the Randolph County Farm Bureau, and he gave of his time to his family and
friends.
3.
But, Clinton knew that he was a
sinner in need of a Savior, and that’s why he confessed his faith in Jesus.
He received this faith in Jesus as his Savior when he was baptized at
the St. John Evangelical Church in New Athens, IL. He was then led to confess with his lips the
faith that he’d received through water and the Word of God on April 3rd,
1938 here at St. John Lutheran Church in Baldwin. Whenever I made my visits to see
Clinton, whether at his home, the
hospital, or recently at the nursing home he would always have a smile on his
face. He knew that he would receive the
preaching of God’s Word and the Sacrament of the Lord’s Supper from me his
pastor for the forgiveness of his sins and that these gifts of God promised him
the wonderful gift of eternal life through Jesus his Lord. In my visits with Clinton I could tell that
he knew what it meant that Jesus had died on the cross for his sins, but he
also knew of the hope that we have in the resurrection of our Lord Jesus. Because Jesus has risen from the dead, we too
shall rise to live with God for all eternity in heaven with both our body and
our soul when the Lord returns at the final judgment. This was the faith that Clinton endured in all 91 years of his life,
which is why his confirmation verse from Matthew 24:13 is so fitting.
4.
Jesus says in Matthew 24:9–13--9“Then they will deliver you up to tribulation and put you to death, and
you will be hated by all nations for my name’s sake. 10And then many will fall
away and betray one another and hate one another. 11And many false prophets
will arise and lead many astray. 12And because lawlessness will be increased,
the love of many will grow cold. 13But the one who endures to the end will be
saved. 14And this gospel of the kingdom will be proclaimed throughout the whole
world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come.
5.
Here in Matthew 24 we see that
Jesus made some specific predictions about the future.
He reminds us that the future will bring a time of great distress before
He returns on Judgment Day to judge the living and the dead, the believer from
the unbeliever. The deceitful
presumptions of Darwinian evolutionary theory have convinced us that our world
is on an upward climb, not a downward spiral into chaos as Jesus describes
here. But, while our standards of
living, life expectancy, and new scientific discoveries may be improving life
around the world, the spiritual condition of mankind isn’t improving. Here in Matthew 24 Jesus gives us a sobering
reminder that in the Last Days many will turn away from the faith.
6.
Clinton knew of the distress and calamities
that the Lord Jesus predicted here in Matthew 24 and also of the sinfulness and
wickedness of mankind. He served during WWII when so many people
lost their lives. He lived through the
Cold War, through many terrorist attacks, and had witnessed the love of many
growing cold. He’d seen in his 91 years
of life the downfall of the family here in America with so many families ending
in divorce, the rise of secularism in this nation, and the decline of the
Christian church. Friends, sin is what
causes us human beings to kill, hurt, steal, and gossip about one another. Sin causes us to desire those things that don’t
belong to us. Sin leads us to curse God
and not want anything to do with Him, even rejecting the many gifts He gives to
us. But, most importantly Paul reminds
us in Romans 6:23 that, “The wages of sin
is death.” Sin ultimately leads to
death and Clinton knew of his own mortality, that’s why he clung to the Gospel
truth that Jesus lived the perfect life as our substitute, paid the punishment
for our sins through his death on the cross, and rose victoriously from the
dead to conquer sin, death, and the power of the devil for us. Clinton believed most importantly in the
second part of what Paul writes in Romans 6:23, “but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
7.
Jesus says in Matthew 24 that the
result of such Christian persecution will be that some will fall away from the
faith. Many will renounce Christianity, rather than
bear their crosses. And yet, we saw
that in the face of Clinton’s suffering and loss of his physical strength while
he was on hospice care that he was drawn closer to His Lord and Savior Jesus. He was a witness to all of us that in the
midst of “bearing his own cross and
burdens” Christ was making his faith stronger and using him to be a witness
to the Gospel. He showed to us how the
child of God departs this life enduring
in Jesus to the end. That my friends,
is a true testament to what we as Christians are called to do. To endure
in the faith Christ has given to us and to think of others before ourselves,
as our Lord and Savior Jesus did for us through His death on the cross. Clinton trusted in the promise of our Lord
Jesus in Matthew 11:28-30, 28Come
to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. 29Take
my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and
you will find rest for your souls. 30For my yoke is easy, and my
burden is light.”
8.
Clinton’s
long 91 years of life the Lord blessed him with reminds me of what God the
Father said in Isaiah 46:3-4 ,3“Listen to me, O house of Jacob, all the remnant of the house of Israel,
who have been borne by me from before your birth, carried from the womb; 4even
to your old age I am he, and to gray hairs I will carry you. I have made, and I
will bear; I will carry and will save.”
A quick review of the history of the people of Israel recalls all that
God had done for them—the exodus from Egypt, the water and manna in the
wilderness, the victories of the judges and the kings, and most the miraculous
deliverance from the Assyrian forces at the very gate of Jerusalem as Isaiah
tells us in chapters 36 & 37. God had carried his people Israel in spite of
their rebellious & sinful ways. He’d made them what they were.
9.
God wasn’t finished with them.
The Lord promised to carry them long into their old age, just as he did for
Clinton helping him to endure in Jesus to
the end. God
wouldn’t change; he would remain the same Lord of grace. He promised to persist
in his loving care of his people. As we
read the words addressed to the “house of Jacob,” we find courage to face our
own trials in life. As Christians we too
are of the house of Jacob by faith in Jacob’s great descendant, Jesus. We may
not have to witness the destruction of our nation and an exile to a foreign
country as these ancient Jews did, but we do face our own trials and
difficulties, especially the trial of the death of our loved one, Clinton. The
apostle Paul encouraged the early Christians saying, “We must go through many hardships to enter the kingdom of God”
(Acts 14:22). In the midst of whatever hardships we face, God’s promise applies
to us too. No matter what we’ve experienced in life, God has carried us and
upheld us. He promises us no less than He promised the believers of Isaiah’s
day, “Even to your old age and gray hairs
I am he, I am he who will sustain you.” We thank the Lord that by His grace He
sustained Clinton to the end of his life and helped him to endure in his faith in Jesus as his Lord and Savior from sin,
death, and the power of the devil, and we pray that by God’s grace in Christ he
would enable us to endure to the end
of our lives as well that we too along with Clinton may receive the crown of
everlasting life! Amen.
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