“The Good Shepherd Carries Us to Heaven” John 10.27-29 Danny Hartmann’s funeral 4.16.13, St. John Baldwin, Pastor John Taggatz

1.      Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Heavenly Father and our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.  Dear family and friends of Daniel, on behalf of the congregation here at St. John, I want to express to you my deepest sympathies as you mourn over his death.  But, I want to tell you today that even though we grieve over his death, we don’t grieve as those who have no hope.  We can take hope and comfort that Daniel was baptized into the Christian faith through water and the power of God’s Word on Dec. 28^th, 1930 and was brought from death to life so many years ago here in our church at St. John. Daniel’s baptism gave to him the promise of eternal life, the forgiveness of sins, and salvation on account of our Lord Jesus.  This is what the Apostle Paul teaches us in Romans chapter 6.  The message from God’s Word is taken from selections of John 10, which contains Daniel’s confirmation verse from John 10:27-28, that he received on the day of his confirmation here at St. John on April 2^nd, 1944, and is entitled, “The Good Shepherd Carries Us to Heaven,” dear brothers and sisters in Christ. 

2.      As all of you know Daniel was deeply loved by his family and friends.  Here at St. John he faithfully ushered during our worship services for many, many years.  He deeply loved his wife Pat, his children, grandchildren, and great grandchildren.  Daniel was well respected in the farming industry, having faithfully managed and operated the family business, Hartmann Farm Supply, Inc., with his brother Henry all his life.  He was a member of the American Legion here in Baldwin and loyally served on our Baldwin Fire Department for over 55 years.  Danny was known as “Rabbit” to his friends and was an avid Rams football fan and never missed a season’s game with his football crew.  He cared for his country as well.  He proudly served his country in the United States Air Force from 1951-1955.

3.      Daniel’s confirmation verse is from the 10^th chapter of John’s Gospel.  Here in these few verses we have words of comfort and hope in the face of death that our Lord Jesus, the Good Shepherd, won’t let us slip out of His Father’s hand and will carry us to our heavenly home.  Jesus says, “¹¹I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.  ¹⁴I am the good shepherd. I know my own and my own know me, ¹⁵just as the Father knows me and I know the Father; and I lay down my life for the sheep.  ²⁷My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. ²⁸I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand. ²⁹My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father’s hand.”

4.      The body of Daniel Hartmann lying inside this casket is precisely the reason a man named Jesus was sent into the world. Death needed a cure. Death needed an enemy. Death needed a victor. And death got one. It was Jesus, our Good Shepherd. The Good Shepherd goes to battle against death. You can’t defeat death.  Daniel couldn’t defeat death. Only Jesus can.

5.      You see, the founder of all science, God the Father, determined, from the foundation of the world, that science couldn’t cure death. No amount of technology. No drugs. No vaccinations. The Creator of all mysteries in the universe, God the Father, determined, from the foundation of the world, that no scientific formula, no alignment of stars could cure death. The maker of all the universe, God the Father, determined, from the foundation of the world, that neither passionate human love nor personal sincerity nor super human strength and effort could cure death.

6.      Only One could cure death. Only One could make right that horrible first death, righteous Abel, who was killed by his brother Cain, and every death in between, right down to this one before us. Our Good Shepherd, Jesus, laid down his life on the cross of Calvary to defeat death.

7.      God the Father said to Adam & Eve about the tree of the knowledge of good and evil that, “In the day that you eat of [the fruit] you shall surely die” (Gen 2:17). And, even though Adam & Eve sinned against God by eating that forbidden fruit and brought sin and death into the world, God the Father promised to us a cure for death that would come from “the Seed of the woman.”  And so it was, that the cure for death was born of the Virgin Mary, and then he, Jesus, laid down his life on a cross. His death defeats death. The Good Shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. That’s how death was defeated. That’s how our beloved Daniel Hartmann gains eternal life. That’s how Daniel never perishes. That’s how Daniel Hartmann can’t be snatched from the hand of Jesus, the Good Shepherd.

8.      He who has no faith in Jesus, the Good Shepherd, could look at this casket, this body, these family members with their tears and sorrows and ask, “Who is your Good Shepherd who knows you and leaves you in such a state? Who is your Good Shepherd from whom you believe that you will have eternal life? Who is your Good Shepherd in whom you believe that you shall never perish?”  As believers in Jesus Christ we can answer simply, but boldly: Jesus. There’s no other name given under heaven by which we must be saved. Not Allah. Not Buddha. Not Medicare. Not the United States of America. Only Jesus. God the Father has put all things under Jesus’ feet. That includes death. Death is now a footstool to Jesus. But then, why the reality of what we see here? this casket? this lifeless body?

9.      Sin. Sin still ravages the body. Sin still has its teeth in our flesh. But you must not put your eyes on your sin. Fix your eyes instead on Jesus. Yes, hate your sin, detest your sin, curse your sin, but fix your eyes on “Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith” (Heb 12:2). Jesus is the Lamb of God who took away the sin of the world. How? By becoming sin for you. By taking on your punishment. By dying your death. A death that didn’t have power over Jesus. A death that couldn’t hold Jesus in the grave. Three days after Jesus laid down his life, the Father justified the Son. He was raised from the dead.

10.  St. Paul writes: “We know that Christ, being raised from the dead, will never die again; death no longer has dominion over him. For the death he died he died to sin, once for all, but the life he lives he lives to God” (Rom 6:9–10).  Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, you and I must still live in the flesh. Daniel has put his off. Very early on this past Friday morning on April 12^th, the Lord Jesus said to Daniel, “Today you are with me in paradise” (cf. Lk 23:43). His soul is with all the saints, awaiting the resurrection of his body when it will be transformed like the Lord Jesus’ glorious body (Phil 3:21). Since Daniel believed in the forgiveness of his sin in this life, he now has new life, eternal life, Jesus’ life.  Daniel has new life because of Jesus His Good Shepherd.  And you do too if you believe in your heart and confess with your lips that Jesus Christ is your Lord and Savior from sin, death, and the power of the devil.

11.  “Now may the God of peace who brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, the great shepherd of the sheep, by the blood of the eternal covenant, equip you with everything good that you may do his will, working in us that which is pleasing in his sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen” (Heb 13:20–21).