1.
In
the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. At
a time of grieving like this, those who are present, and I on behalf of this
church, offer your family and all who were close to Henry our deepest sympathy. May our Lord, who knows your needs, comfort
and give you strength and faith to uphold one another. Today we’re going to look at Matthew 26:41,
Henry’s confirmation verse and also at Romans 5:1-5. In Matthew 26:41 we hear the words of our
Lord Jesus who says, “41Watch and
pray that you may not enter into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but
the flesh is weak.” This
verse is fitting for us to look at, since these last few months have been
difficult for Henry and his family. The
message is entitled, “Are You Weary? Look to Jesus.” Dear brothers and sisters in Christ.
2.
Henry
was a wonderful person to get to know. I’m
thankful that I had the privilege to be his pastor and give to him God’s Words
of comfort, forgiveness, and hope in Jesus through His Word and Sacrament. Henry’s life the last few years wasn’t always
easy. He was losing his memory and
having other health issues, but all the while he went through it, Henry knew
that Jesus was with him. His life was a
testimony of his Christian faith. The suffering that Henry endured drew him
closer to Jesus who suffered in his place through His death on the cross. Henry knew that when he became weary, he
could look to Jesus for strength.
3.
Henry
was a kind, humble, gentle and godly man.
He truly was a man of God. Did
you notice in his biography how he lived out his Christian faith, the faith
that he received in his baptism. For
Henry, he would have said, “I am
baptized, not I was baptized.” He
lived always in the identity of his baptism, living out his Christian faith in
serving his neighbor. I remember very
well how Henry helped my wife and I move over 6 years ago from Red Bud to
Baldwin as I prepared to be a pastor here at St. John Baldwin. Hear again some of the things Henry did in
his life to show his faith in Christ and love for his neighbor. He was a Church President of St. John’s
Lutheran Church here in Baldwin. He
taught Sunday School and was a Sunday School Superintendent and Trustee, he was
a Youth Group Leader here at our Church.
Henry also served his country and local community, he was a member of
the American Legion Post 619 in Baldwin, IL, a former member of District 132
School Board, and for his Christian and spiritual leadership he received the
American Legion Chaplain Award. Henry
was a World War II Navy Veteran.
4.
That’s
what I love about Henry. He simply lived out the faith that Jesus
had given to him through the hearing of God’s Holy Word and the Sacrament of
Holy Baptism. One story that I didn’t
know about Henry was that for many years he had sent the Sunday School materials
that he had been using here at St. John to Ghana, Africa to be used by a
Christian missionary there. Through
something as simple as sending Sunday School materials to another country,
Henry was an instrument to spread the Word of Christ to all the world. Because of the Sunday School materials that
Henry sent there to Africa many people came to faith in Jesus. They even named a building after him there. But, because Henry was a humble man, he never
talked about his accomplishments. He
knew that he was a servant of his Savior Jesus.
Henry also was a godly man in his home, making sure that his wife
Marjorie and his children heard the Word of God and were taught the Christian
faith. He even would have his family
watch the Rev. Billy Graham crusades on TV whenever they were broadcast.
5.
But,
Henry knew that he was a sinner in need of a Savior. Remember what Jesus says in his confirmation
verse from Matthew 26:41, “41Watch and
pray that you may not enter into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but
the flesh is weak.” Don’t we pray this saying of Jesus in the
Lord’s Prayer when we say, “Lead us not
into temptation.” Our new spiritual
nature may be strong, but Jesus reminds us that it’s burdened by the flesh, our
old sinful self (Rm 8:1–14). Here, as Jesus is in the Garden of Gethsemane
preparing to die on the cross for our sins, he reminds us that because of our
sin we’re weak and ill. That the trials
of our sinful flesh in this world are often severe. In Matthew 26, Jesus is reminding us to call
on Him when we find ourselves tempted to sin so that we may remain faithful to
Him. For without God’s grace and help, we’re not able to do anything (John
15:5).
6.
St. Paul reminds us in Romans 5 that peace
and joy are the fruits of justifying faith.
That when we’re weary we can look to Jesus for help and strength. In this sin cursed world in which we live,
things don’t always turn out the way we plan.
As a result our hearts are often filled with sorrow, disappointment, and
fear. What a comfort it is to know that
we have a Savior who can say, “I know
exactly how you feel. I faced those same
hardships during my life on earth.” It’s
with a full understanding of all our problems, even in the face of death, that
our Savior Jesus graciously invites us, “Come
to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.” (Matt.
11:28)
7.
Here in
Romans 5, St. Paul tells us that the Holy Spirit comforts us in all our weaknesses
by directing our attention to the loving concern that Jesus has expressed for
us in his Word. Are you a young person
who sometimes wonders, “Could Jesus
possibly know and understand how I feel?”
Remember the rich young ruler in the Gospels? The Bible shows that Jesus understood that
young man better than the young man understood himself. Are you growing old and feeling concerned
that you’re becoming a burden to your loved ones? Jesus can understand this concern. Didn’t Jesus, while he was dying on the cross
for our sins, appoint his disciple John to care for his mother so she wouldn’t
feel unloved in her twilight years! Have
you lost a loved one in death, as we are grieving now over Henry? Jesus knows the feeling. He wept at the grave of Lazarus. Jesus knows the feeling of being so
completely exhausted from the work that one can barely keep one’s eyes
open. And, He knows the feeling of
pain. Yes, he even knows what if feels
like to die, for remember, he died on the cross for the forgiveness of our sins,
and Henry’s too.
8.
Once you
know that you’ve been declared righteous by God in Jesus, that He’s taken all
your sins and answered for them through his death on the cross for you, you
have peace. What can trouble you? Not your sins! They’ve been left under the blood of the Lamb
of God. And so an odd thing happens. You can rejoice in your sufferings. How? Because
the sufferings aren’t God punishing you, hating you, or judging, and condemning
you. Instead, they are the Holy Spirit’s
tool to lovingly craft the image of Jesus upon your life, this is what God did
with Henry’s life as he lovingly served his neighbor living out his Christian
faith. Henry allowed himself to suffer
for the sake of his neighbor, just as Christ suffered for us. So suffering teaches you to endure; endurance
produces character, character hope, and hope never disappoints because God’s
love has been dumped into your heart by the Holy Spirit given to you.
9.
St. Paul
says that even when you were a rebel and enemy against God, God loved you, gave
His Son Jesus for you. Now, having been
declared righteous by his holy blood, will you not be saved through Him from
the wrath of God? If Jesus died to blot
out your sins, he lives to apply that salvation to you. Paul spends the remainder of Romans 5
pondering the similarities and differences between the first and last
Adam. Between Adam the first human being
created by God and our Lord Jesus who is the second and greater Adam come to
save us from our sins. Sin and death
came to us from Adam, the first man, and this holds true even where people have
never heard of Moses or the law, since the law of God is also written on their
hearts in their conscience. They still
sin against conscience, and everyone dies, for Paul says in Romans 6:23, “The wages of sin is death.” But, look what comes to us and Henry
through Jesus! One sin brought death to
everyone and sin to everyone; so by one Man’s act of righteousness, Jesus’
obedience to the will of His Father, brings to everyone righteousness and
eternal life.
10.
If sin is
death hiding out in our flesh and death is what sin looks like, then
forgiveness of sins is eternal life in hiding and eternal life is forgiveness
revealed. In Adam, all die; in Christ,
all may be made alive! In the first Adam
all people stand condemned and damned to hell; in Jesus, we are made righteous
and given eternal life. In Adam, all of
us became disobedient to God; in Jesus, we have received the Savior’s perfect
obedience to our Heavenly Father on our behalf.
11.
Above all,
Jesus took our sins away so that we can live in heaven with Him for all
eternity along with Henry. We know that
when we are weary and tired we can look to Jesus for help. He removed from us who believe in Him and for
Henry, that which would make our sufferings and tribulations unbearable. That’s how much he loved us! Amen.
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