1.
Grace,
mercy, and, peace to you from God our Heavenly Father and our Lord and Savior
Jesus Christ. Dear family and friends of
Elnor. 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 Elnor our deepest sympathy. May our Lord, who knows your needs, comfort
and give you strength to uphold each another.
Today we’re going to look at Elnor’s confirmation verse from Jeremiah
31:3, which says, ““3the Lord
appeared to him from far away. I have
loved you with an everlasting love; therefore, I have continued my faithfulness
to you.” And also, the
verse from Revelation 2:10, where John the Apostle writes, “10Do not fear what you are about to suffer. Behold, the devil is
about to throw some of you into prison, that you may be tested, and for ten
days you will have tribulation. Be faithful unto death, and I will give you the
crown of life.” The message is entitled, “Jesus:
Our Faithful & Loving God,” dear brothers and sisters in Christ.
2.
Having
been Elnor’s Pastor for the past 2 ½ years, I’ve found how much he deeply loved
his family and cared for them. He was
always faithful and dedicated to providing for them. He farmed, drove truck and school bus, and tended
bar to care for them. He especially
enjoyed driving the school bus for the Christ Lutheran School children here in
West Bloomfield. He loved taking care of
the animals, especially the birds around his home. He also loved to walk and bike as well, he
wasn’t prone to sitting around too much.
He deeply loved his grandchildren too. Elnor liked to fix and make things as well. Though he was deeply hurt when his son Terry
passed way, the Lord was faithful and saw him and his family through that
difficulty with the message of His faithfulness and love through His Son our
Savior Jesus Christ. He reminded Elnor
and his family that because Jesus lives we too shall live and have eternal life
(John 14), that message was for Terry as well.
Elnor loved to read his Bible early in the morning and that was what he
was doing the day that he died. In fact,
he was reading through Barb’s confirmation verse just before he passed away,
Matthew 21:22 says, “22And whatever you
ask in prayer, you will receive, if you have faith.”
3.
In
case you didn’t notice there’s a theme to all three of these passages from Revelation
2, Matthew 21, and Jeremiah 31. One of
the things that Elnor wanted was that he didn’t want to undergo a long, slow
death. He didn’t want to be a burden to
his family, and on last Thursday Dec. 29th, 2016, the Lord saw fit
to call him to his heavenly home. God
was faithful to Elnor’s request. But,
what does it mean to be faithful? When someone is faithful, he or she is
someone who can be trusted. Specifically, faithful individuals keep their word. When
we consider faithfulness, we must realize that this truth applies absolutely to
God. By God’s grace we can then be faithful to our confession. When we’re
faithful unto death, we, in Christ, receive a crown of life.
4.
Faithful
individuals are those whose word can be trusted. So, when we think of being faithful,
we should first think of God. God is faithful. The apostle Paul said that God
is faithful, “for he cannot disown
himself” (2 Tim 2:13). God can be completely trusted. God’s Word is
completely reliable. Consider each person of the Trinity—Father,
Son, and Holy Spirit—and realize that God is faithful. When God the Father
promised that he would send his Son Jesus to save mankind, then the faithful
Father had to do just that. In the fullness of time, God the Father had
to send his Son, born of a woman, born to purchase us from sin and death
with his holy, precious blood. When the Son of God says, “I will give you a crown of life,” such a promise is a certainty.
To make this promise a reality, the faithful Son of God had to die our
death and rise from the grave. Because of such work, he can and does give a
crown of life to you and me if we believe in Him as our Lord and Savior.
5.
The
question is, then, are we faithful? Are
we keeping our word in relation to our God? “Be
faithful unto death,” Jesus declares,
“and I will give you a crown of life.” Since God is the
faithful one, all faithfulness must begin and end with him. So it was with
Elnor. On December 20th, 1936, our faithful God—Father, Son, and
Holy Spirit—put his name on Elnor Behm in Baptism. And when his name was put on
Elnor, Elnor became a child of the heavenly Father. Elnor also became a
redeemed one, united with the death and resurrection of Jesus. Baptism is a
covenant. In Elnor’s Baptism, God’s side of the covenant was to freely bless
him with the gifts of salvation in Jesus. God wouldn’t break the covenant agreement.
Elnor’s side of the covenant was to remain faithful to the triune God. Could
Elnor be faithful on his side of the covenant?
6.
In
preparation for his confirmation, Elnor was taught the Chief Parts of the
Christian faith, beginning with the Ten Commandments. He knew that God’s Ten
Commandments were to be obeyed and that they expose our sinfulness and need for
Christ’s forgiveness, that without Jesus we all rightly deserve God’s
condemnation. Consider this verse from Revelation: “And the unbelieving and abominable, and murderers and the sexually
immoral persons and the sorcerers and the idolaters and all liars—their part
will be in the lake that burns with fire and brimstone, which is the second
death” (21:8). The second death is hell. Elnor has now experienced the
first death. His body has died. But he’s been delivered from this second death!
7.
He’s
been delivered because of what he learned and believed as the second chief part
of his confirmation instruction: the Apostles’ Creed. The creed teaches that
the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, the God in whose name Elnor had been
baptized, created, redeemed, and sanctified him. At the heart of the creed, Elnor
learned of the loving Savior. Speaking of faithfulness again, Revelation 1:5-6
says: “Jesus Christ [is] the faithful
witness, the firstborn from the dead, and the ruler of the kings of the earth.
To him who loves us and freed us from our sins by his blood . . . to him be
glory.” Elnor believed this—that Jesus rose from the dead for him. Elnor
believed that Jesus released us from our sins by his blood. He believed that
Jesus loves us so much that he was condemned in our place, so that we would be
completely delivered from that second death, from hell. God, our faithful God,
has done these things.
8.
Elnor
Behm wasn’t a perfect man. You who knew him best fully realize that he sinned,
even against you, his dear family. To remain faithful unto death, Elnor—and I
and every Christian—need repentance. God deeply desires that we repent of our
sins, but Rev 9:20 tells us, “The rest of
mankind . . . still did not repent of the work of their hands.” Elnor
realized that as a faithful Christian he needed constantly to turn from sin
toward forgiveness in our Lord and Savior. He learned in catechism instruction
that this was how we daily use our Baptisms: to repent, to daily drown the
sinful nature, and to have the “new man”
come forth in the forgiveness of Jesus. He knew that he could come to church
and hear and receive joyfully the pastor’s pronouncement of Christ’s forgiveness
for his sins, and Elnor did that regularly by coming to worship with his wife
Doris.
9.
Finally,
Elnor learned in catechism that he could personally receive this much-needed
forgiveness through Holy Communion. In constant repentance, Elnor and his wife
Doris often dined with and upon his forgiving Savior in the Sacrament of the
Altar. Yes, by the grace and power of
God that he received through the means of grace, Elnor remained faithful unto
death. And now he has the crown of life. Elnor’s spirit is now with his Lord in
joy and peace, and he knows that on the Last Day his body will rise victorious
as well. Then he will experience the crown of life in its fullest sense, for in
physically rising from the dead, Elnor will have eternal life as God
intended—as body and soul together. Picture
Elnor experiencing this crown of life, Revelation 21 says, “Behold, the dwelling place of God is among men, and he will dwell
among them, and they shall be his people, and God himself will be among them,
and he will wipe away every tear from their eyes; and there will no longer be
any death; there will no longer be any mourning, or crying, or pain; the first
things have passed away.” And he who sits on the throne said, “Behold, I am
making all things new.” And he said, “Write, for these words are faithful and true.” (21:3–5 NASB) Yes, these are faithful words because
they are God’s Word. Thanks be to God today that we, in reviewing Elnor’s
Christian upbringing, can say, “Elnor was
faithful—faithful unto death.” In his Lord and Savior, Elnor has received
the crown of life! Amen.
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