When You Know That You Know
Funeral: Robert Schelter • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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Illustrations for Biblical Preaching Eternal Life
A child does not begin to exist when he (or she) is born. The child has already existed for nine months prior to this in the mother’s womb. At the point of birth, only the conditions in which the child exists change. Before, he lived internally; now, he lives externally. Before, he was fed internally; now, he feeds externally. He does not begin to live at birth: he has lived all the time since conception, but conditions change at birth.
So also can the believer view death. At the point of death, the conditions of our eternal life change—but not the fact that we do indeed have eternal life.
“Let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God; believe also in me. In my Father’s house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also. And you know the way to where I am going.”
I hope you take the time to read Robert Schelter’s biography. I knew that he was a fascinating man, just from the way that he carried himself when I was with him at Good Shepherd. I knew abut his enjoyment of cooking, something that he and I share. I know about his love for Confessional Evangelical teaching, expressed every Sunday as he recited the Apostles and Nicaean Creeds and every Friday as he came to study the Small Catechism with a small group of ladies. They enjoyed his presence, as did I.
Both his story and my experiences with him, both here and shortly before his death, confirm something that is very important. The Bible says, in Hebrews 9:27 that “it’s appoint unto man once to die, and after this, the judgment .” This is most certainly true, for every funeral testifies to the fact that no matter where you come from, there is one place where we all are going to go until the Lord returns, the valley of the shadow of death.
The Bible says, in Romans 6:23 “For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” Every man, woman, child and creature that has been birthed on this planet faces that journey. Some face it with fear, some with frustration, some even with rage. And some, like Robert, face Joe Black, when he comes, with peace and calm.
Not the calm of resignation, not the calm of a defeated foe, but the calm of one who knows that death does not have the last word. Jesus does.
On the night when our Lord was about to be betrayed into the hands of sinners so that He could take upon Himself their guilty stains, He was calm too. He calmly told his disciples to prepare for what was about to happen. He told them that He wasn’t going anywhere by accident or because of a disruption in the mission of God. in fact, Jesus was doing exactly what the Father sent Him on this earth to do, to be the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.
For Jesus, it wasn’t a matter of liking death. Jesus knows that death is the enemy; In fact, Jesus knows it far better than any of us do, because He had the choice. As He would later tell Pilate, Do you not know that, if I chose to do so, I could summon 10,000 angels to rescue me.
The reason why Jesus had to die to save us is because death uses sin to bring us to despair, to sorrow, to fear and to doubt. The only to defeat death was to snatch away its power, and He only could do that by binding it and plundering it Himself. It wasn’t enough that Jesus could triumph over death for Himself. He came to rescue us as well. John 14:5-7
Thomas said to him, “Lord, we do not know where you are going. How can we know the way?” Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. If you had known me, you would have known my Father also. From now on you do know him and have seen him.”
In the beginning of his Gospel, John describes Christ as the one who reveals God the Father, saying in John 1:18 “No one has ever seen God; God the only Son, who is at the Father’s side, he has made him known.”
Today, not only do people talk as if they know what God is about, many of them, not a large share, but still a lot of people, talk as if they know that God is not. So confident are they in what their eyes tell them, so certain are they of what they have heard from others who know as much as they do, because none of them have actually ascended to Heaven to bring God down. It’s sadly funny, because the work of convincing ourselves that there is no teeth to those 10 Commandments has not brought us peace or happiness. It has only brought us confusion and chaos. We all live in this “ball of confusion,” but some of us have learned that we aren’t the last Word, that God still has the last Word, and that word is not, contrary to the painful boast of Friedrich Nietzsche, “God is dead and we have killed Him!” Not even a little bit. John 14:8-11
Philip said to him, “Lord, show us the Father, and it is enough for us.” Jesus said to him, “Have I been with you so long, and you still do not know me, Philip? Whoever has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’? Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me? The words that I say to you I do not speak on my own authority, but the Father who dwells in me does his works. Believe me that I am in the Father and the Father is in me, or else believe on account of the works themselves.
For thirty-three years, Jesus’ family had seen him live without sin, not only to be our example of what it truly means to please the Father, but to become the substitute for all of us poor miserable sinners who fall short, who cut corners, who try to justify ourselves even when we know that we don’t have the skills to argue before the ultimate court of justice. 1 Peter 2:21-24
For to this you have been called, because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example, so that you might follow in his steps. He committed no sin, neither was deceit found in his mouth. When he was reviled, he did not revile in return; when he suffered, he did not threaten, but continued entrusting himself to him who judges justly. He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed.
The Cross was not the scene of Christ’s shame, but of His glory: the story of the Crucifixion is the story of how death had its sting snatched out of its tail while it stood there. When Jesus said, “it is finished,” He wasn’t talking about his life, but of death’s reign over us. This is the message of the Gospel, that God is for us, that we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the Righteous One. That death is swallowed up in victory!
Robert learned that truth as a child. It sustained him during the darkest days, comforted him when launched out across the Atlantic Ocean in a ship with no one expecting him. It kept him going through a life that had ups and downs, where work was hard and pleasure was not promised. But he learned the the Lord is faithful, that the message of the Cross is bigger than our travails. John 14:12-14
“Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes in me will also do the works that I do; and greater works than these will he do, because I am going to the Father. Whatever you ask in my name, this I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If you ask me anything in my name, I will do it.
Robert asked for peace in the midst of war, and he found it. Robert looked for shelter in the midst of the storm, and he found it. Robert looked for “a good thing,” for He heard the Word from Proverbs 18:22 “He who finds a wife finds a good thing and obtains favor from the Lord.” and He found it TWICE!
And now Robert has found what it means to see God’s face in peace. He is now seated in heavenly places, not just by faith, but in reality. Numbers 23:19 declares to all of us,
God is not man, that he should lie, or a son of man, that he should change his mind. Has he said, and will he not do it? Or has he spoken, and will he not fulfill it?
It is finished, Amen. He is risen, He is risen indeed, Hallelujah!
And the peace of God that passes understanding, guard your hearts and minds Through Christ Jesus our Lord, Amen.
