Sermon - Bob Stover Funeral

Dear Cleo, children and grandchildren, family and friends of Bob, may God’s peace be yours in our Savior Jesus the Christ. The Lord is the everlasting God, and He is God of the living not of the dead. Since He is Bob’s God, therefore Bob is not dead but he is living, even now. Though we may mourn and weep, we do not weep without hope, since we trust our Lord’s promises to raise His Christians from the grave to life immortal.

I had mentioned this story with Bob to the family the other day, and Cleo will just have to forgive me if it embarrasses her. But Bob gave me some preaching advice one day some years ago, using the KISS acronym: Keep It Simple, Stupid, and if he ever blew me a kiss before the sermon it was to remind me to keep it simple, stupid. So, I’ll try my best to heed his advice and keep this simple.

I think Bob gave me that off-color advice a few years back at the nursing home, where he’d help get things set up for me to bring communion to all of the members who were in the nursing home. Of course we’d chat and stuff and he’d give me little tidbits like the KISS acronym, but what’s more important for us right now and what I’d like to draw your attention to is Bob’s faith. He didn’t go to the nursing home with me in order to chat with me, but so that he might help those Christians hear God’s Word and receive the medicine of immortality. He went there so that those folks who were weak and frail might have hope in Jesus in the midst of their sufferings, that they might be patient in tribulation.

Bob took that quite seriously in his own life. “Rejoice in hope, be patient in tribulation, be constant in prayer.” My goodness! Bob did have a great deal of tribulations which he had been enduring for years! If I were to even attempt to list them all I’d most certainly fail to keep this sermon simple! The only way he endured so many afflictions was on account of his faith in Christ. You heard the promise our Lord Jesus made: “Let not your hearts be troubled… In My Father’s house are many rooms… 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.”

What a glorious promise! Our heavenly Father has a mansion, a kingdom, and Jesus, the Son of God, is preparing a place for us! God wants us in paradise with Him! Lots of people go on vacations in order to get away from people, to have a break from them, but God wants just the opposite, He wants us to live with Him forever in His house. That’s the promise our Lord made to Bob, and that’s how Bob endured so many afflictions, knowing what was awaiting him at the end of it all.

What’s more is that Bob knew whatever physical ailment and disability came his way, God would one day remove those ailments from him and restore him completely. “Even youths shall faint and be weary, and young men shall fall exhausted; but they who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles; they shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint.” Bob won’t need his walking stick anymore for walking, unless of course he wants to trip you with it. He’ll have both eyes and won’t need sunglasses. His heart will beat without help.

All of this is meant quite literally. When a christian dies their soul immediately goes to heaven, and their body rests here on earth. When Jesus returns on the last day He will raise those christians from the dead, bodily, and their soul and body will be reunited. Thus, as we speak, Bob’s soul is already in heaven with the Lord, and His body is resting here on earth. Soon we will lay Bob to rest in a resting place, a cemetery, where he will await the coming of Christ and on that day bodily rise from the dead.

But here’s where it’s difficult for us. As wonderful of a man as Bob is, as faithful as he is, here he is lying in a casket. Cleo has described him like her energizer bunny; you drop a bomb on him and he just keeps on going and going! Until now. The reality is that Bob, like his first parents Adam and Eve, wasn’t perfect and he was a sinner, and the consequence of sin is death. That’s just as true for Bob as it is for all of us. Sin and death seem to stop everything.

No doubt about it Bob knew that reality very well. Suffering often makes Christians acutely aware of their sinfulness. Because of this reality Bob was always here in church, sat right over there. Christians don’t go to church because they’re perfect, but because they’re sinners in need of being rescued. Bob knew very well the words of Jesus: “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.” Bob’s one and only hope is Jesus.  Jesus, the Son of God, in great love for Bob and all of us, laid down His own life upon the cross and was crucified for the forgiveness of our sins. Jesus died for Bob and forgave him his sins. Bob received this forgiveness when he was baptized, and we’re reminded of that baptismal grace by the white funeral pall, symbolizing Christ’s righteousness that covers all of Bob’s sins. Bob confessed his faith in Jesus, that was his only hope, and that is our only hope as well. Our hope is in Christ Jesus alone.

Moreover, because of Christ’s righteousness, Bob lives with Christ! Certainly Bob’s soul is in heaven already, but there’s more life yet to come! Jesus rose bodily from the grave. When Jesus returns He will raise Bob, and all believers, bodily from their graves. That is the Christian hope that we have my friends, not just that our souls will go to heaven but that bodily we will live forever with Christ in paradise. This means that you will see Bob again. You’ll see your husband, your father, grandpa, brother, friend again! This same body that you’ve hugged, the same man you’ve loved you will see again. In this way Bob, and every Christian, really is like the Energizer bunny. Even though we face death, we shall live because God through Christ Jesus gives us life.

So as we look to the days ahead, remembering Bob, let us not just remember to keep it simple, stupid, but let us look to Bob’s example of faith in Jesus Christ. Let us be encouraged by him to love our Lord Jesus, to endure tribulation, to hope in Christ’s forgiveness, so that with Bob we may live even though we die. In this way, even though we will miss him, we will not be separated from Him. Bob lives with God, and when we live with God, we will also be with Bob. Therefore, “Let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God.”