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Facing Death Introduction: A.
We
must all die 1. A universal truth - every one of us has to die. 2. But the fact that we die is not what is important. a) What is important is how we face death. b) Scripture declares that there is a right way and a wrong way to die. c) If we die in the wrong way, we shall suffer eternally. d) But if we die in the right way, we shall live eternally. e) Therefore, it is of critical importance that we face death in the right way. 3. Remember, Jacob was very sick and on his deathbed, and he had called all his sons to his bedside. 4. Now it was time for God to take Jacob home. B. Jacob’s Charge - 49:29-32 1. Jacob faced death believing in the promise of eternal life: he believed he was to be gathered to his people. a) Jacob believed that his people—Abraham and Isaac—were still living, living in the presence of God, living eternally. b) He believed that he was to be gathered to them, that he was to join them in eternity. 2. Jacob made two important requests concerning burial: that he... a) be
buried in b) be buried in the place where his loved ones were buried (Genesis 49:31-32). 3. Jacob was declaring his faith in these promises by asking for his body to be returned to the promised land. a) He wanted his burial to be a great testimony to God and His great promises. b) He wanted his descendents to know that God had truly given the great promises to the world, and that God had given the great promises to him personally. (1) Great,
great grandfather – George Washington Cooksey tombstone – born (2) "Remember friends as you pass by, that all mankind are born to die, then let your cares on Christ be cast, that you may dwell with Him at last." C. Jacob’s Death - v. 33 1. As soon as he had finished the instructions to his sons, Jacob slid back up onto the bed and died. a) And he was gathered to his people. b) Jacob joined all the believers who were living with God in eternity. 2. If we believe in the promised seed—the Savior of the world, the Lord Jesus Christ, we shall be gathered to Jacob and all other believers who are living with God in eternity. I.
Grief
and Mourning A. Grief
and Sorrow (vv. 1-3) 1. The moment Jacob died, Joseph leaned over to his father’s face and wept over him and kissed him. 2. Grief and Sorrow is caused by: a) Death. To be conquered. b) Knowing that loved ones are lost. c) The death of loved ones. 3. The danger of grief and sorrow is that they
often becomes self-centered. B. Mourning Passes (vv. 4-14) 1. Funerals – great gatherings - vv. 7-9 a) Joseph organized a large funeral procession to demonstrate his father’s faith. (1) all the officials of Pharaoh’s court (Genesis 50:7). (2) all the household of Joseph and his brothers, all except the children and the ranch workmen (Genesis 50:8). 2. Fulfilling wishes a) Joseph
completed his father’s faith: he buried him in the promised land of b) We should love those of our family and honor their wishes for burial. c) We must love our parents, especially if they are believers who truly follow God, love them no matter how much they may have failed in the past. 3. Returning to the former land a) Didn’t stay there b) Brings back memories c) Neighbors d) e) Friends II.
Guilt
and Fear – A.
Fear
Drives Guilt – v. 15 1. Fear begins with doubt a) Since their father died, the brothers began to fear that Joseph might seek vengeance against them. b) Joseph had said that he had forgiven them. c) Questions and doubt began to rise in the thoughts of the brothers: (1) Had Joseph really forgiven them? (2) How could a person forgive so terrible a wrong? d) Eventually a spirit of fear gripped their souls. 2. Guilt is caused by unbelief. a) Deliverance from. (1) By God’s love. (2) By the conviction of the Holy Spirit. b) Godly vs. worldly sorrow. B. The Cure for Guilt – vv. 16-21 1. Repentance – vv. 16-18 a) The brothers sent a messenger to Joseph (1) Their father wanted the sons to confess their sin to Joseph and to ask his forgiveness. (2) The brothers asked Joseph to forgive them b) When Joseph heard the message, he wept. c) The brothers were showing a true repentance. (1) They had no trouble in asking forgiveness when they had wronged a person. (2) They came to Joseph. (3) Joseph’s brothers were genuinely following God, and they wanted the family to be reconciled. 2. Forgiveness –vv. 19-21 a) Joseph’s response is a model for all who would respond in a godly way to ungodly persecution: (1) But Joseph said to them, “Do not be afraid, for am I in God’s place? And as for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good in order to bring about this present result, to preserve many people alive. So therefore, do not be afraid; I will provide for you and your little ones.” So he comforted them and spoke kindly to them (Genesis 50:19-21). b) Vengeance belongs to God, not man. (1) Their attitudes and actions were evil, but the result was intended by God for good. (2) How could Joseph be angry when good had come of their sin through God’s providence? (3) Instead,
Joseph returned kindness for cruelty (cf. c) Joseph had forgiven his brothers years before, over seventeen years earlier. (1) He had never gone back on his promise of forgiveness (Genesis 50:19-21). (2) God gave him God’s very own spirit of forgiveness. (3) What is God’s spirit of forgiveness? Once forgiven, always forgiven. (4) The old sin or wrong is never brought up again. It cannot be, not if it has been truly forgiven. d) Joseph declared that God had overruled their evil and worked it out for good (Genesis 50:20). (1) “And we know that all things work together
for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his
purpose” (Romans e) Joseph declared that he must repay evil with good (1) “Be not overcome of evil, but overcome evil
with good” (Romans f) Joseph encouraged his brothers not to fear. (1) He spoke only kind and comforting words to them. g) What a dynamic example of forgiving others! (1) If Joseph could forgive his brothers, we can forgive any person for anything. (2) No matter how terrible the wrong or evil done against us, we can forgive the person. III.
Joseph
Facing Death – A.
Faithfulness – vv. 22-23 1. Joseph stayed faithful to God 2. He lived to be 110 years old. a) The last half of Joseph’s life—fifty-four years to be exact—is covered in only a few verses (Genesis 50:22-26). 3. Scripture takes over 12 chapters to cover how God prepared and used Joseph to save the world. a) This was a period of thirty-nine years, beginning when Joseph was seventeen years old and ending when he was fifty-six (Genesis 37:1-50:21). b) Now, the next 54 years of Joseph’s life are covered in only 5 verses. 4. What then was Joseph to do with the rest of his life? a) Be faithful to God. b) Keep his family together c) Live a godly and righteous life before the world B. Joseph Died – vv. 24-26 1. Moses intentionally placed the deaths of Jacob and Joseph side by side. 2. While the burial of Jacob and Joseph are quite different, they both reflect the same faith and hope. 3. Both
believed that 4. Joseph was a continual reminder that some day the exodus would occur. 5. Both Jacob and Joseph, determined that their death and burial would be a testimony to their faith and an encouragement to the faith of their descendants. C. The End? 1. And so we come to the end of a magnificent book. a) But two funerals do not seem to be a very bright ending for a book. b) Man’s origin began in the garden of perfection and beauty in paradise. c) It
ends in two coffins, one in Canaan, the other in d) What a dismal conclusion. e) Moses could never make it as a writer in our times. 2. But wait a moment; that is just the point. a) Genesis chapter 50 is not the end of the story; it is only the end of the book of Genesis. b) Moses has yet four books to write, and God has ordained another 61 before the final chapter is written. c) And in the final chapters of the book of the Revelation we once again return to paradise. (1) And I saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the first heaven and the first earth passed away, and there is no longer any sea. And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, made ready as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne, saying “Behold, the tabernacle of God is among men, and He shall dwell among them, and they shall be His people, and God Himself shall be among them, and He shall wipe away every tear from their eyes; and there shall no longer be any death; there shall no longer be any mourning, or crying, or pain; the first things have passed away” (Revelation 21:1-4). (2) And he showed me a river of the water of life, clear as crystal, coming from the throne of God and of the Lamb, in the middle of its street. And on either side of the river was the tree of life, bearing twelve kinds of fruit, yielding its fruit every month; and the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations. And there shall no longer be any curse; and the throne of God and of the Lamb shall be in it, and His bond-servants shall serve Him; and they shall see His face, and His name shall be on their foreheads. And there shall no longer be any night; and they shall not have need of the light of a lamp nor the light of the sun, because the Lord God shall illumine them; and they shall reign forever and ever (Revelation 22:1-5). 3. Death, Moses would have us learn, is not the end. 4. During
those years spent in a) No longer did he consider death the end of everything. b) Even if a man were to lose his cherished son, as God had commanded Abraham to sacrifice his son Isaac, God could raise him again. c) Jacob, like Abraham and Isaac, had come to see that there was life after death: (1) By faith
Abraham, when he was tested, offered up Isaac; and he who had received the
promises was offering up his only begotten son; it was he to whom it was
said, “IN ISAAC YOUR SEED SHALL BE CALLED.” He considered that God is able to
raise men even from the dead; from which he also received him back as a type
(Hebrews 5. The way you view death makes all the difference in the world. a) If it is the end of everything, then there is not any need to seek heaven or to shun hell. b) If there is no life after death, the world is right when it says that we should “… eat, drink, and be merry, for tomorrow we die.” 6. But if we view death as a beginning rather than the end, then what lies after death must surely compel us to face eternity squarely, before death. a) And, once we are rightly related to God by faith in His Son, we need not fear death. b) We need not avoid talking about it. c) And, in one sense, we can welcome it, for it promises us a time when we shall be intimately and eternally with God and with those in the faith who have been separated from us by death. (1) Let not your heart be troubled; believe in God, believe also in Me. In my Father’s house are many dwelling places; if it were not so, I would have told you, for I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you to Myself; that where I am, there you may be also (John 14:1-3). (2) Therefore, being always of good courage, and knowing that while we are at home in the body we are absent from the Lord—for we walk by faith, not by sight—we are of good courage, I say, and prefer rather to be absent from the body and to be at home with the Lord (II Corinthians 5:6-8). (3) But I am
hard-pressed from both directions, having the desire to depart and be with
Christ, for that is very much better (Philippians 7. Let us look at death as Jacob and Joseph. a) Let us see it not as the end, but the beginning. b) Let
us, by faith, look forward to being reunited with those we love (I
Thessalonians c) “O DEATH, WHERE IS YOUR VICTORY? O DEATH, WHERE IS YOUR STING?” The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law; but thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, my beloved brethren, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that your toil is not in vain in the Lord (I Corinthians 15:55-58). d) Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life; he who believes in Me shall live even if he dies, and everyone who lives and believes in Me shall never die. Do you believe this?” (John 11:25-26). |
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