"God's Maturing Grace"

Introduction

What the problem is; our contemporary cultural context: Here’s what we face.

This past week we saw another example of somebody doing something unbelievable and then getting the privilege of facing scrutiny for their actions. And don’t worry, I’m not ready to talk about Dak Prescott running down the middle of the football field with less than 20 seconds to go against the 49ers!

On Monday, an American venture capitalist by the name of Chamath Palihapitiya was asked a question about an active situation that is ongoing in China. It may not be known well of, but right now as we speak, the Chinese Communist Party has been carrying out what has been classified as acts of genocide towards a people group known as the Uyghurs. Since 2014 the government of China has enacted policies that would include detaining Uyghurs in internment camps where they are subjected to forced labor, suppression of their religious practices, forced sterilization, forced contraception, and forced abortion.

So when he was asked about it, this gentlemen simply said he doesn’t care that millions of people in China are caught up in a state-sponsored genocide and that he has more important things to concern himself with. Palihapitiya also owns a small part of the Golden State Warriors of the NBA, who within hours of their part-owner’s comments sent a tweet out that said his comments do not represent the team’s position. By the time they tweeted, social media had already built a mob to do what’s known now as “cancel” him and the Warriors didn’t want to be canceled themselves.

I do not want to be misunderstood this morning as defending this man’s comments. In fact, it’s sickening to know that there are people who would suggest that the most significant genocide since the Holocaust doesn’t rock their boat. Yet, I bring it to our attention this morning to invite us to think about what society is teaching us to do. If someone acts or does or says or thinks in any way that we disagree with, we “cancel” them. In other words, we run them into the ground in every imaginable way with the express desire of never having to see of or hear from them again.

We Christians do this more often than we would care to admit. When speaking of a family that moved their membership down the street, how many times have you heard in a church someone say something like, “Good riddance. I mean, we can all remember how they made that one business meeting memorable for all the wrong reasons! I think it’s a good thing that they’re someone else’s thorn now. As far as I’m concerned, this is addition by subtraction”? And maybe the folks that were spoken of tended to be ornery and at times contentious, but if they are part of the family of God, shouldn’t it grieve us to see anyone depart from the family that God has given to us here? Where do we even begin to address these matters?

Early Points

What the Bible says; the original readers’ cultural context: Here’s what we must do.

For the readings for our church this week, we have read the conclusion of Genesis and transitioned into the opening chapters of Job. Before we shift our entire focus to Job and his trials, I felt led this morning to this text, one which seats us deep within one of the most beautiful stories of the entire Bible. In the original Hebrew, the title of the book from which we are studying is not called Genesis, it’s called “In the Beginning.”

If you want a freebie on how to interpret what you read about or see on the news, let me key you in on something. So much of what we know of the world today can be understood if our eyes are fixed upon interpreting the evil which seemingly encroaches further and further upon us through the lens of God’s Word. In the beginning we have seen that God is the artist who painted all of creation and the creatures therein with his very hand, only to see the one species whom he has given his own image to - humanity - introduce rebellion against him into the world, separating them from his holy presence. Thinking we can live and operate independent of God, human civilization believes it can reach the heavens by its own doing, and in contrast to that, against the backdrop of elevated human society where scientific and technological advancement are pre-eminent, God calls a man named Abram from comfort and wealth as the one whom we know abandoned worldly possession to follow God and become the father of faith. This book of Genesis then follows the descendants of Abram, with our interest this morning given to his great-grandson Joseph, whose life serves as the conclusion of Genesis.

Joseph we know to have been the apple of his father Jacob’s eye. Joseph was the golden child of his father and all ten of his older brothers resented him for this, with their hatred for their youngest brother only to be increased when Joseph tells them of a dream where one day he would rule over them. When the opportunity arose, Joseph’s elder brothers conspired to rid him from their existence by leaving him in a position to be sold into Egyptian hands and convincing their father that he had been killed.

Genesis continues on, following this Joseph at distinct points of his life. After his abandonment by his brothers and capture by the Egyptians, Joseph shows himself to be trustworthy and becomes the personal attendant of an Egyptian of great responsibility in the land. This Joseph enjoys great privilege for a foreigner until he is wrongly accused of a crime against his master’s wife that he did not commit and is jailed unfairly for years until his God-given gift of interpreting dreams wins the favor of the pharaoh of Egypt, as well as his release from prison. Joseph had been entrusted to prepare Egypt for a forthcoming famine in the land that now serves as the back drop to this morning’s text. The brothers who abandoned Joseph have come to Egypt asking for food from the storehouses that Joseph himself has prepared and unbeknownst to his family, they are asking their long-forgotten, left-for-dead brother, now ruling over them baby brother, for mercy and grace.

I don’t believe that in all his dreams that Joseph anticipated a reunion of any sort with his brothers. When they first encountered him, Joseph probably did like many of us would do when we see that person at Walmart or HEB who offended or hurt us greatly. Moses records that Joseph Genesis 42:7 “treated them like strangers” and of course, at least some of us may do our best impression of being blind people by pretending to not see them or we play the part of a ninja, trying to avoid going detected by the other person. And don’t tell me that you don’t know what I’m talking about, because I know I’m not the only person who looks down an aisle to see who’s in it.

And we, like Joseph and even his brothers, are first presented with this reality: we must be prepared to face those whom have offended or hurt us in the past. Or flipping that coin, we must be prepared to face those whom we have previously offended or hurt. Whether we have dealt pain or received it, despite our best efforts, it does not stay buried forever. We can cancel someone after they have errored, but that does not erase that person from history nor does it wipe away the impact of their actions.

Middle Points

What prevents us; current listeners’ inward heart context: Why we can’t do it

But saying that we need to prepare to face those persons or issues from our past is one thing. Actually doing it is another.

Let’s think about Joseph some more… As a young person, he is the most loved son of his father and it is through his father that God’s covenant promise is being carried along to bring about descendants as numerous as the sand and to deliver by God’s hand the land of Canaan to these people. This is a family where the supper time talks of God’s presence and sovereignty must have been beyond any you or I might imagine. Just imagine Jacob telling his sons about what he learned that night he wrestled with God.

And in one day’s time, the promise seems lost and gathering around the loved ones stops. Those who should have loved him abandon Joseph, leaving his welfare in doubt while his brothers selfishly longed for what he had. We can imagine what the years which follow must have been like for Joseph. Not only have the actions of his brothers ripped from him all he knew, but those actions exposed him to the greatest embarrassment in his life as an accused adulterer. That charge then lands him in prison where he is forgotten for years. What happens to the heart and soul of a man in the depths of that unimaginable despair, one can only imagine. No doubt there must have been countless day dreams of what life would have been like if his brothers hadn’t done what they did.

Yet they’re here now and on the scene with them is a brother Benjamin, younger than Joseph and one that Joseph has come to understand now has the affections of his father Jacob that Joseph himself once had. Since they originally presented themselves to Joseph, his older brothers have shown love for their father and respect towards Joseph’s position, but in order to really understand where they stand, Joseph pushes on them to bring Benjamin to them in order to get the grain the family needs to survive. He wants to see just how ready these older brothers are to repeat what they did to him before.

Joseph knew of his father’s love for Benjamin and connected it with his father’s love for him when he was in his father’s house. Joseph recalled the favor heaped upon himself in the presence of his brothers, he had many precious gifts given to him exclusively by his father’s hand, and so he heaps favor upon Benjamin. And so they return to Joseph with Benjamin where Joseph greets them with hospitality, inviting them to a meal at his own table (Genesis 43:26-34) where all are served and Benjamin is given five times the serving of anyone else.

The next morning Joseph sends them on their way, after instructing one of his Egyptian servants to Genesis 44:1-2 “fill the men’s sacks with food, as much as they can carry, and put each man’s money in the mouth of his sack, and” to put Joseph’s own silver cup "in the mouth of the sack of the youngest, with his money for the grain.”

And from Genesis 44:1-13, we can review the scene that Joseph has cunningly crafted, setting young Benjamin up as a supposed thief to test his elder brothers and how they respond.

Now in reading ahead, many of us would see the beauty of this story unfold as God’s wisdom leading Joseph, but I just want to invite us to push the pause button assuming this is the first time we’re watching the movie. Without knowing the end, what might be contributing to Joseph doing any of this? If you were in his shoes, why does this seem like a safe route to take?

The answer here speaks to the tension of the nature between God and man. It is why if I ended this sermon 5 minutes ago with: “all you need to do is get ready to face your past” we would fail 10 out of 10 times when our past returned to meet us. It’s because in our hurt and our pain, our natural response is to defend ourselves from getting hurt again. How many times do you need to touch a hot stove top to know not to touch a hot stove top? We learn, we adapt, we defend ourselves.

Late Points

How Jesus fulfills the biblical theme and solves the heart issue: How Jesus did it

Yet, God is at work here, speaking to the heart issue. First of all, Joseph didn’t immediately send his brothers away when they came through the food line. Since Joseph’s brothers have been reintroduced to him, God has been stirring within Joseph. On multiple occasions, Joseph has to take moments away from his brothers, not because of the anger that rages inside of him for the years of anguish he suffered by their decision, but with compassion welling up for them from deep within Joseph.

So from Genesis 44:14ff we see one of the elder brothers, Judah, speaking. If you have been reading along with the church’s reading plan, you’ll know that it was Judah who was a key figure in instigating Joseph’s abandonment. Where Judah spoke to encourage the sale of Joseph, he now intercedes not only to save the life of his youngest brother Benjamin, but for the life of his father Jacob, too.

This is the moment that finally breaks Joseph down as I read on into

Genesis 45:1–2 ESV

1 Then Joseph could not control himself before all those who stood by him. He cried, “Make everyone go out from me.” So no one stayed with him when Joseph made himself known to his brothers. 2 And he wept aloud, so that the Egyptians heard it, and the household of Pharaoh heard it.

We find here that the final step in his brothers’ heart-transformation has occurred. Judah is now willing to sacrifice himself for the sake of a younger brother in danger—the very thing he and his brothers were unwilling to do for the sake of their other younger brother, Joseph, years before.

Where we would fail at simply preparing ourselves to face our past because our natural response to hurt is defending ourselves, to do that is to assume that God has not been working within us nor on that other person. Judah no doubt bore a sense of guilt for his actions from so many years ago and God’s timing has given him time to reflect about it. And remembering that this is the same Judah who was guilty of such terrible sin in earlier chapters (see Genesis 37–38), we grow to understand that God’s grace does not keep a record of wrongs but matures us in God’s ways and heart.

Friends, this morning I have led us through this story largely through the lens of the hurt of tossed away Joseph and I suspect many of us this morning identify with him in our own personal experiences. Someone, somewhere, at some time has been an offender to us.

But here is an inescapable truth for which we must contend: each of us have abandoned God, choosing our way over his way. Each of us, in our sinfulness, have been convinced that we know better and have sinned against the Holy God by doing what we thought to be of our own benefit and in our rejection and rebellion against God, we each stand guilty of our offenses against him. The fact that we have chosen ourselves over God is not in doubt. For matters of eternal significance, we are not Joseph in this story, we are Judah and the other brothers.

But the magnificence of the gospel is here in this passage. It is given to us as a foreshadow, a hope for the redemption we each desperately need for what we have done and cannot do a thing to fix by our own power. In the beauty of the gospel, we find hope. A hope that would restore us to the One whom we have offended in our sin. Jesus said,

John 15:13 ESV

13 Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends.

Judah exemplifies in Genesis 44 this greatest act of love. Just to show you the depth of how God’s love and grace truly does not keep a record of wrongs, if you turn to Matthew 1, you find a list of names that is a list of the patriarchs in the family tree of Jesus, if you will. Do you know who is in that family tree? Judah.

In exemplifying this greatest act of love, Judah was preparing the way and foreshadowing the character of his great descendant, Jesus himself, who would substitute himself not for one man but for all those who put their faith in him. What Judah said to Joseph, Jesus said to the Father: “I shall bear the blame” (44:32). Love compelled a brother to stand in place for his younger brother’s judgement, but God’s love compelled Jesus Christ to stand and bear the weight of sin for all time, paying the penalty for your sin and mine. “When I survey the wondrous cross, on which the Prince of Glory died, I find love so amazing, so divine.” The most magnificent substitution of human history occurred on an obscure hill outside Jerusalem, where Jesus pledged his own life for our sake (2 Cor. 5:21).

Application

How through faith in Jesus you should live now

Friend, have you trusted upon Christ for salvation? Has the Spirit of the Living God shone light into your being to make you confident that if men like Judah can be a part of Jesus’ family tree, that you too can be adopted by the Father through faith in the Son? Has God been chipping away at your heart of stone, softening it to receive the seed of faith? Is today the day of salvation for you? When Brother Scott comes to lead us, that will be your time to share with me what you sense God to be doing in your life.

Church, next Sunday is our first 5th Sunday Jubilee. I hope that between the announcements, TV screens with the slides, the emails, the newsletter, the mobile app, and now this word that you know that we will be coming together as one church family for fellowship and worship next Sunday. We will not meet for church at 8:30 and instead of Sunday school, during that 9:45 hour we will have a church-wide fellowship brunch where you are invited to bring a covered dish. Then at 11 we will come together to testify that we are a family of God serving Ephesians 4:5-6 “5 one Lord, one faith, one baptism, 6 one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all” when we observe the Lord’s supper together.

In the spirit of what God did in reconciling you and I to him through Jesus, and in the spirit of God’s grace working to mature the hearts of man so that brothers might be reconciled, would you consider inviting those you have not seen here in some time to church next week? They are not someone else’s thorn. We did not gain by their leaving. Somewhere along the way, the gospel standard was lost and our natural reaction to hide or run took over.

Can we be witnesses to the truth that is in the text before us? Have we been matured by grace in God’s way and heart? For if the Holy Spirit is working within us to make us more like Jesus, then allow me to close with this reminder:

2 Corinthians 5:18–20 ESV

18 All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation; 19 that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation. 20 Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God.

It’s easy to run someone down, to try to wipe them from the face of the earth. People are sinners, through and through. Sinful people are going to do sinful things to one another and especially against God. Considering the holiness of God and the offense of our sin against him, if we can be reconciled to Father through faith in Jesus Christ, who can we not be reconciled to?