Turn to Genesis 50. Genesis 50:22. Let’s read it, and trust that God uses it in our lives tonight. Joseph dwelt in Egypt, he and his father’s house. Joseph lived 110 years. Joseph saw Ephraim’s children to the third generation. The children of Micah, the son of Manasseh, were also brought up on Joseph’s knees. Joseph said to his brethren, “I am dying, but God will surely visit you and bring you out of this land, to the land of which he swore to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob.” Then, Joseph took an oath from the children of Israel saying, “God will surely visit you, and you shall carry up my bones from here.” Joseph died being 110 years old. They embalmed him. He was put in a coffin in Egypt.
Coming to the end of a series of studies as we do tonight is like saying goodbye to an old friend, isn’t it? It’s not something you wish. It’s not something you want. It’s just something you have to do. Our series on Joseph, after many months, has come to an end tonight. June’s dad, Gordon, in Scotland, has often commented to us that saying goodbye, which we’ve had to do with them and my own parents many times… Saying goodbye is a little like dying. That’s a true statement. Parting ways with someone or something that has been a good experience is never a good thing, and so it is in our studies in the life of Joseph tonight. This sermon is the capstone on the series.
Joseph has certainly proven to be a good friend. We really don’t want to part with our old friend Joseph. But as a good friend, like all good friends, he has left us better friends with God, hasn’t he? He’s encouraged our trust in God. He’s brought us to worship a God of sovereign care and sovereign control. His story has interested us. I think Joseph’s story is a captivating, compelling story. It’s the stuff a good action movie is made of. The cast of characters are engaging and interesting. The reality is raw. We connect with the betrayal and the temptation and all that Joseph went through, his disappointment in the prison, his waiting for a better day, and like all good movies, we’re left with a feel-good ending. That’s where Joseph ends with the sovereignty of God bringing him to a place of triumph and supremacy in Egypt. All things work together for good. In a theological sense, we have a happy ending here.
His story has interested us, and his steadfastness has inspired us. I mean, in adversity, he wasn’t soured, and in prosperity, he wasn’t spoiled. As James Montgomery Boyce, a commentator on Genesis, has noted: Joseph was a man for all seasons. He had a faith that overcame the world. He was more than a conqueror to borrow Paul’s expression in Romans 8. I think we’re attracted to this man. You would expect him to be crushed. You would expect his faith and trust in God to be pulverized and grounded down to nothing. But that’s not the case.
Joseph continues to trust God. Joseph’s trust in God triumphs over disappointment and over despair, over opposition, over evil perpetrated against him. His story has interested us. His steadfastness has inspired us to be more than conquerors through Christ who loves us. We can rest in the knowledge that all things work together for good. God can be trusted in the worst of times when you and I feel that life is caving in. Like old Spurgeon said, “Where you cannot trace the hand of God, you can trust the heart of God.”
Joseph has taught us that his story has interested us. His steadfastness has inspired us. This is a life that’s been worth looking into, hasn’t it? What we’re going to learn tonight in our capstone concluding study… that in death Joseph’s life continues to be interesting and instructive. We started to look at these verses towards the end of the book under the rubric of the matter of life and death. This is where the story of Joseph ends: with his burial, with his death. We sought to cover two aspects of the end of this man’s life a couple of studies ago. We looked at the matter of his life and the principle that governed it. We saw that the principle of Joseph’s life is Genesis 50:20. “But as for you, you mean it for evil against me, but God meant it for good.” The principle that governed his life was the trust he had in the sovereignty of God.
Joseph teaches us, and we all need to learn this, do we not? Someone needs to hear this again tonight. There is an upside to down. Maybe you’re on a downslide or a downslope in your life tonight and things are not what you want them to be. What’s the principle out of Joseph’s life? The big picture? The big principle is that God is sovereign and what people do to us… He does something with what they do to us. Even the evil can be turned to good. God is so sovereign. There’s such a thing as a good-bad. There’s such a thing as a good-bad, so much so that James can tell us, the half-brother of the Lord Jesus, that you can count it all joy when you fall into various trials because you know that the testing of your faith will produce something if you’ll let God work in you and through you by all that’s going on around you. That’s the principle of his life. There is an upside to down.
We saw that in the light of God’s sovereignty, we should never underestimate the influence of the individual. We should never throw away the importance of the incidental. If you miss that message, you can get the CD recording. But God alone can make Good Fridays into Easter Sundays. God alone would remind us that our darkest moments are but short corridors to “barn house” that lead to sunlit rooms. Some of us are in those corridors, and we need to hold onto the reality that there is an upside to dying.
I think I’ve told you before the story of Churchill, one of my heroes, that after the Second World War, he lost favor with the British people. They saw him as a wartime general and leader, not a peacetime builder. He was unceremonially kicked out of office. He struggled with that. His wife Clementine, trying to encourage him, said after that incident to him, one day, “You know what, Winston? Maybe it’s a blessing in disguise.” Winston replied in a surly response: “Well, if it’s a blessing in disguise, it’s well disguised.”
That’s often the case, isn’t it? It’s often the case in life. God intends to bless us while others intend to curse us. Sometimes that blessing is so well disguised, we don’t have the faith to see it. Yet, God would teach us the principle of this man’s life is trust in the sovereignty of God. We’re looking at the matter of life and death. We’ve looked at Joseph’s life. The principle of his life is God’s sovereign control of the affairs of his people. But let’s move on to the prospect of his death. In this, we’ll see the hope that you and I find through trusting in the promises of God’s Word that brings us to hopeful expectation.
Let’s pick up then here in verse 22. Joseph dwelt in Egypt, he and his father’s household. Joseph lived 110 years. In verse 24, we read, “And Joseph said to his brethren, ‘I am dying.'” We’re right at the end of the story. The last chapter, now, is being written. The last few lines of this man’s life are being added. “I am dying.”
The man who had saved thousands from death, like we’ll all find, ultimately cannot save himself from death. The Bible is very clear about the inevitability of death. It comes to kings. It comes to subjects. It comes to the great. It comes to the small. It comes to all of us that is appointed unto man. One’s to die. It’s one of the great inevitabilities of life. There are a few things that are certain in life. Taxes and death certainly qualify for that category. Joseph is now coming to that moment. Like his father before him and his father’s father before him, Joseph’s moment for facing death has come.
You and I would want to be cognizant of that fact tonight, that, indeed, even in living, we are dying. You and I must face the prospect of our own deaths. In fact, the Book of Genesis says… John Phillips, in his commentary on Genesis, “It’s one vast graveyard, one great handbook of funeral sermons, one long obituary. We have stood,” he says, “by the mutilated corpse of Abel. We have read the register of births and deaths in chapter five and attended the burial of a race in the flood. We have been to the funeral services of Abraham, Sarah, Isaac, and Ishmael. We have wept with Jacob at Rachel’s tomb. We have missed this one and that.”
Where’s Rebecca? Where’s Tara? Where’s Lot? Always the answer comes. They’re dead. Because it’s in Genesis we learn what Paul will teach us in the book of Romans, “By one man’s sin death entered the world, and death passed upon all men. Here, we have, right at the end of this book, another funeral service, another funeral sermon. We are reminded of the inevitability of death. It’s a good thing to live with your death in mind. It adds depth and definition. It adds importance and impetus to all that you do.
In fact, I had a pastoral friend back in Northern Ireland who told me of a friend of his who was called by a certain lady in his church, the daughter of an old man who was seriously ill. She anticipated the demise of her father, so she began to make funeral arrangements. But it was all a little early because he rallied, and there was no funeral. He lived for some time after that. Many months after that, the pastor engaged this girl in a conversation and almost laughed at the fact that they were ready to bury this man. Supposedly, the daughter replied, “Pastor, that old man of mine wouldn’t oblige anybody.” Well, that aside, death is obligatory for all of us apart from the return of Jesus.
As looking at Joseph’s life, I think we want to be instructed as we look at Joseph’s death. The principle of his life/the prospect of his death. Now, there’s two things: his belief and his burial. But before we even get there, here’s what I want you to note. This is important. Go over with me to Hebrews 11. Hebrews 11 is being called the Westminster Abbey of the Bible. Here, we have a list of those who died in faith, who trusted in God, who believed to see that which, as of yet, had not been seen because faith is a substance of things hoped for/the evidence of things not seen.
Joseph makes the register. Joseph makes the roster. But what’s interesting… Of all the events in his life that might exemplify and express faith, it’s his death that gets a mention in Hebrews 11. You notice that. Go to Hebrews 11:22. By faith Joseph, when he was dying… They cut out his whole life as interesting and as intriguing as his life is. It’s an amazing story. It’s the stuff Hollywood movies are made of. At many great junctures in his life, his faith in God was expressed in a marvelous way that certainly would bear mentioning in the chapter like Hebrews 11. But no. It’s his death.
When he was dying… made mention of the departure of the children of Israel and gave instructions concerning his bones. I think that’s interesting. The crowning expression of his faith was not in life but in death. Is that not true? When it comes to our death, that needs to be the moment we express that crowning faith in Jesus Christ, and the promises of God Word, and the expectation of the hope we find in God.
It is striking. I mean, you and I could stop the DVD at any point in the story of this guy’s life and say, “Wow. What faith! Overcoming fear, triumphant fear, fear that doesn’t stagger in the face of opposition.” But actually, the DVDs wind forward right to the end. The Bible says, “Hey, he was a man of faith and, most especially, at the moment of his death,” which brings us then to look at his belief and his burial. A couple of I think very helpful things will come out of this.
Okay. Let’s acknowledge his belief. What is his belief? We might change that to hope or expectation. Joseph died with a certain expectation. He was going to be initially buried in Egypt. But he knew the rest of the story. He had heard from his father and from his grandfather. The Bible isn’t clear about this, but there’s every reason to believe that Joseph probably, as a boy, lived towards the tail end of his grandfather’s life, Isaac. He may have heard this directly from Isaac. But we’ll not conjecture too much. He certainly heard it from his father Jacob. It was that there was a land promised to the people of God, to the descendants of Abraham. We read about that in Genesis 13 as God promises Abraham a land. That is reiterated and reinforced to Isaac in Genesis 26 and then it is reinforced to Jacob in Genesis 28. There’s also, in between the prophesying of those promises, looking forward to that prospect, this acknowledgment that, for a time, before that all comes to fulfillment and fruition, the people of God will sojourn in a land of strangers.
Okay. Go back with me to Genesis 15, as God speaks to Abraham, the very years that Joseph will spend in Egypt along with his brothers. Remember, we said at the beginning of this whole series that one of the roles of Joseph’s life is to build a bridge between Genesis and Exodus. In Genesis 15:13, here’s what we read. “Then he said to Abram, ‘Know certainly that your descendants will be strangers in a land that is not theirs and will serve them, and they will afflict them 400 years. And also, the nation whom they serve, I will judge afterward. They shall come out with great possessions.'” There’s a prophecy of the Exodus. Okay. Genesis ends with Joseph’s death.
Exodus begins with when a Pharaoh grew up who knew not Joseph. The good years are coming to an end. Israel has grown in the land of Goshen. Remember, we saw the providence of God, that they were given the land of Goshen right on the border of Egypt so that when the Exodus takes place, they’re out of there fast. But God knew all that was going to happen and so did Joseph. He had heard it from his father who’d heard it from his grandfather, who’d heard it from his great-grandfather.
Joseph dies with this belief, and he expresses it here. “I’m dying,” verse 24 of Genesis 50. “But God will surely visit you and bring you out of this land to the land of which he swore to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob,” parenthesis, “my father.” Joseph took an oath from the children of Israel saying, “God will surely visit you, and you shall carry up my bones from here.” In fact, Jacob gives a hint of this, doesn’t he? In Genesis 48:21, “Then Israel or Jacob said to Joseph, ‘Behold, I am dying, but God will be with you and bring you back to the land of your fathers.'”
Jacob expresses belief at the moment of his death. He has spent 93 years of his 110 years in Egypt, but he knows that’s not going to be his final resting place. He expresses a belief in the promise of God. He’s buried with that belief. He’s buried expressing that confidence that God will visit. You see this verb twice in verse 24 and verse 25. It’s a strong verb in the Hebrew text. It speaks of divine intervention. Where you find it, especially in the Pentateuch, it’s talking about God’s intervention for the sake of blessing or cursing. You’re either going to be visited with blessing, or you’re going to be visited with cursing.
In the best of circumstances, as Israel obeys God, God will visit them, bless them, and curse their enemies. That’s what he’s going to do with the Egyptians. We’ve already read that prophecy. God’s going to judge the land of the strangers, and Joseph sees it coming. God’s going to visit, intervene, bless you, curse them, and you’re getting out of here after 400 years. Now, they lose sight of that because they’re very hesitant to take Moses and all of that, but Joseph certainly had not lost sight of it. He’s buried with this belief.
Let me just say something about his burial. Look at it in verse 26. Joseph died being 110 years old. They embalmed him. They put him in a coffin. The embalming process… In a sense, he was mummified. The Egyptians were good at this. It probably involved his internal organs being cut out of his body and the cavities and crevices of his body being filled with ointment and spices. Then, his body would’ve been smeared over with a gummy residue or substance. He may have been wrapped in some gauze or cloth. Then, it says he’s embalmed and put in a coffin.
The Hebrew word here is aron. Interestingly, it’s used of the Ark of the Covenant. Don’t be thinking of a pine box. Don’t be thinking of Joseph just being buried in a basic white shirt. Remember, this is the death of a man of great importance in the land of Egypt. He’s buried, I would say, to some degree with some state fanfare. He’s embalmed, and then he’s probably put in this ornate coffin. Don’t be thinking pine box. Think of a sarcophagus, something like a chest or a box. The same word is going to be used for the Ark of the Covenant.
I don’t know where Joseph’s sarcophagus sits. It’s unlikely it was buried in the ground. It may have sat in different places. One would want to believe that during the time of imprisonment, and slavery, and bondage because that’s coming. Exodus 1. Joseph knows it’s coming, and he makes them swear. “Hey, when the Exodus comes, remember to take me out of here.” But to some degree, Joseph’s bones would’ve been a constant reminder to them in the dark days, and the despairing times, and the disappointing times that the sons of Jacob had been promised a Promised Land. He died with that belief. It seems that the people of God, at times, lost sight of that. Maybe the sight of his coffin, his box, his chest, would remind them that here’s a man who died in the belief that God would honor his promises to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob and that the people of God mustn’t lose their faith, their confidence, or their expectation of God.
One would want to believe that Joseph’s grave or the burial site or wherever it was resurrected the spirit of the Hebrew people at times. Remember, there’ll be hundreds of years before God anoints Moses. In the absence of a spokesman, you’d want to believe that this coffin spoke. It became an echo chamber for the voice of God saying, “Remember what I taught Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob? Remember what Joseph said? Hey, bury me here. But you know what? This isn’t my final resting place nor yours, your sojourners, aliens, and strangers. We’re getting out of here someday. The good times will become bad times, but it won’t stay bad. You’re going to get out of this place with great possessions.” Genesis 15.
That’s exactly what happens in Exodus 13:19. Moses remembers Joseph’s oath and the promise that they had made to him and the prospect that he had sat before them. In Exodus 13:19, we read, “And Moses took the bones of Joseph with him. For he had placed the children of Israel under Solomon saying, ‘God will surely visit you, and you shall carry up my bones from here with you.'”
The takeaway/the point we’re now getting to… It’s simply this man died in faith. Life didn’t rob him of his fear, which is a staggering thing when you consider all that he went through, and death wasn’t the end of his faith. We look at his death, and we see his belief. And you know what? It’s a challenge to us. Do we believe God the way Joseph believed God? Are we allowing our confidence in his word and the promises of God, which are yes, and amen, and the Lord Jesus Christ? Are we allowing unbelief to rob us of those promises? Are we allowing circumstances to cause us to second guess what God has said is a sure thing?
In Romans 4:20, we read of Joseph’s, what we would say, great, great-grandfather, Abraham. You know what that says of Abraham? “He staggered not at the promises of God,” neither did Joseph. Neither did Joseph. This living faith was passed down the generations. They lived in the good of the covenant, and the immutability of God’s character, and the sureness of his promises based on the faithfulness of his character.
The word stagger there means to wobble or waver or go side to side. Abraham didn’t wobble. In fact, F.F. Bruce said he believed, I love this, the bare Word of God. That’s what it means. That’s what Abraham… He didn’t stagger at the promise of God. He believed the bare Word of God. Is that where we’re at tonight in a unbelieving, sophisticated, multicultural society, not unlike Egypt? Are we bold enough and brave enough to just believe the bare Word of God?
It is forever settled in heaven. We can live by it. We can die by it. That’s what Joseph wants to challenge us about. He was a man who died believing God’s Word. He was a man who lived obeying God’s Word. In fact, let me go on a little excursion and finish this thought up. According to Victor Hamilton in his commentary on Genesis, later Jewish tradition did not miss the parallel between Joseph being placed in an aron, a chest, and the two tablets of the Decalogue being placed in the aron, the chest.
Okay. Deuteronomy 10:5 talks about the Ark of the Covenant being an aron, a chest. Same word we read here of Joseph’s coffin. All this time in the desert, Israel carried two shrines with them. The Exodus… 400 years on, it happens. They get out of Egypt. God gives them the law in Sinai. Joseph predates the law. God gives them the law. It’s put in what? The chest, the aron. They carry it through their sojourn towards the Promised Land. But what also are they carrying? They’re carrying Joseph’s bones in a box, in a chest, in something that’s not unlike the Ark of the Covenant.
Jewish tradition says this: “All this time in the desert, Israel carried two shrines with them. The one, the coffin containing the bones of the dead man, Joseph, and the other, the Ark containing the covenant of the living God.” The two wayfarers who saw the two receptacles wondered and they would ask, “How doth the Ark of the dead come next to the Ark of the ever-living one?” Here’s what Jewish tradition presupposes. The dead man enshrined in the one fulfilled the commandments enshrined in the other. It’s a good thought. It’s not biblical. It’s extra-biblical in a sense, but it’s a thought.
Joseph predated the Decalogue. He didn’t have the 10 commandments, but he surely lived in the light of them when he’s confronted with Potiphar’s wife. “Lie with me.” “I can’t do that. You’re another man’s wife. I’m not going to commit adultery. Neither am I going to covet another man’s wife.” He lived a Decalogue. He lived in the obedience of God’s Word, and he died in the confidence of God’s Word. May God make us not unlike him. In his death, Joseph exhibited a living faith in the never dying Word of God. Hebrews 11:22. We read it. Doesn’t talk about his life. Talks about his death and how he told his descendants that God would fulfill his Word and take them out of Egypt.
Am I speaking to someone tonight whose faith has been shaken? Are you less confident in God’s goodness tonight? Oh, wounded brother, wobbling sister, take a look at this man. The principle of his life is that there is an upside to dying. The prospect of his death is that you and I can trust the Word in life and die in its comfort and in its confidence also.
J. Oswald Sanders says, “Faith enables the believing soul to treat the future as present and the invisible as seen.” Is that you and me? Let me say that again. “Faith enables the believing soul to treat the future as present and the invisible as seen.” That’s exactly what Joseph did. Bury me, but 400 years from now, you make sure you take me out of this place,” because that’s exactly what’s going to happen. I’m seeing what’s invisible. I’m believing what’s yet future.
Perhaps our faith will not be rewarded for many years. But are you willing still to be faithful, as in the case of Joseph? Are you willing to keep on praying despite the prayer being unanswered at the moment? Are you willing to go on sowing the Word and evangelistic conversation, or in street preaching, or whatever means by which you and I can spread the Word? Are you willing to keep on sowing and watering despite little growth waiting on God to give the increase? Is there a situation you’re still waiting to see changed, a prayer you’re still waiting to see answered, a friend or family member still waiting to see saved? Then don’t stagger the promises of God. Faith enables us to believe, to treat the future as present and the invisible as seen.
No one probably exemplified this better than George Mueller. If you grew up in Britain, as we did, he’s one of the heroes of the British church. George Mueller was brethren. Expressed a faith in God’s Word just like F.F. Bruce said. He believed in the bare Word of God. He started orphanages in England to bring in street kids, and orphans, and those in trouble. He prayed in thousands of dollars worth of help. I mean, there’s story after story when he was down to his last bottle of milk [inaudible 00:32:32]… Milkman’s carts would break down a street away. The milk would spoil without refrigeration. The milkman would bring the milk to the orphanage and say, “Can you use this?” “Can I use this? I just prayed for it.”
George Mueller was known as a man of faith. Listen to this. Hang in with this story. It’s good. He declared in his 75th year that in his 54 years as a believer, God had answered at least 30,000 answers to prayer on the same day he prayed it. 30,000. But he was quick to add that that was not always the case. He went on to talk about having to wait for weeks, or months, or years. In one particular situation, he prayed for something and brought it to the Lord on a daily basis 20,000 times until some 11 years later, God saw fit in the fullness of assurance of faith toward Mueller to bless him with an answer to prayer.
He also went on, in his 75th year, to talk about how there were prayers yet unanswered. He talked about five individuals that he’d been praying for, for years, for their conversion every day without exception on land or on sea. Regardless of the pressure of his engagements, he would pray. He said it was a year and a half before the first one was saved. It was five years before the second one was saved, and it was six years before the third one was saved. The other two remain unsaved for many more years. In fact, the fourth one was saved just, I believe, a year and a half before Mueller’s death. The fifth one was saved six years after his death. He died with an unanswered prayer on his lips, but he died in faith, believing the providence and the promises of God. According to our research, the man that ultimately came to faith in the Lord Jesus Christ had been prayed for for 54 years and wasn’t saved until that 60th year after the first prayer was uttered. That is staggering not at the promises of God.
Do you see his belief? Secondly, do you see his burial? Do you see his burial? Joseph was buried in Egypt. Let’s get back to Genesis 50. Joseph died, verse 26, being 110 years old. They embalmed him. He was put in a coffin in Egypt. He was buried in Egypt, but he expected, as we’ve just seen, his descendants to move back to the Promised Land. His own father Jacob had said that… We read it again in Genesis 48:21. “Then Israel said to Joseph, ‘Behold, I’m dying, but God will be with you and bring you back to the land of your fathers.'” Joseph had said here twice, “God will visit you. He will intervene, and you will return to the place promised to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. What you’ve got to do is take my body with you. Take my body with you.” That’s exactly what they did.
We read in Exodus 13. Moses did that. If you go to Joshua 24 when the people of God get into the land and begin to settle down… We read in Joshua 24:32 that they buried Joseph as he had asked. We read in verse 32, the bones of Joseph, which the children of Israel had brought up out of Egypt, they buried at Shechem. He dies in the belief that someday God will intervene and bring him and his descendants back to the land forsworn to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. His burial takes place with that expectation in mind.
Although he’s buried in Egypt, he expects someday to be re-interned in the Promised Land. What’s the point? We’re getting to this point a lot quicker than the other one. But the point is this: he lived 93 years in Egypt, but Egypt never lived in him. You get that. He was in Egypt, but Egypt was never in him. I mean, remember he’s second-in-command to Pharaoh. He’s in the upper echelons of Egyptian power and government. But while he’s in Egypt, Egypt’s never in him. He bore an Egyptian title. He married an Egyptian wife. He bore Egyptian children. He lived in Egypt 93 years, but he never became part of the establishment, and the order, and the lifestyle of that nation.
Listen to these words by Alexander Maclaren, the great English Baptist pastor of Manchester. “He filled his place at Pharaoh’s court, but his dying words open a window into his soul and betray how little he had felt that he belonged to the order of the things in the midst of which he had been content to live.” I think that’s tremendous. He was no less a pilgrim than Abraham had been, although he didn’t travel as much as Abraham did. But while he was a resident geographically, he was a pilgrim spiritually.
Guys, you’re going to put me in a coffin in Egypt, but you promise me when God visits, you’ll take out of this place. He was reminding them that they were indeed strangers in a land. We read about that back in Genesis 15, that that’s indeed… that they would sojourn for 400 years in a strange land. Then, God said to Abraham, “Know certainly that your descendants will be strangers in a land.” That’s how the Israelites are described in Acts 13:17, again, that they dwell as strangers in the land of Egypt.
The fear that Joseph had for himself, I think he had for them. He didn’t want to settle down in Egypt. He didn’t want them to settle down in Egypt. I’m sure, as we’ve just said, I don’t know whether he hoped, but in practical terms, his coffin indeed spoke in the absence of prophets. “Hey, this is not the final chapter. This is not the end of the story. This is not what it’s about. We’re getting out of here someday. Make sure you live with that in mind.” Even during those years of servitude and bondage, that should have brought hope to them. But they kept forgetting that and falling back. Even when they get out onto the road, they want to go back to what? The lakes and the garlics of Egypt. Hopefully, the coffin of Joseph was a rebuke to that.
But the point I want to make for you and I is that, to borrow the words of John, Joseph was in Egypt, but Egypt was not in Joseph. Joseph realized that where he was, he was not going to be there always. Is that not something you and I need to be reminded of tonight? Do you realize that you and I are aliens and strangers? Go to 1 Peter 2:11. This’ll just rifle it home. Plain words of an apostle/disciple of Jesus Christ, 1 Peter 2:11, where Peter describes that we are strangers and sojourners. “Beloved, I beg you as sojourners and pilgrims abstain from fleshly lusts, which war against the spirit, having your conduct honorable among the Gentiles, that when they speak evil against you as evildoers, they may, by your good works which they observe, glorify God in the day of visitation.
You and I are not to be permanent residents of this world. We are, according to Paul in his letter to the Philippians in 3:20, “But we are citizens of heaven who look for the sun to return, to change our vile and weak bodies into a glorious body like onto his.” Citizens of heaven. Think about this. I want you to write this down and think about it. We are not citizens of Earth trying to get to heaven. We are citizens of heaven trying to get through Earth. I don’t think we’ve got that. I don’t think that’s what marks us and motivates us on a daily basis. I’ve been taking myself to the woodshed over this.
Am I becoming too comfortable in this culture? Am I settling down? Do I forget that I’m destined for another land, another life, another world, that I’m an alien and a sojourner and I’ve got to live like that? Joseph did. While he was in Egypt, Egypt was never in him. He was always looking for that promise and died, like those in Hebrews 11, not seeing it but believing it. Believing is seeing in that sense, for faith believes in the evidence of things not yet seen.
I think that’s a challenge to you and I. It’s the status that actually June and I are in right now. We are, right at this moment, citizens of the United Kingdom. We’re passport holders of the United Kingdom. We’re hoping to start our citizenship for this country in the next few months. But technically, here’s our status in the United States. We filled the consensus out, which… I don’t know, I got recently. You did the census for 2010. We’ll have to put down, we are resident aliens but citizens of the United Kingdom. We’ve got green cards. We’re here legally, but we’re not permanent residents. We are resident aliens. We’re going to have to transfer our allegiance. We’re going to have to start really celebrating the 4th of July, which is a tough thing. I’ve always really struggled with the 4th of July because, at this moment, I’m still a red coat. The Union Jack still warms the cockles of my heart or whatever the case might be. But we’re working on it. We’re working on it.
We’re beginning to settle down. Sometimes, June chastises me. I’m changing my vocabulary and pronouncing my words a little bit different. It’s all a sign that we’re settling down. We’ve gone through a lot of things. Remember, during the First Gulf War, we wanted to show support for our troops and what we felt was a rightness of a just cause. We wanted to put the two flags out because Britain was and still is America’s best ally in the fight against terrorism. Wanted to fly the Star Spangled Banner. Wanted to fly the Union Jack. I learned one day talking to my brother-in-law, Robert in Riverside. He said, “Hey, don’t make the mistake I did.” He says, “I flew those two flags at the same level. One of my neighbors came and said, ‘You can’t do that. That’s illegal. If you’re going to fly this flag, the United Kingdom’s got to be under the flag of the United States.'” I flew it under a half an inch, but I learned that.
I’m beginning to submit to the ways here. We’ve got to make that. We were born in one country. Now, we’re living in another. For our sake, for your sake, for our good, this is our home. If it is, then we will love this country’s history, and honor this country’s laws, and support this country’s causes. That’s okay for me and June right now, but that’s not good for you and me spiritually. We have got to remain resident aliens and not swap citizenship. Our citizenship is in heaven. We mustn’t become citizens of earth.
I think those things we have to fight all the time. Brothers, you are sojourners and aliens. Abstain from fleshly lusts. It’s so easy to get caught up in the politics of this world, so easy to get drawn into the pleasures of this world, the commerce of this world, the fashion of this world. But the fashion of this world… When Paul uses that statement, he’s not talking about skirts, and trousers, and blouses, and shirts. He’s talking about the way this world lives. The fashion of this world is what? It’s passing away. This is a temporary order. Man will have his small day. But Jesus will return, and the kingdoms of this world will become the kingdoms of our God and Savior. There’ll only be one flag flying someday. No other flag. There’ll be one king and one kingdom.
We know that’s going to happen. We believe it’s going to happen, but are we living it like Joseph lived out his belief in his burial and said, “Hey, I’m in Egypt, but Egypt’s not in me. There’s another order. There’s another land. There’s another king. I want to live in the light of that”? We’ve got to be strangers, although, let me finish here, strangers without being strange.
Alistair Begg says this in his commentary or actually his book on Joseph. “Peter says we’re aliens and strangers in this world. There are several ways we could go about this business as living as aliens and strangers. We could buy ourselves togas and sandals. We could put flowers in our hair. We could drop out of society. We could condemn all those dull people who wear business suits and go to work every day, or we could do something else to mark ourselves as eccentric. But the far harder thing is to drive the same kind of car, wear the same kind of clothes, shop in the same stores, and go to the same schools as the people around us and yet live in a way that marks us not as weird but as distinctly belonging to Jesus Christ.” That’s good stuff.
Being a stranger doesn’t mean you’re strange. You don’t have to be odd for God. But what distinguishes us? We can have fun. We can visit the beach. We can go to the mall. But I hope we go with a different attitude. I hope we dress differently at the beach. “I hope we act in different ways in commerce or in the pursuit of pleasure because we are citizens of heaven, and we mustn’t settle down,” to quote Alistair Begg again.
When June and I were deciding to come to the United States, we talked to our friend Dr. MacArthur about the move. Unbeknownst to us, Alistair Begg was preaching in Northern Ireland. This is a good 14 years ago. John alerted me to that fact. I didn’t know Alistair. I’d heard of him. He said, “Why don’t you try and get a hold of Alistair? Mention my name and see if he won’t sit down with you and talk about what it’s like to cross the pond and leave the United Kingdom for the United States and the things you’re going to face.”
Alistair graciously gave us an evening. We met him for dinner on the North Antrim Coast of Northern Ireland. We sat down. We talked about those transitions. He really helped us. One of the things I remember… This came to my mind again today as I was reading my notes and getting ready for tonight. I remember Alistair said this: “Look, you don’t have to do this, but I had to do it.” He says, “I’m Scottish to the bone.” He said but his wife’s from Michigan. He says, “When I was making the move to Cleveland,” he said, “I made it a rule, and I covenanted with myself that I wouldn’t go back to Scotland for four years. I had to make the break. I had to settle in a new country and a new lifestyle, new customs, and new commitments.”
That was good advice. We want to apply it in the reverse. We don’t want to be settling down here. The world wants us to settle down here and to break our connections with the homeland where our citizenship is. You and I have got to fight that. We have got to stay in touch with the homeland. We should be thinking about it often. We should be reading about it. I mean, that’s some of the things that we have been doing. While we certainly are making that transition, it’s hard for us to forget about family/forget about friends. We lived the balance of our life in another country. We’ll play its music in our car, in our home. We’ll talk to friends back home on the phone. We’ll get onto the BBC online and find out what’s going on in the homeland. What we do to stay in touch with home probably carries over into our Christian life.
We’ve got to be thinking about heaven. Have you been reading about heaven recently? Do you understand what that land’s going to be like and the life we’re going to live? Make a start maybe with Randy Alcorn’s book, Heaven. It’s a phenomenal book. Be talking to our Father in heaven, staying in touch with the homeland. Play its music. Sing its songs. Once in a while, June and I like to get out with her brother or just British friends/be in the company of people from the homeland. It stirs up memories, and we share that camaraderie. Same with Christians. Isn’t that why we meet on the Lord’s day as citizens of heaven of another land, thinking about that homeland and all that it means to us and all that someday we will enjoy?
“We meet…” It says in Hebrews 10, “meet together. Don’t forsake the assembly, so much the more as you see the day approaching.” We’re going home. Stay in touch with the homeland. Think about the homeland. Spend time with people from the homeland. That will keep you from settling down and making the break that God doesn’t want us to make, but the world wants us to make. Well, we’re saying goodbye to an old friend, Joseph. Like all good friends, he’s made us a better friend of God.
Let’s pray. Lord, we thank you for our studies in the life of Joseph. We see his predominance in the Book of Genesis. More is written about him than Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob. His is a story you’ve wanted to tell because his is a life worth looking into. Lord, we thank you for the principle of his life that there is an upside to dying, that our worst day, that our worst experience can be but the harbinger of some of the best years of our life if we’re willing to trust you, submit to you, and let you lead us through the darkness and into the light.
Thank you for his death marked out by the Hebrew writer as the crowning moment of his faith. Thank you for his belief. Sturdy. Steadfast. Thank you for his burial reminding us that oh God, we belong to another time. We belong to another place. We belong to another king. Oh, God, help us this week to not be so saddled. Lord, maybe we need to give up some stuff. Maybe we need to simplify. Maybe we need to give more stuff away. Maybe we need to do certain things that remind us that… You know what? It’s not about now. It’s about then. Forgive us for becoming so time-trapped, so caught up in the affairs of the United States or the United Kingdom that we forget about the kingdom of the everlasting God. The kingdom that will last forever. Help us to live with that kingdom in mind, its lifestyle, its expansion, and everybody said amen.