Saved By Great Deliverance

Sermon Text  Genesis 45

Title:  Joseph Makes Him Self Known

Textual Theme:  God brings Joseph deeply forgive his brothers.

Goal:  to encourage the people of the time that Joseph would was the one through whom the blessing of God passed through the generations.

Need:  In times of trouble, the Israelites would have doubted that God was going to bless them and stay faithful to his promises.

Sermon Theme:  God brings his people to deeply forgive those who wrong them.

Goal:  to encourage Christians to forgive as Christ forgave.

Need:  We often are wronged by others but avoid seeing how we can deeply forgive them.

Sermon Outline:

1. Introduction:  Refusing to forgive leads to destruction.
2. Point 1:  Joseph reaches the breaking point
3. Point 2:  Joseph allows himself to be vulnerable before his brothers.
4. Point 3:  Joseph deeply forgives his brothers.
5. Point 4:  Christ forgave deeply in the same way.
6. Point 5:  We must forgive deeply
7. Conclusion:  Nail it shut!

Sermon In Oral Style,

Congregation,

          It must be awfully frustrating to be the God of human beings.  We don’t learn very quickly, do we? 

          If any of you are or were parents, isn’t it frustrating when you have to correct your kids over and over again for doing the same bad things.  You can’t just tell them once and have them remember the lesson.  They do the same things wrong over and over again. 

          Too bad we don’t grow out of that.  Unless some one here has figured out the trick to becoming totally perfect all the time, I think we all go through those cycles.  We do something wrong, we suffer the consequences, we promise we are never going to do it again.  We might be okay for a couple of weeks, or months, or years.  But sometimes we fall back into that pattern again.  We just don’t learn.

          Even if we did learn, think about it from the perspective of a God that is watching over humans from one generation to the next.  That generation got close to figuring it out.  Then the next one messes it all up again.  World War 1, the war to end all wars because everyone learned their lessons was only done 2 decades before the world started into the second world war.

          We just don’t seem to get it.

          We haven’t figured out this whole forgiveness thing very well either.  What year is it.  2007.  2 thousand and 7 years of being reminded from the words and life of Christ that we need to be forgiving others.  And before that, already in the life of Joseph.  What is that… 1500 years before Christ? 

You see what I mean.  It has to be frustrating to be the God of human beings.  3500 years of the same message, FORGIVE.  Still we don’t do it.  We hold grudges against loved ones who wronged us.  We get revenge on spouses that haven’t treated us right.  We spite old friends who did one stupid little thing to us.

The story of jenny comes to mind.  Jenny was a little bit overweight and not very popular at school.  For the years at school she was tormented by one popular girl and her friends.  She held that with her for years and years and years.  She even could trace very easily how her failures as an adult still went back to what this girl and her friends did to her in school as kids. 

But she couldn’t give it up.  She held it in her.  She didn’t confront them.  She didn’t come to any better place.  She just couldn’t forgive. 

Nothing good can come out of NOT forgiving.  But we keep doing it, and haven’t learned the lesson that we hear from this story of Joseph. 

This 3500 year old story of forgiveness that is written down to make us better.

The last chapter leaves off at the high point of the action.  If this were a reality TV show about the sons of Jacob, this is where the directors would put in the tense music, and do the quick flashes from person to person.  Judah has just said he can’t go back to his Father without Benjamin, or it will kill their father.  Instead, he offers himself instead of Benjamin.

Let me be your servant instead…. Will Joseph accept this proposal from his brother.  Will Jacob’s life be spared?  Will Joseph turn on his family?  You won’t want to miss it… Its coming up next.

So its with all that built up tension that we are coming into the next chapter.  And unlike reality TV, there is real tense emotion for Joseph as he comes to the point of deciding what to do.  For the third time he breaks out in a rush of tears. 

Can you put yourself in the shoes of Joseph.  Can you imagine what those tears must have been like.  That mixture of joy, sadness, relief all mixed together.  He knows before he bursts into tears that he is going to tell his brothers everything.  Even though they have met each other many times since Joseph has become second in command of Egypt, he is finally ready to reveal who he is.  He’s ready finally for the reunion of the brothers that really were bitter enemies before.  He’s ready for real reconciliation.  Real forgiveness.

He can’t let the others in the kingdom know that he is a Hebrew.  Egyptians weren’t even allowed to eat with Hebrews.  They were lower class compared to the powerful Egyptians.  He shoos everyone else away and shows his brothers who he really is.

This takes a great amount of vulnerability on Joseph’s part.  To open himself up.  He could have just hidden behind the mask of the Egyptian ruler that he was now.  But for the sake of being reconciled to his brothers, he was willing to put down the image and reveal who he really was. 

What is one of the biggest reasons we decide not to forgive the person who has wronged us?  It is pride and protection of self.  We don’t forgive because forgiving looks weak.  Holding a grudge looks strong and powerful.  We don’t want to be weak and vulnerable when someone has hurt us. 

We like to pretend we are like a snail that has crawled into a shell.  We are safe as long as we never crawl out.  The trouble is, if we never crawl out of that shell, we can never grow beyond the size the shell lets us be.  Every time  a snail grows bigger it leaves itself wide open for attack as it finds a new home. 

We can’t let our pride and protection do the same to us.  If there is someone we need to forgive…. Let your self be vulnerable.  Let yourself be open to being hurt if things go badly.  Be vulnerable so that you can forgive.  Its only when we allow ourselves to be vulnerable that we can climb into a new shell.  We can  grow into people that dare to forgive, dare to be weak for reconciliation.

Of course the brothers are scared out of the mind when they see that it is Joseph.  But Joseph tries to comfort them right away.  Verse   5 And now, do not be distressed and do not be angry with yourselves for selling me here, because it was to save lives that God sent me ahead of you.[1] And then verse 8, “8 “So then, it was not you who sent me here, but God. [2]

This isn’t about making the brothers pay for what they did wrong, or apologize for the things that they put Joseph through.  Joseph has grown from a cocky young kid wearing the special robe from his father, to a humble, perceptive and godly man.  He sees God’s hand in it all.  The theme of Joseph’s life, God planned it and God did it for everyone’s good.

God works the good in the specific way of forgiveness in this chapter.  Joseph could have finished the feud with his brothers once and for all.  He could have had all of Leah’s children killed, then he, Benjamin, and his Father could be together in Egypt without the rest of them.

Instead, he shows deep forgiveness to his brothers.  Deep forgiveness.  Not just any forgiveness what so ever.  This isn’t bandaid forgiveness until the next time someone messes up.  Or bandaid forgiveness that patches things up until the next family get together.  He offers deep forgiveness.

Listen to this: to the brothers that tried to kill him he promises that they may return with their father and enjoy all the riches Egypt with him.  And Pharaoh adds blessing upon blessing on them.  Supplies for their pilgrimage to Egypt, animals, food.  Everything they could possibly want.  Joseph doesn’t stand in the way of any of this.  He has forgiven his brothers.  He has allowed himself to be vulnerable and he has given deep forgiveness.

Who are you waiting to forgive?  Is it possible that you don’t want to forgive because you don’t want to back down and appear vulnerable?  Who has God placed in your life that you could change the life of forever by dropping your pride, and blessing them with forgiveness that can only come by the help of the Holy Spirit.  That’s deep forgiveness that we are called to.  Go and do it.

          We commit ourselves to forgive every time we say the Lord’s Prayer.  When we say the Lord’s prayer and say, forgive us our debts, as we have forgiven our debtors, are we committing ourselves to the deep love and forgiveness that Christ would have expected from us.  If we are forgiving deeply, we can expect God to forgive us in the deepest ways as well. 

          In fact, that is actually the heart of this story of forgiveness.  Joseph is a hero, but Christ is an even bigger hero.  What Joseph does for his brothers is a good example of forgiveness for us.  But it is just a foretaste of what Christ would do.  Our evil put Christ on the cross.  Our curse put Christ in the grave.  And through all that we put Christ through, God uses it to rescue us, to forgive us, and then to bless us.

          We are deeply forgiven.  All our sins wiped away. And now all that is left is that journey, to accept the final blessings from Christ, where there is no famine or hunger or sadness.  Just the close love of God for us. 

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[1] The Holy Bible : New International Version. Grand Rapids : Zondervan, 1996, c1984, S. Ge 45:5

[2] The Holy Bible : New International Version. Grand Rapids : Zondervan, 1996, c1984, S. Ge 45:8