Episode Transcript
[00:00:16] I want to talk to you this morning about dying well.
[00:00:19] So that's going to be the theme this morning, is dying well. So if you're a guest to Redemption Hill, we don't talk about death every week, but here is one of the many, many thousands upon thousands of beautiful realities of the Christian life and of the Bible. So if you're here, maybe you're a skeptic and you're not a Christian or you're discerning things, you're trying to figure things out, trying to figure out what you believe. You're welcome here.
[00:00:46] Here's one of the things that I think makes Christianity not just compelling, but true, is that the Bible, more than any other worldview, ideological system, religious system, or book, is the most realistic.
[00:01:01] It's the most realistic when it comes to things like death.
[00:01:06] Okay? The Bible doesn't talk about death as something that's normal, doesn't talk about death as just a part of the human existence.
[00:01:16] The Bible talks about death in words like enemy. Like death is the enemy of God. It's the enemy of God's people. But the good news of Christianity is that the Bible does not just leave us with death is the end, but that Jesus has actually defeated it.
[00:01:36] And so if that's true, that Jesus is really alive, then that means the greatest enemy of ours and the greatest enemy to God has been defeated already.
[00:01:48] And so while we still experience its sting, regardless of whether you're a Christian or not, it has been defeated. And one day, when Christ returns to dwell and to rule and reign over all things as the king of the universe, which he is currently. But when all things are seen as being in subjection to him, then he'll abolish sin and death forever.
[00:02:11] So the Bible speaks very realistically about death, but for us on this side of heaven, one of the questions that we've gone back to over and over again through the Book of Hebrews, not questions, but themes, is the theme of perseverance. That's what the Book of Hebrews is about. The Book of Hebrews is a sermon, okay? So it's kind of difficult sometimes breaking it up into thousands of sermons, however many we've done so far since we've been in the Book of Hebrews, because it is one sermon, and the theme of the sermon is persevere.
[00:02:37] Like, how much more do you, and I need to hear that word in the midst of a deconstruction age?
[00:02:43] Persevere, stick with Jesus, know foundationally and underneath it all that Jesus is the one holding on to you. So through all of your suffering and all of your trials and all of your doubts and your fears and your failures and your sin, it's really God who's the one holding on to you. And he's never going to let you go if you belong to Him. Through faith in Jesus, he has you forever. As we'll sing in just a moment after I walk off the stage.
[00:03:11] But there's still a call for you and I, by the power of the Spirit, to keep walking with Jesus and to not give up, to not grow weary, to stick with Jesus through everything, because he's better than everything. He's worth it.
[00:03:26] Let me give you a quick example. When I was in seventh grade, I learned the value of finishing well. At least my grandfather, my dear grandfather, who's since passed away, really sought to instill within me this concept of finishing well. When you start something, you finish it. You don't give up on it. So when I was in seventh grade, I ran my first track meet. 110 hurdles. Anybody ever run hurdles?
[00:03:54] All right. Wow. All right.
[00:03:56] Okay. Church activity. We're going to do a track meet one day. All right. So 110 hurdles, if you're familiar with the 110. I love sports. If you know me, you know I love sports.
[00:04:10] It's easy to idolize them. We can't do that. It's sinful and terrible to idolize sports. But sports hold good value. They teach us good things. They're intended to. And so the 110 hurdles, the hurdles are exceptionally high. Okay. It's a shorter race. It's a sprint. And I've always been a relatively short man. So as a seventh grade boy, I was very short, running a 110 hurdles. And I line up on the starting line, and I look down to my right and to my left, and everybody in my heat is taller than I am, and everybody in my heat looks faster than I do. But for some reason on this particular day, I just felt inside like, I can win. I don't know what it was. It was crazy. It was a crazy thought. But I was like, I think I can win. And so I got to the starting blocks and I took off. And, man, I got halfway through the race. And I looked to my left and I looked to my right and I was winning. It's like, oh, my gosh. And so I went to hurdle the, I think, second to last one. My right foot nicked the hurdle, and I fell on my face.
[00:05:06] And, I mean, I remember, like, skidding across the ground and Looked up and saw everybody almost finished before me. I still got up. And as I got up, my grandfather was at the finish line and he was just yelling at me, come on, Holcomb, finish. And so I finished the last two hurdles and I got to the finish line and I just collapsed into his arms and wept.
[00:05:25] And he said, hey, good job.
[00:05:27] Get seventh place. From first place to seventh place.
[00:05:33] Now, finishing isn't always easy, right?
[00:05:38] I want you to consider today as we look at these three examples of Isaac, Jacob and Joseph. So we're going to cover Genesis 12 to 50 in about 25 minutes.
[00:05:49] So as we think about these three examples of Isaac and Jacob and Joseph, the common thread in all three of these men was by the grace of God, they finished well.
[00:06:00] They didn't live exemplary lives.
[00:06:03] None of them.
[00:06:05] There were moments of faith and moments of holiness and purity and repentance and all of these things that mark the normal Christian experience. But none of us, none of us are impressive.
[00:06:18] If any of our lives were marked down in the Bible for the world to see, it wouldn't be impressive.
[00:06:24] The impressive reality of any of our lives is the grace of God.
[00:06:29] So it is with Isaac and Jacob and Joseph. And by the grace of God, all three of these men died well.
[00:06:37] So I want you to consider today if you're a Christian, if you're not a Christian, I want you to consider today. Who do you want to be on that day?
[00:06:49] Who do you want to be on that day?
[00:06:52] Because all of us are going to experience unless Christ returns first that day.
[00:06:59] We don't like to think about it. It's taboo to talk about it. We like to pretend that maybe by the time we get there, science will have discovered a way to reverse it. It's not going to happen.
[00:07:11] So who do you want to be on that day?
[00:07:18] What do you want to worship on that day?
[00:07:22] Who do you want to worship on that day?
[00:07:26] Let's look at these three men one by one. We're going to do a point per person. Isaac, Jacob, Joseph. And let's just ask the question of how did they die well?
[00:07:39] What marked their final day or days that led the author of Hebrews, inspired by the Holy Spirit, to say that these men died well. Let's look at the first one. Isaac.
[00:07:50] Point number one.
[00:07:52] Those who die well, trust God's providence.
[00:07:58] Those who die well, trust God's providence.
[00:08:04] Verse 20. By faith, Isaac invoked future blessings on Jacob and Esau. All right, let's flip all the way back to the Book of Genesis, chapter 27, verses 1 through 13. So Genesis 27:1 13. Hold your place in Hebrews 11. And if you would turn with me all the way to the beginning of the Bible.
[00:08:25] Genesis 27:1 13. This is the story of Isaac invoking future blessings on Jacob and Esau. And if you're unfamiliar at all with what's going on, you're like, who's Isaac? Who's Jacob? Who's Esau? Man, again, I'm just so glad you're here. This was me until the age of 22. Didn't know any of this stuff. Okay. Then God radically saved me, changed my life. He can do it with you, too.
[00:08:50] The book of Genesis is a book of beginnings. It talks about how God created the cosmos, that all things that came into being didn't come into being by accident. They came into being by the sovereign hand of God. He is the creator. He created all things in the beginning. And then it covers the entire lineage of the formation of the people of Israel and God choosing the people of Israel in order to eventually send through the people of Israel the savior of the world, Jesus. That's what the book of Genesis is about. Okay. And through this family line of Jesus, it's as dysfunctional as our families.
[00:09:23] Just ridiculous. As are our families. Okay? So that's what the book of Genesis is about. That's my translation of it. Genesis 27:1 13 tells the story of Isaac blessing his sons Jacob and Esau. And this is what it says. When Isaac was old and his eyes were dim so that he could not see, he called Esau, his older son, and said to him, my son. And he answered, here I am. He said, behold, I'm old. I do not know the day of my death.
[00:09:55] Now then, take your weapons, your quiver, and your bow, and go out to the field and hunt game for me. And prepare for me delicious food. He's speaking to his oldest son, Esau.
[00:10:06] He says, such as I love, and bring it to me so that I may eat, that my soul may bless you before I die. So essentially, what happens is Isaac pulls aside his firstborn son. Isaac and Jacob were twins, were brothers.
[00:10:23] Esau was just barely older than Isaac, than Jacob was. Sorry. And so Isaac the father, pulls aside Esau the older, and he says, hey, I want you to go out and hunt some game for me, and I want you to bring back that food so that when you do, and I eat the food and I enjoy it, I can give you a blessing.
[00:10:42] And so Isaac's wife overhears this, and she calls the younger son Jacob Who's a trickster. That's what his name means.
[00:10:54] So one theologian says that Jacob was a crafty crook. Can you imagine that being your biography?
[00:11:02] He was a crafty crook. That's just who he was. Throughout the entire duration of his life. He just tricked people all the time. He lied. He was sneaky. He was snake like.
[00:11:14] And so.
[00:11:16] So the mother pulls Jacob aside, and she says, hey, this is what your dad's about to do. He's about to bless Esau. And so I want you to go out and get two goats from the field. I want you to bring them into me. I'm going to kill them. I'm going to cook them, and then we're going to clothe you in Esau's clothes so that you can go in and trick your father into giving you the blessing instead of Esau. Pretty shady, okay?
[00:11:39] And so Jacob is like, well, Dad's going to know that it's me and it's not Esau, and I'm going to get cursed and all these things and. No, just trust me. This is what I want you to do. So he goes out and he does it.
[00:11:49] He comes back in to Isaac, and he presents the goats to Isaac. Isaac eats of them, and he's like, hey, your voice doesn't sound like Esau.
[00:11:59] And so, you know, Isaac is old. He can't see, the text says. And so when he finally feels of Jacob's arms, he's clothed in Esau's clothes, and so it feels hairy. And he says, okay, this must certainly be Esau. Smells like Esau. Feels like Esau. And so Jacob gives. Esau gives. I'm sorry. Isaac gives Jacob a blessing, the blessing that was supposed to go to Esau. And this is what it says. This is Genesis 27, 27 through 29. He says, see, the smell of my son is as the smell of a field that the Lord has blessed. May God give you of the dew of heaven and of the fatness of the earth and plenty of grain and wine. Let people serve you, and nations bow down to you. Be lord over your brothers, and may your mother's sons bow down to you. Cursed be everyone who curses you, and blessed be everyone who blesses you. So Jacob gets the blessing of Esau. Well, then Esau comes in, okay, and he presents the food. And as he does this, the text says that. That Isaac begins to tremble because he knows that he's been tricked. And so Esau pleads with his father, please give me another blessing. There has to be another blessing. This can't be the only one. And this is what Isaac this is how Isaac responds to Esau.
[00:13:15] Esau lifted up his voice and wept. Then Isaac, his father, answered and said to him, behold, away from the fatness of the earth shall your dwelling be, and away from the dew of heaven on high. By your sword you shall live, and you shall serve your brother.
[00:13:32] But when you grow restless, you shall break his yoke from your neck. So here's the question. Here's the question that I wrestle with this week in light of this story. Why did Isaac, when he found out that he had been tricked, not reverse course and give the blessing to Esau instead of Jacob?
[00:13:50] It's because he trusted in the predetermined plan of God.
[00:13:55] Genesis 25:21 23, just a few chapters before this is what we read. And Isaac prayed to the Lord for his wife, because she was barren. So this is before she had Jacob and Esau.
[00:14:08] The Lord granted his prayer, and Rebekah, his wife, conceived. The children struggled together within her. And she said, if it is thus, why is this happening to me? So she went to inquire of the Lord, and the Lord said to her, two nations are in your womb. Jacob and Esau represent two nations and two peoples. From within you shall be divided.
[00:14:29] The one shall be stronger than the other. The older shall serve the younger. This was the plan of God, and Isaac knew it. And so really, what this boils down to is Isaac, though he had been tricked and despite all logic and reason, banked on the plan and the providence of God more than his own plan.
[00:14:53] Isaac's plan might have been to reverse course and to bless Esau instead of Jacob. But the plan of God from the beginning was that Esau was going to serve Jacob because it was going to be through Jacob in his family line that the Messiah would come.
[00:15:07] And so why? Why is Isaac mentioned in this text? It's because at the end of Isaac's life, he trusts God's plan over his own.
[00:15:17] He trusted God's providence for his life, his family, and the salvation of the world.
[00:15:26] John Piper says this of providence. He says, in reference to God, the noun providence has come to mean the act of purposefully providing for or sustaining and governing the world. When God sees something, he sees to it. So if we can think about it like this, and we're going to get really theological for just a moment, and then I'm going to try to make it really practical and applicable for our life. The sovereignty of God is God governing all things by the word of his power for his glory. That means every single thing that happens in your life and in mine is under the sovereignty of God.
[00:16:04] Okay, let me tell you why this is good news if you're a Christian.
[00:16:08] The Bible says In Romans chapter 8 that God works all things together for the good, for those who love him, who are called according to his purpose. A year after we planted Redemption Hill, my middle son started having epileptic seizures. Seven to eight grandma seizures a day. It was a living hell.
[00:16:27] I felt myself dying on the inside. And you know something? I am grateful to God that all of that and all of its mystery and all of the I don't understand why this is happening came from the hand of my loving father and wasn't random because he was working it all for our good, his glory.
[00:16:55] So if his sovereignty is his governing of all things, his providence is him moving all things in existence toward his desired end for the joy of his people.
[00:17:09] That's what he's doing.
[00:17:12] Our life is not random.
[00:17:16] Every single minute detail in your life, everything is under the sovereignty of God and the providence of God. And anytime the Bible talks about this, it's not intended for Christians to run off to Starbucks and debate it.
[00:17:32] It's intended to encourage you and to fuel you in your darkest days.
[00:17:38] I've talked about Joni Eareckson Tada before. She's like one of my heroes. The more I read about her and listen to her talk. Just an amazing woman of faith.
[00:17:48] Quadriplegic from when she was 13 years old through a freak accident and while swimming. I mean, just amazing woman of faith. And when she talks about the sovereignty of God and the providence of God and the doctrines of grace, Calvinism, when she talks about these things, she says, why would I be embarrassed of something that saved my life?
[00:18:08] The reality of God's sovereignty and his providence. That it's God's hand that comes both blessing and suffering and that he's good and that he's working all things for my joy and his glory is getting me through life.
[00:18:25] And it's intended to do the same for you and I, friends.
[00:18:28] And if you and I don't have a clear understanding, if we don't, and I'm not just talking about like a cognitive understanding, it starts there. You have to study it.
[00:18:39] Open your Bible and try to theme out God's providence through the Bible and you'll see it everywhere.
[00:18:44] Everywhere.
[00:18:48] God does what he wants to do and he's good in doing it.
[00:18:54] God doesn't react to things, he determines things.
[00:19:00] He's Good in doing it. And if you look back over the course of your life, can you not see thousands upon thousands upon thousands of little things that God has orchestrated in your life to get you to where you are today?
[00:19:13] How much more like Jesus you are today than you were five years ago?
[00:19:17] Isn't that amazing?
[00:19:19] And how much of that is because of the suffering you've experienced?
[00:19:24] That without that suffering, would you be as gentle as you are today? You wouldn't be. And neither would I.
[00:19:32] People are harsh because they haven't suffered.
[00:19:37] Suffering has a way unlike anything else in the world. To soften you and I, to humble us, to show us how needy, independent we are. And that's the pathway to true joy. Not a life without suffering that comes later.
[00:19:56] Isaac knew the providence of God. He knew that this was his day, as all of us have a day as predetermined by God from before the foundation of the earth.
[00:20:06] And he knew that in God's wise providence, he had chosen Jacob over Esau.
[00:20:12] And so instead of trying to maneuver his plan, said, thy will be done.
[00:20:17] I've been tricked. Jacob gets the blessing because that was the plan of God. And through Jacob would come the Messiah. Isn't that cool?
[00:20:27] I think it's cool. Okay, so, friends, do you trust in God's plan for your life better than your own?
[00:20:35] Do you function that way?
[00:20:42] Let's look at the second.
[00:20:45] So those what we have so far, those who die well, trust in God's providence. To trust in God's providence, you have to study it. So study it.
[00:20:55] Study it through the Bible. Read good books about John. Piper wrote a book called Providence. You should read it.
[00:21:03] Number two, those who die well, die worshiping. Look at verse 21 by faith. Jacob, when dying, blessed each of the sons of Joseph bowing in worship over the head of his staff.
[00:21:21] So it's in the process of dying that Jacob worshiped. I don't know about you guys. I can't on my own. I can't even worship when I'm sick.
[00:21:34] Like when I get a cold, I just want to sit and watch YouTube.
[00:21:38] I don't want to read. I don't want to pray. I don't want to talk to anybody. So you think about the significance of this moment.
[00:21:45] While dying, he worshiped.
[00:21:50] Jacob worshiped Jacob's life. Jacob's life was not marked by one of piety or holiness, as we've already talked about. He was known as a crafty crook by some theologians. Yet our author records his name in the most significant chapter of Faith in the Entire Bible. So despite his many sins, Jacob ends his life worshiping God. That should bring you tremendous hope today.
[00:22:13] It's not so much a matter of how you start, how I start, it's how we finish. Praise God for that. It's good news for us.
[00:22:23] So how did. How did Jacob worship while he was dying? All right, so how did Jacob worship while he was dying? Number one, Jacob blessed others. That's one of the ways that he worshiped God while he was dying. He blessed his grandsons.
[00:22:39] As a young. I'm still, I think, a young pastor, but as a really young pastor, when I was ordained in 2014, I don't even know how old I was then. I was in my 20s. But, you know, you have these grandiose visions of what you think ministry is going to be. You get to stand on a stage, you get to teach, you get to do all these things, and that's what you see on YouTube. But you don't think about this. And Vodi Bauckham says this. And I think it's so true that the primary job of the pastor is to prepare people to die.
[00:23:08] I mean, that is, if you sense a calling to ministry, that's what it is.
[00:23:15] And so at a very young age as a pastor, probably because I was the youngest guy on staff at a large church at the time, I was always given the funerals. It was like, we got a funeral Holcomb. You take it. I was like, all right, I'll take it. And so I have had the privilege of sitting at the deathbed many times with people.
[00:23:33] And one of the key differences between those who know Jesus on their deathbed and those who don't is their ability to bless others when they're dying.
[00:23:44] One is very introspective. Everything is about me, my terror, my fear, all of that. And the other is a sense of external focus that could only come because the Holy Spirit lives in that person.
[00:24:02] And so Jacob, in the act of dying, in the process of dying, which is always what's scary to us, isn't it?
[00:24:09] It's not so much death itself. If you're anything like me, it's not so much death itself that's scary. It's the process.
[00:24:16] When's it going to happen? How's it going to happen? What's it going to feel like? Is it going to hurt? Is it going to happen suddenly or over time? Like, these are the kinds of things that we fear. And so here we have a gold nugget of an example of a man who, in the process of dying was worshiping God.
[00:24:35] And one of the ways that he showed that was by blessing others. Genesis 48:1 5. After this, says later in the book of Genesis, after this, Joseph was told, behold, your father is ill. This is Jacob. So he took with him his two sons, Manasseh and Ephraim. And it was told to Jacob, your son Joseph has come to you. Then Israel summoned his strength and sat up in bed. And Jacob said to Joseph, God Almighty. This is what Jacob says to Joseph. So in the process of dying, this is what Jacob says.
[00:25:06] God Almighty appeared to me at Luz in the land of Canaan and blessed me.
[00:25:13] Why was Jacob able to bless others on his deathbed? It's because he had experienced the blessing of God, he says, and said to me, behold, I will make you fruitful and multiply you, and I will make you a company of peoples and will give you this land to your offspring after you, for an everlasting possession. And now your two sons, who were born to you in the land of Egypt before I came to you in Egypt, are mine. Ephraim and Manasseh shall be mine, as Reuben and Simeon are. And he blessed Joseph and said the God before whom my fathers Abraham and Isaac walked, the God who has been my shepherd all my life long to this day, the angel who has redeemed me from all evil. Bless the boys, and in them let my name be carried on in the name of my fathers, Abraham and Isaac. And let them grow into a multitude in the midst of the earth. So Jacob blessed Ephraim over Manasseh. Again, the younger gets the blessing over the older because that was God's desired order. He was able to bless them only because he himself knew what it was to be blessed by God. And here's how the Bible talks about God's blessing. And I encourage you to listen intently to this. This is what the Bible says it means to live a blessed life. It doesn't say that a blessed life means you have a lot of money. It doesn't say you're healthy. It doesn't say you have a lot of possessions. Here's what the Bible says it means to be blessed. Romans 4, 7, 8. Blessed are those who whose lawless deeds are forgiven and whose sins are covered.
[00:26:49] Blessed is the man or woman against whom the Lord will not count his sin. And that can only be true of a person because of the cross of Jesus Christ. Friend, do you know the blessing of God?
[00:27:08] Do you? Have you surrendered your life to Jesus Christ?
[00:27:14] Is he your Savior?
[00:27:16] Is he your Lord?
[00:27:19] Have Your sins been covered?
[00:27:22] Has your unrighteousness been washed clean through his blood? Or are you still trying to earn it?
[00:27:31] Are you trying to live a good enough life, do enough religious activity that maybe the God of heaven and earth will look at you and say, yeah, he's pretty good.
[00:27:42] That's not the teaching of the Bible.
[00:27:45] The beauty of Christianity is that it's actually the opposite of that. Religion teaches that the Bible says, you can't do it, I can't do it. We've already blown it. We're guilty before this holy God, and we can't do anything on our own to make ourselves right with that God. But God in mercy has given us everything by sending us His Son.
[00:28:07] That's how God's provided for the world through the sending of his own beloved Son. Jesus, who lived a perfectly obedient life to the Father, perfectly fulfilled the law on our behalf, perfectly loved people died on the cross at age 33 for the sins of his people, was buried and then on the third day, raised into newness of life with a glorified body, where he appeared to many hundreds of disciples and then ascended back to the right hand of the Father in heaven, where he now rules and reigns. And now the invitation for you is to repent, to recognize that you're a sinner, that you can't do anything to save yourself and make yourself right with this holy God. That there is coming a day where you will die.
[00:28:55] And on that day you'll appear before the judgment seat of God.
[00:28:59] And it won't be a matter of you've done this many good things and this many bad things. So because you've done more good than you've done more bad, I'll let you in.
[00:29:06] It's going to be all about what you did with Jesus and so receive him.
[00:29:14] You don't have to work for it. You just have to receive Him. The Father's given Jesus as the gift of salvation for sinners to receive him and have life in his name and be forgiven of sin past, present, future, to be cleansed of all unrighteousness and bestowed upon the righteousness of God himself. That you before the Father would be righteous because the righteousness of Christ is yours.
[00:29:43] That's available to you. Will you receive Him? There is no blessing apart from Jesus from receiving Jesus, from belonging to Jesus, being forgiven of your sins, cleansed of your unrighteousness. Heaven is your home. That's blessing.
[00:30:01] And it's only when we know the blessing of God through Jesus Christ that we in turn can bless even on our deathbed.
[00:30:11] So Jacob blessed others. The second way that he worshiped is that Jacob leaned on his staff. What does that mean, that he leaned on his staff?
[00:30:23] I struggled to know what that meant, so I asked Charles Spurgeon. And this is what Charles Spurgeon says. It means that Jacob leaned on his staff while dying.
[00:30:33] It was a favorite staff of his, which he took with him on his first journey. And he leaned upon it as he took his last departure. Quote, with my staff, I crossed this Jordan, he has said before. And now with that staff in hand, he crosses the spiritual Jordan.
[00:30:51] That staff was his life companion, the witness with himself of the goodness of the Lord.
[00:30:59] But what did that staff indicate?
[00:31:01] Let us hear what Jacob said at another time, when he stood before Pharaoh, he exclaimed, few and evil have been the days of my pilgrimage.
[00:31:10] What made him use that word, pilgrimage?
[00:31:13] Why? Because upon his mind, there was always the idea of his being a pilgrim.
[00:31:18] He had been literally so during the early part of his life, wandering here and there. And now, though he has been 17 years in Goshen, he keeps the old staff, and he leans on it to show that he had always been a pilgrim and a sojourner, like his forefathers, and that he still was.
[00:31:37] Friends, we will only be prepared for death when we remember that this life is a pilgrimage.
[00:31:44] You're a pilgrim.
[00:31:46] If you're a Christian.
[00:31:49] That means that the present form of this world is not your ultimate dwelling place.
[00:31:55] When Christ returns and ushers in and reunites heaven and earth to create a new heavens and a new earth, and you and I are raised from the dead with new glorified bodies, that'll be your home. But in the meantime and on this side of heaven, you and I are pilgrims.
[00:32:13] And I think, for me, when I think about that, and I really begin to dwell on the notion of that and the reality of that. It's not that it makes all of the suffering that we experience make sense, because we'll never know some of the things that we experience on this side of heaven. We'll never know why to some of those things. But it does make it make a little bit more sense, doesn't it?
[00:32:34] This is a pilgrimage.
[00:32:36] And in a pilgrimage you're going to experience good things and bad things and hard things and easy things and joys and sorrows and all of that because you're on a pilgrimage.
[00:32:47] This is normal. That's why Peter says, don't be surprised when the fiery trial comes upon you. You're a sojourner.
[00:32:55] You're a pilgrim.
[00:32:57] And God's using it all to make you and I more and more and more like his son.
[00:33:03] And he's with us in all of it.
[00:33:07] He's not waiting on the other side for you and I to walk through this pilgrimage alone. Jesus says, I'll be with you always.
[00:33:13] I'm actually with you in the pilgrimage. I'm walking with you. He was a pilgrim here. We're pilgrims as we follow him.
[00:33:22] So we're only going to be prepared for death when we remember that this life is a pilgrimage. Jacob, while dying, worshiped God.
[00:33:29] And then the last thing those who die well die with future grace in mind.
[00:33:37] Those who die well die with future grace in mind. Look at verse 22.
[00:33:43] By faith, Joseph, at the end of his life, made mention of the exodus of the Israelites and gave directions concerning his bones. So Joseph knew and trusted that God would deliver his people from Egypt.
[00:33:58] And he wanted to be buried not in the land of his captivity in Egypt, but in the land of promise that they were going to joke. Joseph looked ahead and knew that God's deliverance was coming.
[00:34:13] So in the day of his death, he didn't just focus on his present circumstances, he looked ahead at the future deliverance of God. Genesis 50:24 25. He says, I am about to die, but God will surely come to your aid. He's talking to his brothers and take you up out of this land to the land. He promised an oath to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. And Joseph made the Israelites swear an oath and said, God will surely come to your aid. And then you must carry my bones up from this place. Joseph died with future grace.
[00:34:47] Mind, how much more should we on this side of the life, death and resurrection of Jesus, where Jesus has said, I'll be with you always, even to the end of the age. And by the way, surely I'm coming soon. He's promised us that he will come back again. How much more hope should you and I live with in regards to future grace?
[00:35:05] If you're a Christian, you have been saved. You are being saved. And that you're being made more and more into the image of Jesus by the power of the Spirit. And you and I will be saved. There's coming a day of final deliverance by which you and I will not experience the wrath of God to come, just like the Israelites as they awaited the destroyer to go through Egypt in the Passover. And God said, if you put the blood over the doorpost of your house, then the angel will pass over your house. So will be for you and I on that day, if you're in Christ, the wrath of God that obliterates all evil from the world, like in the days of Noah, the wrath of God that does away with evil, does away with sin, does away with death, forever will pass over you because you're safe in Christ.
[00:35:54] That's future grace.
[00:35:57] And then it's forever and ever and ever and ever and ever, for eternity with a new glorified body on a resurrected earth with one another and King Jesus.
[00:36:10] So we can only die well if we set our eyes on future grace. So let me just give you three quick things as we close in regards to how might you and I die? Well, okay, so we have Isaac, who knew the providence of God.
[00:36:27] You and I have to become a student of divine providence.
[00:36:32] Number two, we have Jacob. You and I need to learn to live as a pilgrim. And here's how I want to frame that for us to just think about before we close.
[00:36:43] Living as a pilgrim and in part means living today with that day in mind. And that day. I'm talking about the day of your death.
[00:36:53] It's not healthy to just go around thinking about your death all the time.
[00:36:58] It's also not healthy to never think about it.
[00:37:03] So Francis Chan says this. He says, the things that build us up require intentionality and work. Contemplating death takes work. Watching a typical movie does not.
[00:37:16] The wise man makes time to think about serious issues.
[00:37:20] The hard work of mourning builds up the wisdom of the heart.
[00:37:24] When I was in seminary, I learned that the heart refers to the mission control center of our bodies. It is the seat of decision making. That is why you and I make wiser decisions after our hearts spend time in the house of mourning. Listen to this. I tend to make good decisions at funerals and poor ones at restaurants.
[00:37:42] It's interesting. Isn't that true?
[00:37:46] As difficult as it is, we need to be mindful of death.
[00:37:50] We must make decisions with our day of death in mind.
[00:37:54] Please, please, please consider spending just 10 minutes in solitude today, meditating about your own funeral.
[00:38:03] Imagine standing before a God who dwells in unapproachable light.
[00:38:09] Psalm 90:12 says, Lord, teach us to number our days that we might get a heart of wisdom.
[00:38:15] Do you think that any Christian would go through with the affair if he were thinking more often about his own death?
[00:38:29] Probably not.
[00:38:31] Because there's something about thinking about that final day, that day that you and I cross the spiritual Jordan from this life into the next, where we behold God in his unapproachable light for the first time were transformed in the blink of an eye.
[00:38:49] That just adds perspective to today.
[00:38:55] If you're a Christian, that ought to not lead you and I to depression and anxiety and worry, because we know that for the Christian, death is a doorway to eternal life.
[00:39:07] Paul goes as far as to say that it's better to. To depart and be with Christ.
[00:39:13] It's not just better, it's far better. That's hard to imagine. If you like me, I love my family. I love preaching. I love Redemption Hill. I love life. I love life. It's hard to imagine that that's going to be far better, but the Bible promises that it will be.
[00:39:31] But it actually builds in us a heart of wisdom to contemplate that day. That's part of what it means to live as a. As a pilgrim on this side of heaven. Final thing.
[00:39:41] Like Joseph, you and I need to meditate on our future exodus.
[00:39:47] We need to meditate on our final deliverance on heaven.
[00:39:53] Does the hope of heaven drive you and your day in any specific, practical way? Like, how often do you think about heaven? How often do you read about heaven? Do you meditate?
[00:40:04] When I was, well, several months ago, I had the once in a lifetime, I think, opportunity to go to the Virgin Islands with my wife. It was an amazing trip. And while we were on the Virgin Islands, we got to go snorkeling one day. And as we're out snorkeling, I'm just kind of looking around. And the guy who took us out was not a Christian. We had great gospel conversations. Not a Christian guy. And so we're sitting there having a conversation, and he said, you know what's striking to me? He said, so many people come to this place stressed, and when they get here, they stay stressed. And so he's like, I take them out on the boat and they're just stressed out trying to get from one place to another, and they're frantic and all these things. And he said, I just want to tell them to stop and just notice that they're in paradise.
[00:40:42] I was like, wow, that's a profound insight from a non Christian.
[00:40:45] Okay. And so as Christians, we're not in paradise yet, but we see glimpses of it, and the vacation's already been paid for in full for you.
[00:40:57] Jesus has already gone to prepare a place for you.
[00:41:00] It's yours. Heaven is yours, Glory is yours.
[00:41:04] So let's set our mind on it. And in so doing, by the grace of God, he prepare us to die well, that we would die worshiping. Amen. Amen let's pray.
