Sermon in Minneapolis 27.10.2013

Grace, mercy, and peace from God our Father and our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Let us begin our services this morning with opening prayer and thanksgiving.

Holy and righteous God, our Heavenly Father, we wish to thank you for everything that you have abundantly bestowed upon us that we can enjoy in our temporal lives that's needful for our bodies and souls. But above all, we thank you for the greatest of all gifts, which is prepared through the work of salvation in your Son, Jesus Christ. He has paid the debt of sin, He has fulfilled the demanding law of Moses. He has given His life and shed His blood on the cross, but above all, He has risen from the grave, winning the victory over sin, death, and the power of the enemy of souls. And this gift righteousness, which He has prepared, we can own by faith as a gift from you of grace.

So we ask that you would bless our gathering this morning and be with us now and always, and nourish us with your everlasting gospel word.

Before reading the text, I wish to announce the marriage of Lillian Marie Parks to Oren Walter Muhonen on Saturday, November 9, 2013 at 6 in the evening in this church, Minneapolis Lestadian Lutheran Church, and we will pray on their behalf.

Lord, build for them a home wherein faith, hope, and love would flourish. And if you don't build that home, they that try to build it, build it in vain. And we ask that you would give them your grace so that under your blessing, they would be able to live in the fellowship of your congregation and protect their bodies and souls now and always. Amen.

Today is the 23rd Sunday after Pentecost, and it has the theme of Forgive One Another. And today's Old Testament text is from the book of Genesis. It's last chapter, chapter 50, verses 15 through 21. And we will hear these words as follows in Jesus' name.

And when Joseph's brethren saw that their father was dead, they said, Joseph will peradventure hate us and will certainly requit us all the evil which we did unto him. And so they sent a messenger unto Joseph, saying, Thy father did command before he died, saying, So shall you say unto Joseph, Forgive, I pray thee now, the trespass of thy brethren and their sin, for they did unto thee evil. And now we pray thee, forgive the trespass of the servants of the God of thy father.

And Joseph wept when they spake unto him. And his brethren also went and fell down before his face, and they said, Behold, we be your servants.

And Joseph said unto them, Fear not, for am I in the place of God? But as for you, you thought evil against me, but God meant it unto good to bring to pass, as it is this day, to save much people alive.

Now therefore, fear not, I will nourish you and your little ones. And he comforted them and spake kindly unto them. Amen.

This last chapter in Genesis, which is the conclusion of the first book of Moses, it began with the theme of creation, and it ends with the carrying of a coffin. At the end of chapter 49, it tells of the death of Jacob, who passed away at the age of 147 years.

And we always know and have experience that when we experience death in a family, to a family member or a close one, a near one or a dear one, how it brings grief to our hearts and as if leaves an empty spot in our hearts and souls. And so it was with the sons of Jacob at the passing of their father.

But at that time, they lived in Egypt. And Jacob, the father, had a request before he died that when he passes from this life, that his body would be brought back to the land of Canaan, to Palestine, to the land of his fathers.

And so, there was a time of mourning. According to the custom of that time, they mourned for seventy days. And then, according to the practices of the Egyptian culture, not according to the Israelite culture, but the Egyptian culture, they mummified his body or embalmed him. And this embalming process lasted forty days.

And after the embalming was done and the time of mourning of seventy days had passed with a large delegation permission and being given permission by the Pharaoh, they brought the body of Jacob, their father, back to the land of Canaan, to the area of Hebron, and buried the body of Jacob in the family plot there where Abraham purchased his first piece of land, which was for his wife, Sarah, when she passed away.

So, there in that family plot in the cave that Abraham had purchased, was previously buried Abraham and Sarah, also Isaac and Rebecca as well as Leah were buried there. Rachel was buried close by, a few miles away, but in a different plot of land.

In this text, or prior to this text of ours, it tells that the brothers of Joseph, the other sons of Jacob, they mourned and they wept at the passing of the father. And this is natural. We all experience grief and sorrow at the passing of a near one and dear one.

First of all, they wept because of grief their dear father had passed on. But we could say that these tears also were half tears of guilt, which we will recall shortly.

They remembered Joseph, their brother, I'm sure, when years earlier came out in the field to meet them in a splendid coat of many colors and they became jealous and envious. They, I'm sure, at that moment, remembered that jealousy that welled up in their throats when he approached. They remembered how they tried to get rid of their brother Joseph. But in the end, the tables of God turned on them.

So now the father Jacob passes away and they shed tears, tears of grief and sorrow over the passing of the father. But now also tears of guilt remembering what they had done to their brother Joseph. Wondering, I'm sure, would Joseph now come and open up the old books of account on their behalf.

It's important to recall the context and the history of Joseph and the brothers for it well illustrates the theme of today. And so in much detail we will now attempt to relive and recount the history of Joseph and his eleven brothers.

Jacob had twelve sons but they were born of four different wives and Joseph was number eleven of the twelve and Joseph and Benjamin were the only two born of this same mother, the wife, the last wife of Jacob.

And so at an elderly age Joseph was born and was it partially for this reason that Joseph was so special to the father Jacob when in his later years of life again he received another child but perhaps for other reasons Joseph was very special to the father Jacob.

And we remember that Joseph saw a couple of dreams one time he told the brothers that there were twelve stacks of grain or sheaves of grain and eleven of them bowed down to my stand of grain referring to the eleven brothers would bow down to Jacob or Joseph.

Then he saw another dream and the dream was that the sun, the moon, and eleven stars would all bow down before Joseph even the father. When he heard this he slightly rebuked his son Joseph for this dream but then he put it behind his ear and remembered the content of that dream.

So the boys, the other elder brothers, became envious, jealous of Joseph their brother perhaps because the father considered him as his special son or his favorite son.

As parents, it's important for us to remember that we would try to treat all of our children equally and love them all the same and not to consider one better than another. This is a challenge I'm sure many times and many families.

So what does it exactly mean that Jacob loved Joseph more than the others? This isn't really something that we as parents should do or ought to do. It causes envy, it causes jealousy. But anyways, this is what the Bible says, this is what the situation was in that home.

One day when the other brothers, the older brothers, were out in the field Jacob tells Joseph that go and check on your brothers and bring them some food to eat.

So Joseph goes according to the command of his father to check up on his older brothers and when he finally finds them and the older brothers see him coming they begin to plan amongst themselves here comes that dreamer brother, the one who sees dreams. Let us kill him.

And so they were ready to kill him but then the oldest brother Reuben had nothing to do with it. They said spare his life.

So they took Joseph and threw him into an empty pit but then they took his outer garment, that beautiful robe cloak of many colors, killed an animal, dipped that robe in the blood of the animal and then brought it back to the father and they then asked the father in a deceitful way, father do you recognize this cloak?

Of course the father recognized that robe which was now stained in blood and they said and of course the father realized in his mind what apparently had happened that an angry beast, dangerous animal apparently attacked my son, my favorite son, and killed him and Jacob was about to die because of the great grief in his heart that he experienced.

One brother in Finland in this connection when explaining this point told a story that happened in eastern Finland where he lived. He said that there was a murder that took place in his community and the police forces were gathered and many of the people of the community gathered together to go to try to seek and to try to find the person who committed that act of murder.

And lo and behold in the group of people that were trying to find the culprit was the culprit himself.

Isn't this kind of what the older boys were doing when they brought back this coat stained in blood asking the father deceitfully, father do you recognize this coat? I wonder what happened to your son.

Joseph was there in that dry pit and a band of merchants, Ishmaelites or later on it says Medianites passed by and they sold Joseph to these merchants who were on a trip to Egypt and that is how Joseph ended up in that foreign land.

He became the servant of Potiphar who was the head guard for the pharaoh of that land and immediately Potiphar recognized and realized that Joseph was a special person, there was something different about him and God blessed everything that Joseph did and so Joseph was exalted or given special permissions or certain special duties and tasks there in that foreign land.

But then also we remember how the wife of Potiphar looked upon Joseph with lust seeing that he was a handsome man and tried to entice him into the sin of adultery, come and lie with me.

But Joseph had nothing to do with it. He said how could I do such evil against my God?

The wife of Potiphar tried several times to entice Joseph. Finally Joseph had to flee when she grabbed his outer garments and he left his robe or outer garment behind.

Then the wife of Potiphar takes that garment that was or coat that was left in her hands and with deceit goes to her husband and said that Joseph your servant tried to come upon me with lust and force himself upon me.

Potiphar becomes furious and he throws Joseph into jail and there also while in jail things went well for Joseph because the head prison guard realized that he was a special man, a man he could trust in and again gave him special privileges and special duties there in that prison cell.

While in that prison cell two of Potiphar's or Pharaoh's servants, his head butler or cup bearer and also the head baker were cast into prison and each of them saw a dream and Joseph said that he is able to explain their dreams to them.

The head butler, the head cup bearer for the Pharaoh saw a dream which Joseph interpreted that after three days you will be released and you will be returned back to your original position but when you are released remember me because I am wrongfully here, I am here because of deceit of another person.

But then the head baker saw a dream which Joseph interpreted that after three days you will be killed, you will be hung to death and that also came true.

But the head butler when he was released and went back to his original job for the Pharaoh completely forgot about the promise he had said to Joseph.

But as time went on the Pharaoh saw a couple of dreams and was bewildered about what these dreams meant and none of his wise men or sorcerers or magicians in the country were able to interpret these dreams.

It was finally at this moment that the head butler remembered Joseph and the dreams that he had explained, interpreted there in prison and said there is this one Hebrew man and perhaps that he can help interpret your dreams.

The two dreams that Pharaoh saw were this: first, there were seven fat beautiful cows and then later there were seven skinny ugly cows that came and devoured the fat beautiful cows but the skinny cows still remained skinny.

Then he saw a second dream, the Pharaoh of a basket with seven nice full ears of corn and then another basket with seven scrawny ears of corn that came and devoured the first seven full years of corn.

Joseph said that these two dreams are one and the same, that first you will have seven years of plenty and make sure you grow plenty of crops and save these crops, put them into storage because after these seven years then there will be seven bad years of famine and everyone will suffer hunger throughout the land and throughout this part of the world.

And so it came to be there were seven years of plenty and then began to follow the years of famine.

During these first years of famine there in the far away land of Palestine, the land of Canaan, Jacob and the rest of the family that were living there needed food, nothing would grow.

They heard that there was plenty of grain and corn in storage in the land of Egypt so Jacob sends ten boys with money and food to go and fetch corn from the land of Egypt but he left the youngest Benjamin behind and he said to himself and perhaps out loud to the boys that I've already lost Joseph I don't want to lose Benjamin.

When the ten sons arrive in Egypt they came before Joseph who was now the prime minister, second in command after the Pharaoh.

Joseph immediately recognized the ten brothers but they didn't recognize him. He speaks in a harsh tone to them and asked them why they're here. You are here as spies.

And they pleaded that no, we're not, that my father, he asked about, do you have a father back home and how many brothers are there in total and of course Joseph knew the answers but was quizzing the sons, his own brothers.

And so after quizzing them then Joseph feeds them, gives them grain and secretly puts the money that they used to pay for the grain back in their sack and sent them on their way but he said with one request, when you return the second time you must return with the youngest brother of yours Benjamin or I will not meet you, you will not get food.

When they returned they opened their sacks and they were astonished and bewildered and even afraid for their money was still in their sacks and the father said that you cannot go back to Egypt I will not send my youngest son.

But when the famine continued and they experienced great hunger the father could not but send them back again and this time with Benjamin.

The brother Judah said I will be the spokesperson I will even die on his behalf, suffer on his behalf if I have to.

So the father sends now eleven sons back or not eleven, ten because Simeon had been kept as hostage there in the land of Egypt but Joseph had sent them back the first time and kept Simeon as hostage.

So now they return the second time and again Joseph brings them into his quarters and treats them to a nice feast and at times Joseph couldn't withhold himself he went into another room and wept.

Of course Joseph was using an interpreter but he heard their confession when they were speaking Hebrew. Joseph understood the Hebrew language even though he was speaking to them in the Egyptian language through an interpreter.

And among themselves the brothers were saying how they had been guilty of mistreating that one missing brother which Joseph asked about which was Joseph himself.

When they now returned the second time Joseph took a silver vessel and put it into Benjamin's sack and when they went on their way Joseph sent guards after the eleven brothers and when they approached the eleven brothers they said that why did you do such evil against Joseph that someone stole Joseph's silver cup and in whose sack is that silver cup will be the prisoner of the prime minister.

They said that we have stole no one's cup. They began to open all the sacks from the oldest to the youngest. When they opened up Benjamin's sack the cup was there.

So they were all forced to return back to Egypt again to step before the prime minister and it was at this time when Joseph commanded all the Egyptians to leave the room and Joseph broke down and cried and he said I am your brother Joseph even though you did evil God has turned that evil into good.

I have been promoted to this position here in the land of Egypt to be able to store the grain during the land years of plenty so we could survive during these years of famine.

And so Joseph said to the brothers that return back to the land of Canaan and with the permission of Pharaoh they were allowed to bring back Jacob the father with all of the families to the land of Egypt and allowed to live in a special fertile country called the land of Goshen.

Goshen at first Jacob couldn't believe his ears and didn't want to believe that his brother or son Joseph was still alive but then consented to go to the land of Egypt.

He said even though I'm an old man I want to see my son Joseph again and you can imagine the joy of the reunion of seeing the son Joseph again.

So the last years of Jacob's life he was there living in this foreign land, the land of Egypt.

And now we come to our text that at the age of 147 years Jacob the father passes away and according to his request his body is brought back to the land of Canaan, the land of Palestine to be buried with the fathers and the other ancestors.

It is at this point in time when the eleven brothers of Joseph are now afraid that Joseph will now come toward them with the spirit of revenge because of the many evil things that they had done to Joseph earlier in his life.

And so our text begins and when Joseph's brothers saw that their father was now dead they said Joseph will now begin to hate us and he will certainly bring evil upon us the same evil that we did to him.

I'm sure he will now do to us an eye for an eye a tooth for a tooth as the saying goes in the Old Testament.

And so they sent a messenger they didn't go themselves but they sent a messenger with a message to Joseph and this was the message apparently even before father Jacob had passed away they had discussed this issue with the father and the father gave them this instruction to say to Joseph after his passing your father and now they bring this message via the messenger your father did command before he died saying so shall you say unto Joseph Joseph forgive the trespasses of your brothers and their sins for they did evil unto you.

And now we pray unto you forgive the trespass of the servants of the God of your father.

And when the messenger brings this message to Joseph and Joseph hears it the Bible says and Joseph wept when the messenger said this message unto him.

And just as the dream Joseph saw as a young 13 year old boy of the 11 sheaves of grain bowing down to the 12 and of the sun the moon and the 11 stars bowing down to him now it came to be and his brethren brothers came and fell down before his face and they said behold we are your servants.

Today’s theme is forgive one another and this is what the response of Joseph was.

He was in that position as the prime minister of the land he had nearly all the power and the authority of the pharaoh of the land of Egypt.

He could have done to those brothers of his or anyone else for that fact whatever he could have wanted to.

He could have thrown them into prison, he could have had them tortured, he could have taken full revenge against them.

But what was the heart, what was the mind of Joseph?

And Joseph said unto them, Fear not, for am I in the place of God?

In the old Finnish version it says in this way each version says this statement in a little bit different way.

In the old Finnish Bible it says that Joseph said that he traveled under the hand of God and we can see in the temporal sense how God was with Joseph there in that foreign land there when he was alone.

God blessed him as a young believing boy and man, he blessed the work that he did, he was promoted, exalted into high positions and preserved him from falling into the sin of adultery.

But also we can see even further and deeper the same statement that God said to Abraham and all the other patriarchs afterwards.

To Abraham it was said, in you and in your seed all the nations will be blessed.

This was said to Isaac, this was said to Jacob and basically it is now said to Joseph as well.

So we can see the great blessing of God the heavenly father upon Joseph and also the people of Israel.

But here in this English version it says it a little bit differently.

Joseph says, For am I in the place of God?

It is God who is the judge, revenge is the Lord's as it says in Paul's letter to the Romans and Paul is quoting the Old Testament.

Revenge is the Lord's, it is not for me to be the judge, it is not for me to take revenge against you my brothers.

But what is the mind, what is the heart of Joseph for those who were envious and jealous toward him, toward his brothers who wished to take his life, threw him into a pit, sold him as a slave to that far away country with deceit they went and told a lie to the father, your son Joseph was killed, here is his coat stained in blood.

We as human beings often have this mind of revenge, repay back with that same measure that I have been paid with.

But Joseph says in this way, But as for you, you thought evil against me, you treated me in an evil way but God had other plans.

It wasn't easy for me, it was very difficult, I experienced challenging years but God meant it unto good to bring to pass as it is this day to save much people and keep them alive.

And therefore Joseph's final statement is this, Now therefore fear not, I will nourish you and your little ones and he comforted them and he spake kindly unto them.

In today's gospel text is a very clear illustration of this same matter.

It tells of this servant who was indebted to the king ten thousand talents, an amount of money that no human being could ever dream of repaying.

But the king said after the servant who owed that great debt pleaded, Father master have mercy with me and I will attempt to repay and eventually will repay even though it was impossible.

But the king had compassion and forgave that debtor his great debt completely of grace without any merit, without any worthiness of that servant but out of his infinite boundless love forgave that debt.

But then that same servant turned to his fellow servant who owed him 100 pence in those days wages, it was worth about three months wages and not millions of years of wages that he was just forgiven.

Then that servant turned to his fellow servant who owed him 100 pence and he said pay me what you owe me and if you don't I will cast you into prison.

And that fellow servant pleaded with the exact same words that this first servant had pled before the king, Be patient with me and I will repay you fully in time.

But nothing doing, that first servant cast the fellow servant into prison.

But then the king heard what had happened and he turns to that first servant that he had forgiven the 10,000 talent debts and he said how does it say exactly, If you do not forgive your brother your trespasses neither will the heavenly father forgive you your trespasses.

And so we can see very clearly in our text how Joseph didn't have this mind and heart of revenge but with compassion and forgiveness he forgave the brothers their sin debt.

And so the gospel text says in this way, So likewise shall my heavenly father do also unto you if you from your hearts forgive not every one his brother their trespasses.

Imagine how difficult it is sometimes when we have been deeply offended by another believing brother or sister.

Sometimes it has been asked, is it easier to ask for forgiveness or is it easier to forgive?

We know that many times it is difficult to drag ourselves to as if crawl to the throne of grace to open up our proud hearts and to ask from another, I have fallen, I have done this, I have done that, can you forgive me my sins?

This is very difficult for our proud flesh but many times it is much, much more difficult if someone has seriously and deeply offended us and they come and ask for that transgression to be forgiven.

How our proud heart would not wish to from its heart to forgive that offense.

So may God protect us and keep us in his love and under his grace and give us always that willing mind and heart that we can forgive one another their faults and transgressions.

When we realize that God out of his infinite love through the merits of his son Jesus Christ through his suffering innocently on the middle cross of Golgotha shed his blood and gave his life for your sake and my sake, he paid that ten thousand talent debt that we could never ever dream of forgiving.

He paid it and we can own the forgiveness of this debt alone by faith alone by grace alone through the merits of Christ Jesus his son.

And therefore when someone comes with their small 100 pence debt, those debts which seem great in our mind which were offenses against us, wouldn't we have that mind of love and forgiveness, grace and compassion toward that fellow brother?

So this evening, this morning we can be of good cheer and let the love of Christ warm our hearts and melt our many times cold and stiff hearts.

And even now you can believe just as you are, sins forgiven in Jesus name and precious blood.

The power of the gospel will lift us, will carry us and bring us home.

In the year 1972 there were large summer services in and it was a very hot and dry summer that year and just like almost in the land of Egypt things weren't growing very well.

But during those summer services they said that the grace of God was flowing more abundantly than even the amount of water in the river E, the E Yoki which was flowing through that community.

And so it is always in the house of God that the grace fountains of grace are always open, they flow abundantly and will never run dry.

So be of good cheer and believe sins forgiven in Jesus name in blood in Jesus name. Amen.

The Lord bless us and keep us. The Lord make his face to shine upon us and be gracious unto us. The Lord lift up his countenance upon us and give us your peace in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost. Amen.