Sermon

[Genesis 50:1-26] 2026.06.14 Fearless faith is forgiving

Fearless faith is forgiving

Big Idea Trust in God’s redemption in Christ — promises kept, promises to come — produces heartfelt forgiveness and fearless hope.

1. The Foreshadowing of redemption

2. The Forgiveness given to the fearful

3. The Fearless hope of the faithful

McCrindle Research published a report in April this year about the impact of global events on Australia’s morale and behaviour. After six months that included the Bondi shooting, the capture of the Venezuelan president, the unrest in Iran and the fuel crisis that followed, one in four Australians don’t believe that the world is a safe place right now.

When we don’t feel safe, we feel anxious — and proportionally more of us feel anxious and frustrated now than five years ago, in the middle of COVID. This is particularly true for our young adults: a quarter feel overwhelmed and 31% feel scared. Having spoken with some of them, I empathise with them. There are a lot of uncertainties ahead.

And so, a young adult, or an adult, or a child, may ask the same question, “How do I deal with my fear about my future?”

That’s what we’re going to look at in today’s passage.

If you have your Bible there, please open your Bible to Genesis 50.

We’re going to see three things:

1. The Foreshadowing of redemption

2. The Forgiveness given to the fearful

3. The Fearless hope of the faithful

How do we deal with our fears about our future?

Let’s ask God to help us, let’s pray, “Our heavenly Father, please still our hearts as we come before your throne. Take away anything that distracts and help us to hear your still small voice in your word the Bible. Help us to listen to the voice of our Shepherd, the Lord Jesus, in whose name we pray, Amen.”  

1.      The Foreshadowing of redemption

We’ve been following Jacob’s journey in Genesis since the start of this year — the trickster who deceived his own father, was himself tricked into working twenty years for his father-in-law, and was then deceived by his own sons into believing his favourite son Joseph was dead. For over twenty years Jacob believed the lie, until in God’s loving providence it was revealed that Joseph was not only alive, but had played an important part under God in saving many people. In God’s mercy, Jacob died peacefully, with Joseph there to farewell him. Look with me at verse one: “Then Joseph, leaning over his father’s face, wept and kissed him.”

Despite all the turmoil in Jacob’s life, Joseph loved, respected and honoured his father. He wept for him, and then ordered that he be embalmed — mummified, as the Egyptians did for Pharaohs and other important people, a process that took forty days. But Joseph didn’t do this because he believed what the Egyptians thought about the journey into the afterlife. He was preparing his father for another journey, as Jacob had commanded in Genesis 47:29-30: “Do not bury me in Egypt… When I rest with my ancestors, carry me away from Egypt and bury me in their burial place.” Jacob wanted to be buried in Canaan, in the burial place his grandfather Abraham had bought — the only place in the world his family could call theirs, and more importantly, in the land God had promised to give to Abraham and his family. Egypt would not be his final resting place; God’s promised land would be.

Joseph asked for Pharaoh’s permission through his household, and Pharaoh granted it. A great company travelled with Jacob’s body: the elites of Egyptian society — Pharaoh’s servants and the elders of Egypt, who over the years had come to respect the man who saved them from starvation — then the family, with only the little ones and the flocks left behind in Goshen, and finally the horses and chariots of the military, there to protect the Egyptian officials on the journey.

This was a massive funeral procession — hundreds of people travelling hundreds of kilometres, the grandest state funeral in all of the Bible. But it was a preview of something bigger. Notice the summary of these verses: Joseph asked Pharaoh for permission to leave Egypt. Pharaoh gave permission. Joseph and his family left Egypt, and horses and chariots came out of Egypt with them.

Doesn’t that sound like another account in the Bible? In Exodus, Jacob’s family grew so large that the Egyptians felt threatened and made them slaves. God sent Moses to ask Pharaoh for permission to leave; the new Pharaoh refused, and so God sent plagues. This time the Israelites took their children and livestock with them — and Pharaoh changed his mind and sent horses and chariots after them, not to protect them but to force them back to Egypt.

And so this grand funeral procession was itself a foreshadowing of the redemption God would bring about for the Israelites, some four hundred years later. Even the Canaanites got a mention. Seeing the mourning at the threshing floor of Atad, they named the place Abel-mizraim, the Mourning of Egypt (verse 11). They assumed the weeping was for one of Egypt’s own; in fact it was for Jacob, whose family had lived among the Canaanites as strangers for three generations and would come back many generations afterwards.

Reading of Jacob’s funeral, we might think everything is coming to a conclusion. To a certain extent that’s true. But the Bible wants us to widen our view — to the years and centuries before and after us. Life as we know it doesn’t end when our life ends. Jacob had a very full life, blessed in many ways and full of mistakes. But as he grew, he realised that his life wasn’t all about him. He was the grandson of Abraham, the one through whom God promised to bless the whole world, and it would be through Jacob’s line that God would fulfil that promise. Yet God promised nations and land, and here he was, an old man dying as a stranger in a foreign country.

But Jacob didn’t give up on God. For a dying man who never saw God’s promises fulfilled, he was hopeful — because he knew God was faithful. God’s promises would still happen even if Jacob didn’t live to see God fulfilling them.

Stepping back to see what God had done in the past, and in his own life, was what gave Jacob hope. The same goes for us. In an uncertain world we hold onto whatever feels solid — good marks, a stable job, good friends, good health. When these are taken away, we fall into despair. But Christians can, with God’s help, take a step back, give thanks for how God has kept his promises to us, and trust him. God made a promise; he will keep it. I might not see it in my lifetime, but God will make it happen.

Over the past two weeks, I’ve been visiting Mr Guo at the hospital, after he asked to see a Cantonese-speaking minister. I shared the gospel with him. He’d heard about Christianity before but didn’t want to commit; now, in possibly his final days, he wanted to believe. Praise God, he prayed to accept Jesus, and later that week I had the privilege of baptising him. His main concern wasn’t his condition — he asked that he might be holy, with tears of joy that he described as washing away his guilt, and he asked for his family to believe in Jesus. Mr Guo may only have days left, but he has hope. He knows the love of Jesus is more precious than life itself. That’s what hope looks like.

How about you? Where do you place your hope? Is all your hope, all your dreams, contained in this moment before you, contained to this life that you’re living? Or is your hope bigger? Like Jacob, like Mr Guo, take a step back and put your hope in God.

2.      The Forgiveness given to the fearful

After Joseph buried his father in Canaan, a dark thought began forming in the brothers’ minds. Look at verse 15: “If Joseph is holding a grudge against us, he will certainly repay us for all the suffering we caused him.” What they did was, in their minds, unforgiveable — they sold their little brother into slavery. Things had gone well for seventeen years while Jacob was alive, but now that he was dead, wouldn’t Joseph repay them? So they sent Joseph a message claiming their father had commanded: “Say this to Joseph: Please forgive your brothers’ transgression and their sin—the suffering they caused you” (verse 17). There’s no record that Jacob ever said this — quite possibly they made it up, hoping Joseph would spare their lives. But notice they made no excuses: they sinned, they transgressed. They even offered themselves to Joseph as slaves, preferring to choose their own punishment rather than wait for something worse.

It’s a little like the man who walked into a florist to buy flowers for his wife. It wasn’t Valentine’s Day or Mother’s Day. “Is it for your anniversary?” asked the florist. “No.” “Her birthday then?” “No.” The customer waiting behind him asked, “What did you do this time?” If it’s not a special occasion, it’s probably for something wrong the man had done.

That’s what the brothers were doing — offering themselves as slaves in punishment for their crime. When Joseph heard their message, he wept. He had treated them and their families kindly for seventeen years; why did they still think he would hurt them? I think he wept for them — that all this time, they had been living with the fear that one day Joseph would punish them.

Look at Joseph’s response in verse 19: “But Joseph said to them, “Don’t be afraid. Am I in the place of God?” Though Joseph was powerful, he was not God, and he had no desire to play God and dish out divine justice against his brothers. That is God’s place, not Joseph’s.

Secondly, it was God’s plan all along. Verse 20: “You planned evil against me; God planned it for good to bring about the present result—the survival of many people.” The brothers truly plotted evil. Yet God, so powerful, wise and loving, used their evil act for good — through a long chain of events under his providence, tens of thousands survived a devastating famine.

So there was no need to be afraid. Look at verse 21: “Therefore don’t be afraid. I will take care of you and your children.” And he comforted them and spoke kindly to them — literally, Joseph spoke to their hearts. He wanted their heart of hearts to know that he had genuinely forgiven them, with no desire to punish them.

How does Joseph give such heartfelt forgiveness? Like his father, Joseph was able to step back and look at what God had done. Nothing would have made sense when he was thrown into the well by his brothers or falsely imprisoned by his Egyptian master, but looking back he could see that it was God who brought him through it all, for the greater good. Joseph could forgive because he trusted in the God whose plan was far bigger than Joseph himself.

As fallen, imperfect people, we feel the impact of sin in our lives, every day.Some of us might feel the weight of our sins on ourselves, feeling that we deserve all the bad things that are happening to us.Indeed, we know that we deserve even more bad things than even the bad things we’re experiencing now.Others might feel the weight of sin that others have committed against us.And we might be tempted to think that they deserve far more bad things in their lives right now.This weight of sin from both within ourselves and outside of ourselves weighs us down, and we begin to spiral down into a deep void, not believing that change is possible, not believing that forgiveness is possible.The deeper we fall into this void, the greater the fear of death and hopelessness grow in our lives.This fear saps life away from us, making our hearts hard, refusing forgiveness and refusing the will to forgive.

When sin weighs on our hearts, we need to take a step back and see the kindness and the love of God — who sees our hearts, knows our weaknesses and every one of our evil acts, and still loves us. God has shown himself trustworthy again and again. He kept his promises to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, and his ultimate fulfilment of his promises is Jesus: “For every one of God’s promises is “Yes” in him” (1 Corinthians 1:20). When someone puts their trust in Jesus, God says Yes to forgiving that person and lifts the weight of sin from their back, tossing it as far as the east is from the west. And the forgiven will trust Jesus when he says, “For if you forgive others their offenses, your heavenly Father will forgive you as well. But if you don’t forgive others, your Father will not forgive your offenses” (Matthew 6:14-15). That’s why Christians can and ought to forgive even the worst of sinners — because they themselves trust in God and have been forgiven by God. The one who trusts in God forgives, and forgives wholeheartedly.

Can you imagine a world where Christians forgive because they have taken a step back and see God’s hand in redemption, especially in the Person of Jesus?

Can you imagine a world where the worst of sinners can find forgiveness from Christians who have themselves been forgiven?

Friends, don’t imagine it. Live it. Live and breathe forgiveness, so that the world around you, the fearful world around you, will see a glimpse of the glory of God’s redemption for us in Jesus.

3. The Fearless hope of the faithful

At the end of Genesis chapter 50, the time had come for Joseph himself to die. He lived 110 years and got to see his children and grandchildren — a joy his own father missed for much of Joseph’s youth. “Grandchildren are the crown of the elderly, and the pride of children is their fathers” (Proverbs 17:6). That’s why we love having children in our service, with their parents and grandparents — they bring great joy and pride.

As Joseph was about to die, he gave these instructions, in verse 24: “I am about to die, but God will certainly come to your aid and bring you up from this land to the land he swore to give to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.” And he made the sons of Israel take an oath: “When God comes to your aid, you are to carry my bones up from here.”

Like his father, Joseph’s heart didn’t belong to Egypt. It belonged to the land God had promised to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. So he made his brothers take an oath to carry his bones back to Canaan, and when he died he too was embalmed and placed in a coffin in Egypt. Notice there was no mention of a grand funeral procession this time. Why? Because it was not yet time for Joseph to be buried in Canaan. A time would come when God would come to the aid of Jacob’s household and help them leave Egypt — and then his bones would make their last journey to the Promised Land.

Joseph’s vision of what God does was far bigger than his own lifespan. He didn’t know how God would come to his family’s aid — only that he would. And though he wouldn’t be alive to see it, he wanted his bones on that journey. He had no way of knowing that the Egyptians would one day enslave his family; but even then, he could trust God. God had said he would keep his promises, and he would do as he said. That’s trust in God’s future promises. That’s hope.

It was his trust in God that gave Joseph a fearless hope.

Some people don’t like the Bible’s teaching that God is in control of everything. I love it! No matter what happens, no matter how hopeless the situation, God is in control — there is no situation I find myself in that God hasn’t allowed. That doesn’t mean it’s always nice. But even in the darkest, most hopeless times, I can trust God. He is completely trustworthy.

After Jesus fed the five thousand, he sent his disciples ahead of him by boat across the Lake of Galilee. In the middle of the night the wind blew, and they were straining at the oars, not in control of their situation. Suddenly they saw someone walking towards them, and they were terrified. But Jesus said, in words similar to Joseph’s, “Have courage, it is I. Don’t be afraid.” As soon as he got in, the storm calmed down. The winds and the waves obeyed his voice.

Friends, the winds and the waves still know his voice. He could stop all the storms in your life by whispering a command; the only reason he hasn’t is that he has a better plan for you, which needs the waves and the storms there. So trust him. Because Jesus is the Lord — the Master as well as the Saviour — we can have fearless hope even in the midst of life’s life-threatening storms.

How do I deal with my fear about my future?  

You do that by first remembering that your future is part of God’s bigger picture of redemption.

Even though we can’t see the whole plan, we trust him.

God has kept his promises to us in the Lord Jesus, and he will keep his promises made in the Lord Jesus that are yet to come.

As people who trust in what he’s done, as people who have received forgiveness from God himself, we can offer heartfelt forgiveness to those who have wronged us.

Heartfelt forgiveness is a fruit of our faith in Jesus.

And finally, we can deal with our fear about our future by having a fearless hope, trusting that all things are in the hands of our heavenly Father.

Trust in God’s redemption in Christ — promises kept, promises to come — produces heartfelt forgiveness and fearless hope.

Three Questions

1. If we’re sure God’s saved us in Christ, why do we still struggle to love and forgive those who've wronged us?

2. How can we anchor our hope to God's promises when, like Joseph's family in Egypt, we may never see it in our lifetime?

3. Think of someone facing an uncertain future. What difference would it make if they have a fearless hope in Jesus?

Trust in God’s redemption in Christ — promises kept, promises to come — produces heartfelt forgiveness and fearless hope.

Let’s pray, “Our heavenly Father, we thank you for your faithfulness. We thank you that despite of our sins, you still love us and sent Jesus to save people like us. Father forgive us for not trusting you. Forgive us when we forget that your way is higher than ours. Help us to trust you, especially when we don’t understand, when we go through times of darkness. Teach us to be people who are known for our heartfelt forgiveness and our fearless hope, for we trust in Jesus, in whose name we pray, Amen.”