Sermon

Weeping tears of joy 

Big Idea: Those who trust in God long for, and will one day weep, tears of joy — for his saving plan in Jesus will never fail.

1.     God’s saving plan revealed in Joseph’s reveal

2.     God’s faithfulness revealed in Joseph’s provision

3.     God’s reconciliation in Christ foreshadowed in Jacob’s family

Introduction

The year was 2017, and Roger Federer was playing in the Australian Open Finals.

He hadn’t won anything the previous twelve months because he had a knee injury.

Here at the men’s finals, he was playing against Rafael Nadal.

Though he was World No.1 for many years, he was seeded 17^th in the tournament. 

It would have been very hard for him to win the tournament.

However, after a five-set game, Federer defeated Nadal and the usually calm and collected Federer lost it.

He was crying and he was jumping with joy.

It was like he was a teenager who won a Grand Slam match for the first time!

When was the last time you were so happy that you wept for joy?

In today’s passage, we also see a normally calm and collected Joseph losing it.

He had trouble keeping his emotion in but in today’s passage, he lost it, he wept for joy.

My hope is that after today, as you go home, you will make it your goal, your ambition to weep for joy.

You can tell your family and friends that today, the preacher wants you to apply today’s passage by weeping and crying.

What do I mean by that?

Please open your Bible to Genesis chapter 45, beginning from verse 1.

We’ll see the following three things:

1.     God’s saving plan revealed in Joseph’s reveal

2.     God’s faithfulness revealed in Joseph’s provision

3.     God’s reconciliation in Christ foreshadowed in Jacob’s family

Before we look into them, let’s pray, “Our heavenly Father, please open our hearts by your Holy Spirit, that we may be so filled with hope and joy in you that our eyes will be filled with tears of joy. We pray in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, Amen.”

1.    God’s saving plan revealed in Joseph’s reveal

Last Sunday, we read in Genesis 44 about how Joseph framed his brother Benjamin by secretly putting a silver cup in Benjamin’s bag.

When they were brought back to Joseph’s house, Judah, one of Judah and Benjamin’s brothers, spoke up and was willing to take the blame for a crime that neither he nor Benjamin committed.

Judah said that he would rather become a slave for Joseph than to see their father Jacob suffer anymore.

Judah’s love for his father and his brother broke Joseph open.

Look with me at Genesis 45, beginning from verse 1, “Joseph could no longer keep his composure in front of all his attendants, so he called out, “Send everyone away from me!” No one was with him when he revealed his identity to his brothers.

But he wept so loudly that the Egyptians heard it, and also Pharaoh’s household heard it.” Joseph couldn’t hold it in anymore.

He wept loudly; he was sobbing.

Even though he sent everyone out to keep it private, his crying was so loud that even Pharaoh’s household could hear it.

He told his brothers, “I am Joseph!”

In most superhero movies, the hero guards their identity.

They live as an ordinary person, and slip away to save the day in secret.

But at the end of Iron Man, Tony Stark looks into the cameras and says, “I am Iron Man.” Three words — and nothing in his life, or the lives of those around him, would ever be the same.

That’s what happened when Joseph said, “I am Joseph”.

Three words – and nothing in his life, his brothers’ lives and his father’s life, would ever be the same again.

The first thing he asks his brothers after he revealed his identity was, “Is my father still living?”

Judah had just mentioned how the loss of Benjamin would literally kill Jacob their father because Jacob was so close to Benjamin.

And so, he asked his brothers about their father, because he still cared deeply for Jacob their father.

However, he could see that the brothers were stunned, probably looking at Joseph with their mouths wide open.

They would’ve thought to themselves, “What is happening?” The Bible tells us that the brothers were terrified in Joseph’s presence.

They freaked out.

Joseph saw their shock and invited them to come closer.

Then he disclosed the secret they had hidden for twenty-two years—a secret known only to Joseph and his brothers.

In verse 4 he said, “I am Joseph, your brother, the one you sold into Egypt.” It was unmistakable: they were standing before Joseph.

Joseph might have thought that the brothers would go very hard on themselves for the horrible crime they committed all those years ago.

Rather than making them feel guilty for what they'd done to him, even though they were, Joseph told them not to be grieved or angry with themselves for selling him.

Look with me at verse 5, “And now don’t be grieved or angry with yourselves for selling me here, because God sent me ahead of you to preserve life.” Yes, Joseph’s brothers did sell Joseph as a slave.

However, ultimately, it was God himself who sent Joseph ahead of them to preserve life.

Though the brothers didn’t know it at that time, God’s purpose was to save Egypt, the wider region surrounding Egypt, as well as the family of Jacob and his sons.

Joseph affirmed that God was in control the whole time.

From verse 5 to verse 9, Joseph mentioned God four times.

Verse 5, “God sent me ahead of you to preserve life.” Verse 7, “God sent me ahead of you to establish you as a remnant”.

Verse 8, “He has made me a father to Pharaoh, lord of his entire household, and ruler over all the land of Egypt.” And verse 9, “Return quickly to my father and say to him, ‘This is what your son Joseph says: “God has made me lord of all Egypt. Come down to me without delay.”

This was God’s saving plan all along — to send Joseph ahead, to preserve life, and to keep the clan of Jacob alive as a remnant.

Through Joseph, God was saving the lives of many people in the region.

Now notice how Joseph addressed his brothers’ fear.

Unlike how many in the world might attempt to calm others down, Joseph didn’t tell them that ‘Everything is going to be ok’.

He didn’t let them drown in their sorrow either.

Instead, he pointed to an important truth about who God is.

God was, is, and always will be in total control.

There’s no place outside of his control.

Even when the brothers sold Joseph as a slave to Egypt, even though they acted out of envy and committed a horrible crime against Joseph, Joseph told his brothers that it was God’s way of preparing for Joseph’s role in God’s saving plan.

God’s plan to save his people was so ingenious that all the pain Joseph’s brothers had brought Joseph was all within God’s plan to preserve life, even the lives of these very same brothers.

Having the correct understanding about God, getting our doctrine of God right, is a wonderful blessing, not only for our minds, but also for our hearts.

For when we come to believe that the all-powerful God who has all things under his control also is the God who loves us and cares for us, we can trust him even when we face life’s biggest challenge.

We can trust him in the storms of life because even the storms are under his control.

We can trust him because he can even use the storms of our lives for his saving purposes.

On 1 February 2020, a drunk driver ran over and killed four children of the Abdallah family when his car mounted the curb in Bettington Road, Oatlands, just north of Parramatta. 

The Abdallah family are Maronite Christians. 

Following these deaths, Daniel and Lelia Abdallah released the following statement: “Our children are our reason for living. Bringing them up in accordance with the ways of God, teaching them to love, affording them every opportunity and nurturing them into positive and impacting young men and women was, and is our life’s purpose… What is life without your children? How and where do we begin to pick up the pieces so that we may be effective parents to our three remaining angels?

“We start with forgiveness.

“We forgive the driver that killed our innocent children. His actions will be met before the earthly and heavenly judge. We have decided, in our hearts to forgive him – for the sake of our children and more so for Christ’s sake.”

I have no doubt the Abdallahs would’ve done everything in their power to prevent this tragedy from happening.

However, they chose to trust God even in the dark storm of losing their children.

They chose to obey God, and they chose to forgive the drunk driver.

While there are differences between what we believe and what the Maronite Christians believe, we can both affirm Christ’s teaching on forgiveness.

How would you respond when the storms of life strike? What does God’s word have to say about the storm that you’re facing now? Keep reading God’s word throughout the week, and in your Growth groups. 

Keep searching for God’s will. Pray for the strength to obey God’s will. As an old hymn reminds us, 

Judge not the Lord by feeble sense,But trust him for his grace.Behind a frowning providence,He hides a smiling face. 

2.    God’s faithfulness revealed in Joseph’s provision

In his wisdom, not only has God kept Joseph alive even though he was sold as a slave to Egypt.

God made him to be a father to Pharaoh.

In the Old Testament, priests and prophets are sometimes described as fathers to kings, instructing them and advising on what they should do, as a father would their son.

Joseph was in charge of Pharaoh’s household, helping to run the daily affairs of the Egyptian palace.

Joseph also ruled over the land of Egypt.

Having revealed his true identity to his brothers, Joseph now makes this request to his brothers, in verse nine, “Return quickly to my father and say to him, ‘This is what your son Joseph says: “God has made me lord of all Egypt. Come down to me without delay.” 

He wants to invite Jacob, his own father, to come down to see him, quickly, without delay.

One of the joys of being a father to a married daughter is that we get invited to her home for dinner.

It wasn’t that long ago when we would yell “Sik fan na! 食飯啦 Eat Rice” and all three children, including Zoe, would come out of their bedrooms to come to the dining room for dinner.

It was good to see Zoe begin preparing the meal and call out “Sik fan na! 食飯啦, eat rice” because she’s now able to provide food for us and the rest of the family.

And she’s getting better at it as well!

Joseph was doing something similar to Zoe, but on a much grander scale.

Not only would he provide food for his father Jacob, but he would provide a new home for the whole clan, in the land of Goshen.

Jacob could bring the whole family, and all his flocks and all his herds, and everything that he has.

If Joseph was from China, then it would be like him telling his father to take his whole village and ask them to migrate to Australia.

Joseph would look after all of them.

God has told Pharaoh in a dream that there would be seven years of famine, and they were only in the second year.

God gave Joseph the wisdom to interpret the dream for Pharaoh and had been managing the food supply of Egypt ever since.

Rather than coming back and forth from Canaan for food, Joseph wanted the whole family to come, so that he could sustain them, especially in the next five years of famine.

If they chose not to come, they would soon run out of money because they wouldn’t be able to grow food for both themselves and their animals and they would have to pay money for food in Egypt for the next five years.

The news about Joseph, along with what he suggested would’ve been a lot for the brothers to take in, and so Joseph told them to see with the evidence for themselves.

Their eyes have seen him, Benjamin, the son of Joseph’s mother Rachel and brother of Joseph, had also seen him.

They could believe what they were seeing and they were to tell their father Jacob of all that they were seeing.

Only be sure to do it quickly.

Why did they have to do it quickly?

Well, firstly, it’s because Jacob was getting old, and from what Judah had said about him, he may be fragile.

And so, Joseph wanted his father to come to Egypt while he was still physically able to do so.

Also, the famine was still happening and the family back home was running out of food, and so Joseph urged his brothers to go back quickly.

When Pharaoh found out about Joseph’s brothers, he was very happy to hear about their reunion.

He was very generous to Joseph’s brothers also.

He told them to load the animals and go back to the land of Canaan.

Pharaoh would provide the transport for them to come.

He would provide wagons, the modern equivalent of a private plane, to make sure they have a comfortable journey to Egypt.

Pharaoh would give them the best of their land and they would enjoy the riches of the land.

Does that remind you of another place in the book of Genesis?

When God created the heavens and the earth and placed Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden, it was described to be very good.

Here, towards the end of the book of Genesis, we see God’s people, now seventy, including Joseph’s family, living in a land that was also good.

Despite the weaknesses of the descendants of Adam and Eve, God has kept his promise to Abraham and was slowly but surely gathering his people and placing them in a good land.

God faithfully provided for the children of Abraham so that they would survive the famine.

Indeed, not just survive, but thrive, as we see in the case of Jacob and as we’ll see as God’s people grow in the land of Goshen.

Egypt, of course, was not the promised land.

Canaan was the promised land, and God would also faithfully keep his promise to take his people home.

Over time, as we read through the Bible, we know that even Canaan was not the ultimate promised land for God’s people.

Heaven would be the ultimate Promised Land for God’s people.

Heaven is where we want to be heading.

For those of us who have put our trust in Jesus, Sydney is not the Promised Land.

Shanghai is not the Promised Land.

Heaven is our Promised Land. 

We can trust God to faithfully provide whatever we need to take us there.

That doesn’t mean that we will travel in comfort.

Life will still be difficult along the way, but he has provided His Son, the Lord Jesus, who declares in John 14:6, “I am the Way, and the Truth and the Life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” As long as we’re with Jesus, we’re on the Way to the Father.

3.    God’s reconciliation in Christ foreshadowed in Jacob’s family

As the brothers were about to go, he asked the brothers to take twenty donkeys for Jacob their father, which carried food, the best produce of Egypt, as well as provisions for his father.

Joseph also gave gifts to the brothers.

Look at verse 22 with me, “He gave each of the brothers changes of clothes, but he gave Benjamin three hundred pieces of silver and five changes of clothes.” The brothers were worried that they would get in trouble for discovering one silver coin in their bags, all eleven of them.

Joseph had plenty of silver coins, he gave three hundred silver coins to Benjamin.

But even more meaningful than the three hundred silver coins are the set of new clothes.

Each of them have a new set and Benjamin had five sets.

I imagine it would be the modern day equivalent of tuxedo, or a coat with a designer label. 

Why did Joseph give them new sets of clothes?

Remember what Joseph's brothers did to Joseph’s coat?

They tore it to pieces and let Jacob believe that Joseph was torn to pieces by wild animals.

Here, Joseph gave them new sets of clothes, to show that they had reconciled.

They were apart as brothers but they’re now together again, and this new set of clothes symbolise a new beginning for their relationship, a new beginning for their brotherhood.

Their reconciliation was not merely a superficial one.

It was deeply genuine and personal.

Joseph wept in front of them when he revealed his true identity to them.

There would have been so much emotion in his tears.

While there could’ve been hints of anguish and frustration in those tears, there would’ve been much gratitude, love and joy in Joseph’s tears.

He could finally be reconciled with his brothers!

He could finally see his father Jacob once again!

Look with me at verses 14-15, “Then Joseph threw his arms around his brother Benjamin and wept, and Benjamin wept on his shoulder. Joseph kissed each of his brothers as he wept, and afterward his brothers talked with him.” What a beautiful scene.

Hatred and lies that had stained their relationship were washed away by tears of joy.

The joyous and boisterous sound of their weeping (along with the occasional laughter, I’m sure) ended the years of silence between the brothers.

They were reconciled.

God longs to see us reconciled to him, even more than Joseph’s longing to reconcile with his brothers.

God longs for our reconciliation with him so much that he sent his only Son Jesus Christ to reconcile us to him.

The Bible tells us in 2 Corinthians 5:18 that “Everything is from God, who has reconciled us to himself through Christ and has given us the ministry of reconciliation.” God has reconciled Christians to himself through Jesus Christ.

And now, he’s given us, here, as a Church, the ministry of reconciliation.

God appeals to the world through us, “Be reconciled to God”!

Christians who have been reconciled with God know the joy of reconciliation.

They’re so happy that they could cry!

As Christians, we long for the day when we’ll see Christ face to face.

I know that on that Day, God himself will wipe away our tears.

I imagine that on that day, when I see Jesus face to face, I will be weeping, I will have tears in my eyes, but they will be tears of joy.

It would be so good, to see Jesus face to face.

Though it’s a joy that Christians can look forward to in the distant future, it’s also a joy that we want to look forward to now.

We want to see our friends reconciled to God.

We want to see them so filled with the joy of being reconciled to God that they, too, would weep tears of joy.

It’s so good to see men and women, boys and girls, finally understand the goodness of Jesus and to be filled with tears of joy.

Don’t you want to see that too?

Don’t you long to see that too?

As well as longing to see tears of joy in someone coming to call on Jesus for the first time, we ought to have a longing to see tears of joy when Christian brothers and sisters, whose fellowship has been broken, are reconciled to one another once again.

In a world that’s already so deeply divided, it’s a rare sight to see true, genuine, heart-felt reconciliation.

Samuel Davidson was the drunk driver who killed the Abdallah children in Oatlands.

He was under the influence of drugs and alcohol when he mounted the footpath and crashed into the group of children. He was sentenced to 28 years in jail but was later reduced to 20 years.

However, Daniel Abdallah, the father, decided to visit Samuel Davidson in prison.

Davidson expressed his remorse and Daniel would tell him that he’s forgiven him.

In a documentary, they were even filmed greeting each other with a hug.

Though the shot of them hugging was probably not the first time they hugged each other, I imagine their first hug, off camera, would be filled with tears of relief and tears of joy.

When you confess your sins before God, here on Sundays, as well as at home, is your heart filled with thankful joy?

Do your eyes fill up with thankful tears?

My prayer is that our Church will be a place where we want to see tears overflow, not out of hopelessness, not out of sorrow, but out of joy and relief because God has reconciled us to himself and to each other in Jesus Christ.

When was the last time a decision to trust in God led you to weep for joy?

There are times at Church when we need to make difficult decisions, decisions that are costly, decisions that may even divide, but decisions that are made so that more people will come to know Jesus.

When people at our Church become Christians, when they are reconciled to God, I’m prone to weep for joy.

How about you?

Will you trust God in the good times, as well as the hard times, because you know that God’s plan of salvation will never fail?

Does your heart beat for God to save people, and will your eyes be filled with joy when he does?

Those who trust in God long for, and will one day weep, tears of joy — for his saving plan in Jesus will never fail.

Here are three questions for us to think about this week.

1.     What factors can make it hard to trust in Jesus when life doesn’t seem to make sense?

2.     Why is a right understanding of Jesus' complete control a comfort, especially to those who are suffering?

3.     Who do you want to see being saved by Jesus? Who do you want to weep tears of joy for? 

Those who trust in God long for, and will one day weep, tears of joy — for his saving plan in Jesus will never fail.

Let’s pray, “Father, thank you for sending Jesus to us, in whom we have reconciliation with you. Thank you for longing to reconcile with us, even though our hearts do prone to wander. Father, please forgive our hard hearts, melt them with your love for us in Christ, that we may share your longing for others also. Please fill our eyes with tears of joy as we see our friends and our loved ones come to put their trust in Jesus, in whose name we pray, Amen.”