Dying Well

It has been amazing to me how much the truths we have learned about the life of Joseph line up with the truths we are learning as we go through Ecclesiastes. Just a couple of Wednesdays ago, we studied Ecclesiastes 3:1-8. These verses are a poem written by Solomon about the negative and positive experiences of life and the fact that in all these times and seasons, God has a purpose He is fulfilling in each of us. He opens up the poem by saying, "To everything there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven: a time to be born, and a time to die."

Today we reach a moment in Joseph's journey of life that is probably the hardest for him. Harder than his time in the pit, more difficult than his time as a slave, more taxing than his time as a prisoner. We have reached the time in Joseph's life that eventually, if life takes it's natural course, arrives at every son's and daughter's life- the death of a father.

I want you to go with me this morning to Genesis 47:28-29a And Jacob lived in the land of Egypt seventeen years: so the whole age of Jacob was an hundred forty and seven years. 29 And the time drew nigh that Israel must die...

(PRAY)

There are certain things we are told not to talk about in polite company, right? Religion and politics would certainly fall in that category. But death is never mentioned in the category of what not to talk about in polite conversation. But we don't often talk about it. Often, the issue of death is skirted about, referenced, perhaps, but rarely discussed openly.

Tahsha and others may chalk it up to my experiences in the military of because I worked for a while at a funeral home, but honestly, even before those times, I have never had an issue about talking about death, especially my own mortality. I have plans for my funeral. None of them are written down. Well, I say none of them, but I do have a playlist of songs... but we won't discuss that, Tahsha thinks I am strange. If you're curious, talk to me afterwards, I'll be happy to tell you.

But as inevitable as death is, people don't seem to talk about it, and when we do, our language is filled with euphemisms so as not say the word death. But if there is one thing certain in life, it is death, and no matter if we fully embrace the fact of death or refuse to acknowledge it, just as there is a time to be born, there is a time to die. Barring some sort of accident or foul play, each of us present will one day find ourselves lying in a hospital or nursing home or even in your own home. And someone will leave your room and whisper in hushed tones to others waiting around and say, "It won't be long now." And it won't be.

So I present this to you this morning: If death is a reality, and we know it is, the greatest question is not "How do I live well," but, "How do I die well?" because death is the one experience that we can guarantee with certainty if the Lord delays His return.

Jacob shows us how to die well, but we also learn of Joseph how to care well for someone that is dying.

And as we read a while ago, Jacob is now at the time where he must die. Upon realizing this, Jacob makes some important preparations, which will see today.

When we first opened up this series of Joseph, I told you that the study of the life of Joseph deals with a great range of topics from dealing with emotions like depression, anger, bitterness, and despair to moral issues like dealing with temptation, forgiveness, handling success and failure, and dying well.

Today we look at the latter, dying well. As we study this portion of Genesis and look at the death of Jacob, we will see that Jacob prepared well for his death.

He was able to do this as he neared his encounter with death because of some special graces that God gave him. If life follows its natural course, we will also experience some of these special graces in our lives that indicate that we are in the twilight of our life.

So what were the indicators that made Jacob aware that death was around the corner?

The first one, and probably the most obvious one, was...

- His age (147) Jacob was 147 years old. I have some bad news, I don't think that anyone in here will ever live to see 147 years.

- Psalm 90:10 The days of our years are threescore years and ten;

and if by reason of strength they be fourscore years,

yet is their strength labour and sorrow;

for it is soon cut off, and we fly away.

Our days are numbered at 70 years and 80 for a healthy person. My dad, a football and soccer fan, would often say of people that had lived past 80 that they had made it to overtime.

So age was the first and most obvious indicator to Jacob about the approach of death. But there were others as well.

- 47:29-31 And the time drew nigh that Israel must die: and he called his son Joseph, and said unto him, If now I have found grace in thy sight, put, I pray thee, thy hand under my thigh, and deal kindly and truly with me; bury me not, I pray thee, in Egypt: 30 But I will lie with my fathers, and thou shalt carry me out of Egypt, and bury me in their buryingplace. And he said, I will do as thou hast said. 31 And he said, Swear unto me. And he sware unto him. And Israel bowed himself upon the bed's head. -

- Declining physical and mental capacity

- Leaning upon the head of his bed to worship (47:31)

- His eyesight 48:10 Now the eyes of Israel were dim for age, so that he could not see. Jacob's father had suffered from eyesight trouble as he got older and now Jacob suffers from it as well.

-The third thing we find was that Jacob's mind is slipping too. In 48:1-8 And it came to pass after these things, that one told Joseph, Behold, thy father is sick: and he took with him his two sons, Manasseh and Ephraim. 2 And one told Jacob, and said, Behold, thy son Joseph cometh unto thee: and Israel strengthened himself, and sat upon the bed. 3 And Jacob said unto Joseph, God Almighty appeared unto me at Luz in the land of Canaan, and blessed me, 4 And said unto me, Behold, I will make thee fruitful, and multiply thee, and I will make of thee a multitude of people; and will give this land to thy seed after thee for an everlasting possession.

5 And now thy two sons, Ephraim and Manasseh, which were born unto thee in the land of Egypt before I came unto thee into Egypt, are mine; as Reuben and Simeon, they shall be mine. 6 And thy issue, which thou begettest after them, shall be thine, and shall be called after the name of their brethren in their inheritance. 7 And as for me, when I came from Padan, Rachel died by me in the land of Canaan in the way, when yet there was but a little way to come unto Ephrath: and I buried her there in the way of Ephrath; the same is Bethlehem. 8 And Israel beheld Joseph's sons, and said, Who are these?

Jacob is talking with Joseph about the promise God gave him. He mentions that Joseph's two sons will be like his own sons, and then randomly, he drifts back into the past, remembering Rachel. When he comes back to the present, he sees Joseph's two sons and asks, "Who are these?" even though they have been standing there the whole time, and Jacob has already mentioned them by name.

If you have ever cared for an elderly person nearing death, you know that this can be part of their experience. When it comes to things that happened 20+ years ago, they are sharp as a tack, but with more recent developments they struggle to remember. I visited someone in the hospital once and though I introduced myself several times, they kept referring to me as someone who was much older than me. We would have good conversation, and they would look at me and say, "Have you retired yet?" And I would just kindly reintroduce myself. We had the same conversations a couple of different times in the same visit. This kind of thing can happen as we get older. And this is what is happening with Jacob. He is drifting back and forth from the present to the past and back again, and he is having trouble recognizing his own grandsons.

These things, though for some may be horrible things to experience, are graces from the Lord that indicate that death is near. And as we think of our mortality, we can respond in three ways.

- We can fight it. In the early 1900's, Dylan Thomas wrote a poem for his father that says

Do not go gentle into that good night,

Old age should burn and rave at close of day;

Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

You, my father, there on the sad height,

Curse, bless, me now with your fierce tears, I pray.

Do not go gentle into that good night.

Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

So we can fight it, but death is, as of yet, undefeated by human foe.

- We can run from it. We can ignore it, not prepare for it. We can pretend that it is not going to happen, but eventually death comes for everyone.

- The third thing we can do is face it. By facing death we can resolve to die well by preparing well for that inevitable experience, living in a way that truly matters. It has been often said that one is not prepared to truly live in this world until he is prepared to die.

Jacob isn't fighting this; he is not running. He sees the indicators, and he is preparing. He gives clear instructions to his family, spends precious time with his son, Joseph.

Physical Preparations

Jacob made physical preparations. There are physical preparations that we make when that time comes. Wills, funeral arrangements, etc.

Jacob made some physical preparations. He told his sons where he was to buried- Genesis 47:29-31. This is a matter of theology. Joseph, understanding the promise of God to give his father's descendants a possession in the land of Canaan, knows that the children of Israel will not stay in Egypt forever, and Jacob is reassuring his sons that this is not the land they will be forever.

He is telling them not to get too comfortable in that place, because they are destined, as a people, to leave Egypt and take possession of the land that God has promised them. "Don't leave my body here, take me back to Canaan and bury me there." Jacob had a message as an old man that he needed to share, and as desperately as he needed to share it, Joseph and his brothers needed to here it. Jacob has matured spiritually and he is sharing the message that his descendants ought not to think of Egypt as their home.

Old age does not necessarily mean spiritual maturity. There are older people who have not walked with the Lord consistently and are spiritually immature. I like how one preacher put it, "Spiritual maturity is about stage, not age." But it is true that when someone has been walking close to the Lord for 20, 30, 40 years, and they have adynamic relationship with Christ, this gives them a spiritual perspective on life. We have people in this congregation that have that kind of experience of walking with the Lord whose spiritual perspective on life would be of tremendous blessing for a younger generation.

In a couple of weeks (June 17th), we will be starting a men's Bible study on the topic of Christian manhood. I hope that many of you men will be able to participate in it and that older and spiritually experienced men would join and give a godly and biblical perspective on what it means to be a man of God. Those of us who are in the younger generations, we need to understand that we need to hear these perspectives of these older, godly individuals.

We need to know how God has come through in your life, we need to know how you overcame sin and temptation, we need to know how God moved and guided you in your families. This is your ministry, to share a godly perspective that comes with the experience of your years of walking with Christ.

And the rest of us need to listen. They aren't being nosy or butting in. They have experiences that are helpful. They have made mistakes and they have experienced triumphs, and they want to help you avoid some of those mistakes and experience those triumphs too.

So Jacob shared his perspective: "I know that here you will prosper and be well taken care of. You will get rich here and multiply. But this is not the land of the covenant. Carry my bones back to Canaan, bury me there, and remember not to get to comfortable here."

48:1-6

Emotional preparations- Spends precious time with Joseph, Joseph's sons, and the rest of his brothers. Genesis 49:1-2

Spiritual preparations- Jacob spends time making spiritual preparations. These preparation went hand in hand with the physical and emotional preparations. As he made physical preparations for his burial, it was a spiritual message he was communicating. He communicated that to his sons, but he also communicated that to Egyptians. He refused to be buried in the manner of the Egyptians who worshipped false gods and worshipped the dead. His request to be buried back in Canaan was a message to the Pharaoh and to the rest of Egypt that there was a greater God and Jacob was trusting Him in death and for the future of his family.

Jacob, knowing that he is on his death bed, calls his sons to him once more as we read a little while ago. He goes through each son, from the oldest to the youngest, and gives them each a blessing. Jacob, who early on in his life started out by stealing a blessing, now in his old age gives hope and comfort to those around him by giving blessings. We won't discuss the blessing that he gave each son today, but one of the blessings he gave Joseph is this: Jacob tells Joseph, "Behold, I die: but God shall be with you, and bring you again unto the land of your fathers. I am going to die, but God will be with you." (48:21)

This must have meant so much to Joseph, these comforting words from his father. For 17 years Joseph was raised and loved by Jacob. Then, for 22 years, Joseph didn't have a father. Those 22 years he learned to depend on God and to trust Him. Joseph experience the fatherly love of God as God guided him and molded him. Then Jacob is back on the scene, and for 17 more years Joseph gets to live in the presence of his earthly father again. But now, as Jacob reaches death's door, he speaks to his son and says, "I am dying, but the same God that was with you when we were apart for those 22 years is going to be with you after I am gone. God will be with you." And look what happened at the end of his speech to his sons.

Genesis 49:33 And when Jacob had made an end of commanding his sons, he gathered up his feet into the bed, and yielded up the ghost, and was gathered unto his people.

He laid back down on his bed and died. Peacefully.

How did Jacob leave his family with such peace? Because he knew that God would not abandon his boys after he had died.

Jacob states his affection to his children and grandchildren by giving these blessings. Then, dies in peace. How did he die in peace? Because he knew he was leaving a godly legacy behind.

Leaving a Legacy

It means nothing to gather your children and give them godly encouragement and a blessing on your deathbed if during your life you didn't live for the Lord. Don't count on making everything ok for your family, don't count on being able to give them peace and comfort in your last day by giving a deathbed blessing if your life was not lived in faith in front of them.

Jacob had messed up a lot in his life. He had done some not great things. But the last 17 years of his life were lived well. When it came time for him to die, he was able to give a comfort to his children as he passed away. He left them a legacy of trusting God.

A real legacy is not trust funds and rich inheritances. A meaningful legacy lies in the spiritual blessings we are able to pass on to our children when we die.

We cannon make our family and friends believe in Jesus. We cannot make them believe what we believe or make them follow Christ. But we can make them sure that we believe what we said we believed.

During my time working at a funeral home, there were many occasions when people had passed away and they did not belong to a church or their pastor was unavailable to preach the funeral for whatever reason. I had made myself available to the funeral home for such occasions as these to minister to these families and preach a short message at their loved one's funeral if they so desired. In the three years I worked there, I preached on average 1 funeral every other week. More often than not, I did not know these families or the deceased.

I would take time a few days before the funeral to visit personally with the families and to try to get to know them as well as I could and to know about the life of their loved one who had died. One of the questions I would always ask was this: "Tell me about your father's/mother's/grandparent's faith."

I cannot tell you how many times I receive this response or something similar.

"Well, you know, Daddy believed in God. He said that he knew Jesus, but honestly, he never set foot in church, never read his Bible, and as far as I know, never even prayed. Honestly, I don't know much about his faith, he was very private about it." Or, "Well, you know, Mama was just her own person. She believed in God, but she just did her own thing." How comforted do you think those families were? How sure do you think they were about their loved one's whereabouts?

I can count probably on one hand and have fingers left over the amount of times that I asked that question and was met with the response, "Grandma loved Jesus. She talked about God all the time. She would reference the Bible constantly, and she would sing to God like none other." "Grandpa loved God. He turned almost every situation into a teaching moment about God, His plan, and his love for us." In those families' minds, there was no doubt about where grandma or Grandpa were.

How about you? If you died today, what would your kids say about you? "Yeah, momma and daddy went to church. They sang in the services and all. They said they loved Jesus, but really, they just did their own thing throughout the week."

Or would they say of you, "Dad and Mom loved Jesus. Yeah, they went to church, but we heard about Jesus every day. Their lives were clearly dedicated to following Him." THAT is a godly legacy. Some of you have parents or grandparents that left you that kind of legacy. Let me tell you, legacies are not meant solely to be thought about; those are just memories. Legacies are meant for future generations to live out.

Jacob left a legacy of trusting God and it would be something that his children and grandchildren and so forth would live out. The children of Israel, the children of Jacob would be known as the nation whose God was the Lord. Surrounding nations would here about Israel and tremble for fear, because their legacy, even though it was not always lived out perfectly, their legacy given to them by Jacob was that they trusted and followed God.

Very quickly, some things that we can learn from Jacob's death.

The first thing I want to point out is that Jacob had a desire to die well. He faced death head on, and he was able to do this because he was prepared to die.

Live in the reality of death.

We need to be aware of death. For centuries, Christians used to read and practice a body of literature called the ars moriendi, the "art of dying." The practice was fading among Christians during the late 1700's, when John Wesley, the founder of the Methodist church, discovered it by reading a book titled The Rule and Exercise of Holy Dying.

Wesley taught his congregations the art of dying well so successfully that early Methodists were known for their "good deaths." A doctor who treated several Methodists commented to Charles Wesley, John Wesley's brother, “Most people die for fear of dying; but, I never met with such people as yours. They are none of them afraid of death, but [are] calm, and patient, and resigned to the last.”

As John Wesley and the early Methodists and as Jacob once did, we need to live in the reality of death. John Wesley wrote out 70 resolutions to practice in his life. These resolutions had anything to do from relationships to time management to daily spiritual disciplines. His ninth resolution reads thusly: "I am resolved to think much on all occasions of my own dying, and of the common circumstances which attend death."

Wesley was not morbid, he just wanted to be prepared to die well.

We must live in the reality of death.

But we must also prepare for death.

Sure we can prepare physically, similarly to what Jacob did. I worked in a funeral home for 3.5 years and can tell you that my advice is to make arrangements for your death early. It is a gift that you give to your family, to have everything prepared.

But that takes a back seat to making emotional preparations. Take time to spend with your family. Say the things you want them to know before you are on your death bed. Invest emotionally in those around you.

But most importantly, make sure you are prepared spiritually. We know that we will all die one day. The Bible says that it is appointed unto man once to die, and after that the judgment. Living in the reality of death is also living in the reality that there is more to come after death. God's plan is that people would spend an eternity with Him, living an amazing life in a new heaven and new earth. But the reality is that there is something that separates us from God. That something is sin.

Sin is anything that we say or do that goes against God. We have all sinned, the Bible says, and come short of the glory of God. The Bible tells us that His glory fills his throne room in heaven, and because of our sin we cannot enter there.

In addition to that, the Bible tells us that the wages or the payment for sin is death. What we rightfully deserve for or wrongdoing is death, but not just the physical death that we have been talking about this morning, but a spiritual death. This spiritual death is eternal separation from God in a lake of fire.

That is sad news. But God is a God of love and hope and forgiveness. Yes, Romans 6:23 tells us that the wages of sin is death, but it also tells us that the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ.

The Bible tells us that salvation is found in none other than Jesus. Sin must be paid for until it is clean. There is not a good thing that I can do or that you can do to wash away your sins.

Ephesians 2:8-9 tells us that it is by grace that we are saved, through faith in Jesus. It is a gift of God. We cannot work enough to earn salvation, because the washing of sins cannot come from works of righteousness.

Hebrews 9:22 tells us that without the shedding of blood, there is no remission or payment of sins.

But my blood is tainted with sin, and so is yours. If I decide to die for my sins, my blood is not perfect enough to wash them away, so I would have to go to the lake of fire for an eternity. Same with you.

If it takes perfect, sinless blood to wash away our sins, and it does, who, then, could be able to pay for sins?

Jesus, only Jesus. God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, Jesus. He sent Him to earth and Jesus obeyed willingly so that whosoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. Jesus, God the Son, God made flesh who dwelt among men, came and lived a life that was perfect. He was tempted in all things, but because He is God, He never sinned.

But he did lay His life down willingly to die on a cross. He shed His perfect blood as he died on that cross, and it satisfied the payment for sin.

But wait, Jesus didn't have sin to pay for. Exactly, so He paid for all of our sin when He died.

He offers that gift of salvation. He offers that the payment be applied to anyone that would believe in Him and receive Him as their savior.

Romans 10:9-10 says, If thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and believe in thy heart that God has raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. For with the heart man believes unto righteousness, but with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.

If you are here this morning and have never trusted Jesus Christ and asked Him to wash away your sins and to save you, you are not spiritually prepared to die. There is bad news for you, and I would do you a disservice to skirt around it or to use euphemisms, so I'll tell you straight up: If you die without Jesus, you will go to a real hell that will eventually be cast into a lake that burns with real a real fire that never ends.

But just like I would be doing you a disservice by not telling you that, I would be doing you a disservice by not giving you an opportunity to repent of your sins, put your faith in Christ Jesus, and ask Him to save you.

Invitation:

At this moment I would like to ask everyone to bow their heads and close their eyes, and I will ask everyone to stand as well. If you are able, please just stand there in your place. In a moment we will sing a song together, but before we do that, I'll ask that nobody be looking around or talking, this is the most important part of the service today.

My first question for each individual today is, are you prepared spiritually for death? Do you know for sure that if you were to die today, you open your eyes in the presence of Jesus in Heaven? If you are not sure, I would ask you to come today to make that sure. I am down here at the front. If you are unsure about your salvation, come down here where I am and I would love to take a moment to show you how you can be sure that Jesus is your savior and heaven your home. Is there anyone like that this morning? Please come. The invitation will not last long. I do not want to pressure anyone into making any type of decision, but if you would like to this morning, just come and talk with me.

If you come forward for salvation, someone will talk with you about salvation in private. If you are a man, I or another man will gladly talk with you. If you are a woman, my wife or another of our lovely ladies will gladly show you with the Bible how to be saved. Is there anyone?

My next call to action is for those that would say, I know I am saved. I am prepared spiritually to meet death. I know Jesus is my savior and that when I die I will be in heaven.

My question for you is, "Are you prepared to die well? Are you prepared to leave a godly legacy?" If you died today, would others know about your faith, would your family be reassured about your salvation? Would your coworkers and friends know that you loved Jesus and followed Him?