Reconciliation - Part III

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Preacher: Ross Macdonald Scripture: Genesis 45:1-15

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Well, our brother said he is thankful for the weeks and the months we've been in Genesis, it's actually been a few years and Unfortunately, our time is coming toward an end.
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We perhaps only have several more weeks before we'll complete this wonderful book We've been working through the
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Joseph narrative and this morning as we begin chapter 45 We're reminded that this is the great moment.
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This is the great revelation Joseph of course ever since he first encountered his brothers
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Has been restraining his desire to reveal everything to reveal not only his identity
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But all that God has done in and through him so that he can offer his forgiveness and bring about Reconciliation for the past two weeks now.
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We've been looking at reconciliation This is part three and as I mentioned last week, we're doing somewhat of a deep dive this morning
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So as we consider reconciliation, we're going to work through these first 15 verses
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Then we'll take a step back and take a look at some theology about Reconciliation and then we'll also in the last part look at the practical applications
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Last week we saw God through Joseph testing the work of grace in these brothers lives
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And we saw the change that took place in Judah Judah stepped forward and he threw himself in the place of Benjamin He offered himself to be a slave in bondage in the land of Egypt to never see his family his children
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His father or his homeland ever again and Joseph was so moved by this offer of sacrifice
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That everything that flows out of chapter 45 is a direct result of the change that took place in Judah's life
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Judah's speech one of the most magnificent speeches in the book of Genesis If not, the
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Bible is presented as the proof positive that God's grace has brought about genuine
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Repentance and a work of grace has taken root in the life of not only Judah But also all of the brothers of Joseph that change is marked by repentance as we said
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He didn't own just to the guilt the supposed guilt of theft of which he was innocent
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But he owned all the guilt God had found him out and that's what true repentance looks like God has found me out all is open and bare before him and alone on his mercy.
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Can I depend so we saw the change? We said last week without chapter 44.
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There is no chapter 45 Meaning without repentance there is no reconciliation
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But there has been repentance. And now as we begin in verse 1 there can be reconciliation
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Joseph could not restrain himself before all those who stood by him. He cried out make everyone go out from me
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So no one stood with him while Joseph made himself known to his brothers and he wept aloud and the
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Egyptians and the whole house of Pharaoh heard it and Joseph said to his brothers. I am
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Joseph The moment has finally arrived Literarily, not only has
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Joseph been waiting, but we've been waiting for this great revelation paragraph by paragraph
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Sentence by sentence the tension has been building and the revelation is finally come
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I wonder how you imagine this scene in your mind. We can't help but imagine it
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Artists and musicians have been trying to imagine it for centuries This is a scene that has become a muse for the ages
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I was looking this week at several images just seeing where they are in terms of my mind and how
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I Picture this scene. There's a very famous study by Rembrandt and the Louvre of Joseph standing before his brothers revealing his identity.
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My particular favorite is a French painter Léon Bourgeois and he has this picture of Joseph with his arms outstretched
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And all the brothers are down on the ground beginning to look up except for Benjamin he's rushing forward to grasp his long -lost brother and Judah is in the back having just given the speech and he's almost falling backward at the revelation.
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It's a marvelous painting I haven't done this before but I can't resist reading
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The way a good writer a good novelist would depict this encounter This is from a
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German writer Thomas Mann He wrote a four -part novel what he considered his masterpiece and this is the last part of the novel from Joseph and his brothers which was finished in 1943 and this is how he depicted this scene
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Judah ended his famous speech He stood there weaving back and forth the brothers had turned pale But they were deeply relieved the secret was out at last
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It is not impossible to go pale and yet feel relieved at the same time and Joseph He had got up from his seat and glittering tears ran down his cheeks he pictures the a light moving in the hall from his brother's sort of the the spotlight the the
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Interrogation light and now it moves on to Joseph and he says the light Fell on Joseph's face and his tears glittered like jewels all
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Egyptians go from me. He said out with you go For I invited God and the world to this play, but now
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God alone shall be witness Reluctantly they obeyed the crowds vanished from the entrance though not very far their heads were behind the doors cocked to try to catch the noise from the hall and Joseph ignoring the tears on his face stretched out his arms and made himself known
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Often before now he had done the same He made people stare giving them to think that some higher power moved in him something other than what he was in himself
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But now quite simply and despite the outstretched arms He said here I am your brother
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Joseph and the novel Benjamin rushes forward to grasp him
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Joseph put his arm around Benjamin's shoulders and went down with him to the brothers. Ah, yes the brothers
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How was it with them as they stood there? Some stood with legs apart arms dangling awkwardly down almost to their knees.
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They stared open -mouthed into space Some held clenched fists upon their breasts as they heaved up and down with the fury of panting
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All of them had gone pale at Judah's confession But now they were crimson deep dark red like the color of pine trunks red as they as that time
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They were squatting on their hands They had seen Joseph coming toward them in the coat of many colors But now these sons of Rachel came with their arms about each other to stand among a mere
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Association all of them had felt something of this man so long ago
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God was moving in their midst, but that swelled and now changed into an identification and what wonder filled their brains
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They felt as though they would burst and then at one moment and putting together this
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Sacrificed lamb and the Lord here in his glory the next moment the ideas fell apart again
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They had to work hard to hold them together And that was because their horror was so great
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Until Joseph said come here to me. I am your brother It's marvelous
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It captures the shock of the brothers at this revelation Joseph had sent everyone out from his midst
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He didn't want anyone to be witness to this revelation and that has a couple things to say about it
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First of all Joseph kept the privacy of the matter He had no interest to publicly shame his brothers as he revealed his identity to them more importantly
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He had no desire for Pharaoh to understand what had happened to him as a result of these men
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Pharaoh was so loyal and so devoted to Joseph that surely any offense that had been done
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Even if Joseph had forgiven it Pharaoh likely would not have forgiven it So we read that Pharaoh's household heard of it
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That's most likely that Joseph was weeping and had sent everyone out Now theologically we can draw some insights here first Joseph sovereignly reveals himself to his brothers
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At no point do the brothers by accident discover who Joseph is
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The brothers never came to Egypt seeking out Joseph They actually had no desire to encounter
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Joseph and so it is with the Lord He sovereignly reveals himself to blind sinners sinners never by accident stumble upon the
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Lord The Lord is never found by their own seeking of their own effort He's found only by his revelation by his plan
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You are the Christ the Son of God a sinner says and the response is always blessed.
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Are you? Flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but the Father who is in heaven
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Joseph secondly had also carefully strategically acted to bring his brothers to this very point and Yet now that his brothers are here and the plan has been fulfilled.
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We see that Joseph is overcome with emotion This is genuine and heartfelt
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Remember he had designed all of this over over two years. Perhaps he has been working to this very moment
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It's been his design his plan. And yet when it is fulfilled, he's not cold.
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It wasn't calculated This is an arbitrary and so it is with the Lord. He is in control
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He plans the providence in our lives to bring us to a place of reconciliation
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But it's not cold or distant or calculated It's genuinely filled with compassion an unfailing desire to show mercy to his people
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Verse 3. I am Joseph does my father still live? But his brothers could not answer him.
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They were dismayed in his presence Once again, we see this deep love Joseph has for his father now
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Joe Judah had already spoken about his father Maybe Joseph wasn't sure if Judah was glazing over details.
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Maybe Joseph was concerned that Judah wasn't relaying just how sad the condition of their father was is my father still alive?
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Meaning is he able to travel? Can he come be with me? Can I see him again? But the brothers offer no response
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They're stunned. They're rocked to the core. They're paralyzed by fear and so Joseph seeing this verse 4 says, please come near to me a like Shelf shock veterans from World War one begin to toddle toward him
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Notice that Joseph won't allow the fear of the hesitation to linger. This is the second time he says, please
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Please come to me He's been seeking Reconciliation he's made so many steps to bring it about and now he's asking them to take some steps
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Toward him and that's often how the Lord works, isn't it? He takes the initiative and he takes all of the patient providential steps to bring us to a place of reconciliation and Then in that place he bids us come
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Come to me Come to me you who are weary heavy -laden. I will give you rest
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And he says again, I am Joseph They had to keep hearing this because they just they couldn't stop
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Thinking how could this be? This must be a dream something is wrong How could this possibly be there's no way that this
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Lord is our brother Joseph and yet there's something familiar about him behind The shaved appearance behind all the ornate adornment
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There's something familiar about Joseph and he has to keep reaffirming and reinforcing that I am
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Joseph your brother whom you sold into Egypt, but Brothers do not be grieved or angry with yourselves because you sold me here.
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He acknowledges their sin You sold me to this place But as soon as he acknowledges their sin as soon as he lays the charge
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He immediately offers comfort do not be grieved or angry and that's very striking something easily missed but These two verbs in Hebrew don't appear together very commonly
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In fact, the only place elsewhere in Genesis we find them together is back in chapter 34.
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You remember that horrific episode? when Jacob's daughter Dinah was raped by the prince of Shechem and We read there the sons of Jacob came in from the field and when they heard it
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They were grieved and very angry because he had done this disgraceful thing And so Genesis 34 has this this grieving rage this grief and anger
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Because a family member has been disgraced has been wounded and it results in the massacre of the
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Shechemites now here is Joseph and He has every right to be grieved and angry as the family member that was disgraced and wounded
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He has every right as Lord of the land to bring about a massacre But notice he says do not be grieved or angry
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You do not be grieved or angry brothers, though. He is the one that ought to be grieved and very angry
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He offers comfort He lets them know Massacre is the last thing that will come from his hands.
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He's already encouraging them toward peace Do not therefore be grieved or angry with yourselves because you sold me here for verse 5
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God sent me here before you to preserve life For these two years the famine has been in the land and there are still five years in which there will be neither
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Plowing nor harvesting and God sent me before you To preserve a posterity for you in the earth to save your lives
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By a great deliverance and so now it was not you who sent me here but God We noticed that Joseph began his
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Revelation to the brothers with an acknowledgment of their offense you sold me here into Egypt But then he moves into an acknowledgment that that was part of God's sovereign
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Providence God sent me here before you God sent me before you he says again and if you missed it
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He says it a third time. It was not you who sent me here, but God That's a profound statement.
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That's Moses being a Calvinist before there ever was Calvin Joseph's faith is holding together
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God's sovereignty with man's Responsibility it's crowned in chapter 50 what they meant for evil
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God meant for good The very evil action of man is so moved by God that it is his good desire
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And therefore he does not prevent or restrain it and so Joseph has such a faith in the
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Lord God He's able to confess what we need to confess at the same time holding man's
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Responsibility and all the evil and wickedness that flows from that with the sovereign control of God We have faith in God's good purposes.
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It was you he can say and it was not you It was you he can say but it was
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God every Christian needs to get to a place in their life and in their trials and in their injuries and They can confess the same thing
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God does not always restrain Human sin he certainly does not always prevent pain and thorns from entering the life of his beloved
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But when he does so it's in order to bring about salvation even through judgment
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Joseph knows that God was holding his life in his hands Whether he was exalting
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Joseph or bringing Joseph down into humiliation He has made me a father to Pharaoh Joseph recognizes the same hand that brought me into slavery is the hand that made me a father to Pharaoh That would be a way of saying an advisor to Pharaoh like a father giving counselor advice to a child
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Notice the understanding that Joseph has about God's purpose He acknowledges really that God sent him to be a savior
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Several weeks ago. We talked about that the typology how Joseph is the great type of the
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Lord Jesus Christ in Genesis at the very beginning of the Bible is beginning to set up the themes and the
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Shadows that are going to be fulfilled in the fullness of time when Jesus comes Here Joseph acknowledges that God had allowed this humiliation and exaltation so that he could be a savior
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Verse 5 God sent me before you to preserve life Verse 7
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God sent me before you to preserve a posterity for you in the earth that could be translated land
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To save your lives by a great deliverance Notice how all of these statements relate to the covenantal promise that God made with Abraham This is thick with the language and imagery of the
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Abrahamic Covenant Joseph recognizes that there must be a preservation of the life the seed there must be a
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Posterity in the land there must be a salvation not only for the lives of his countrymen
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But for the whole world Jew and Gentile alike Joseph sees in God's providence the means of furthering
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God's promise to Abraham So that a blessing can come about in the world And with this story in mind, perhaps we are closer than ever
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To understanding what Paul says about Israel in Romans 11 Concerning the gospel they are enemies for your sake but concerning the election.
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They are beloved for the sake of the fathers The gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable for as you were once disobedient to God yet Now you have obtained mercy even through their disobedience
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Certainly, that is the story of Genesis 45 the beloved son sent ahead of his people
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Sent ahead of his persecutors in order to preserve their lives and bring about salvation
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Sent ahead not only to save them with a great deliverance But also to prepare a place for them so that they could dwell in the land according to the promised blessing
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That's pointing us forward to the gospel Hurry he says verse 9 go up to my father and say to him
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Thus says your son Joseph God has made me Lord of all Egypt come down to me
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Don't tarry you shall dwell in the land of Goshen You shall be near to me you and your children your children's children your flocks your herds all that you have there
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I will provide for you Lest you and your household and all that you have come to poverty for there are still five years of famine
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Still the concern for his father is foremost on his mind. He has not seen his father in over 20 years
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He's always hoping that his father will be in a condition to see him one last time by implication
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If the brothers go back home to retrieve Jacob They have to explain why it is that Joseph is still alive
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By implication they have to go back to their father and explain what they did 20 years before The guilt and the shame of their sin
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But we sense no hesitancy They don't say well surely we can find they don't try to negotiate.
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They don't try to maneuver around it They're so overjoyed by the Reconciliation the one that they thought was dead now lives that they rush back to retrieve their father knowing that they'll have to confess everything and Joseph wants them to proclaim this good news of the risen beloved
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Son God has made him Lord This is gospel theme Much more than Jacob could have imagined
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When he lovingly wrapped that coat of many colors to set Joseph apart from all the brothers now
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He's Lord over all the land over all of Egypt and now Joseph says
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I want him to settle in a land That's well watered Goshen is in the Nile Delta in a time of famine.
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That would probably be the best place to be Notice also that Joseph is concerned to care for his aged father
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Good Christian application there When God works grace into our lives
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We have an eye for those that we have responsibilities toward and that includes our aging parents Joseph seeks to make sure that his father will be taken care of verse 12 behold your eyes
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The eyes of my brother Benjamin see it's my mouth that speaks to you. It had always been spoken through the interpreter
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Pretending to go from Hebrew into Egypt and from Egyptian back into Hebrew But now it's
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Joseph's own mouth and that familiar language that speaks to them You shall tell my father of all my glory in Egypt all that you've seen hurry and bring my father down here
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Joseph is concerned that Jacob knows God's revelation has been fulfilled He had dreamed back in chapter 37 that the whole family would come and bow before him
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And now God has brought that to pass all of the brothers and soon the father will come to lie
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Prostrate before the Lord of the land you shall tell my father of all my glory
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Remember 20 years earlier. It was Joseph's glory That causes brothers rage and spite but now the brothers are
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Rejoicing to share the glory of Joseph to their father That's a work of grace they once hated the promise and the potential the diligence and the integrity the
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Righteousness the purity the love of the father for that beloved son that once was so off -putting so disturbing
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It filled them with rage and murder But now it's all their joy to say
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Joseph has been exalted Joseph is Lord Joseph is filled with glory
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And he falls verse 14 on his brother Benjamin's neck and he weeps
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Benjamin weeping on his neck. He hadn't seen
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Benjamin since Benjamin was a little toddler Benjamin would have never really remembered Joseph But Joseph would have remembered his brother the only brother from their mother
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Rachel But then he kissed all his brothers all the stepbrothers the persecutors and he wept over them as well
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And we close verse 15 with them talking them
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Conversing wouldn't you love to be a fly on that wall? Can you imagine what they had to catch up on?
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Joseph weeps with his brothers Kisses them.
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This is how the prodigal father receives the wayward son with a kiss. It's a sign of forgiveness
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It's a sign of favor. It's a sign of compassion A .w.
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Pink says now that the brothers are reconciled to Joseph. They could enjoy his fellowship They could talk with him and that's what it is to be a saved sinner
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We're restored and we can commune we can talk with the Lord that we once persecuted to death
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So that's verses 1 through 15 and now we have to consider Reconciliation I mentioned this is a little steep from where we've been the past two weeks
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But we want to do justice to this very important word and concept in Scripture. So let's consider reconciliation theologically perhaps the essential
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Passage on reconciliation in the New Testament is 2nd Corinthians chapter 5 beginning in verse 17
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Paul writes Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation All things have passed away behold all things have become new now.
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All things are from God Who has reconciled us to himself through Jesus Christ and has given us the ministry of reconciliation.
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That is God was in Christ Reconciling the world to himself
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Not imputing their trespasses to them and he has committed to us the word of reconciliation
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J. Packer In a wonderful study. He wrote on Reconciliation says these are not
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Common themes. This is not a common word in the New Testament. In fact only Paul uses this word reconciliation in the
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New Testament and when he does it's only in five places and Yet these are key words.
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I think I mentioned two weeks ago Reconciliation is the very core of the gospel
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I was out on a limb in some ways based on my understanding, but I believe
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I've been confirmed along the way Packer himself writes. It is not too much to say that to Paul Reconciliation was the sum and the substance of the gospel in his hands reconciliation became in effect the theological term to describe and interpret the central fact of the
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Christian message the saving work of God Through the cross of the Lord Jesus and so he refers to the gospel itself as the word of Reconciliation and to preaching that gospel as the ministry of reconciliation
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Plainly Packer writes Reconciliation is the very heart of the gospel and of all the words used in the
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New Testament to explain the saving work of Christ Reconciliation is perhaps the most full and the most expressive
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That's a statement when we look at Joseph and his brothers.
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We see Reconciliation is primarily a change in relationship When we're reconciled to God we have a change in our relationship toward him
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We become familiar as Christians with very important words to get at what the gospel does and what the gospel is words that describe a new standing or a new relationship to God through Christ by the spirit words like Justification or adoption and reconciliation has its place among them now importantly
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Justification we must say is not describing a change in the relationship
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The sinner has with God so much as the standing or the status of the sinner before God Traditionally we describe
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Justification as forensic meaning it's something declared. It's legal law court language
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Someone who is guilty has been Justified they've been cleared of the offense and so justification speaks of our standing we are declared
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Righteous by faith in Christ his righteousness Imputed to us our guilt
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Imputed to him upon the cross and as a result of that he bears the condemnation and we by faith in him are
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Justified Declared is the key word. If you're a note -taker, right justified equals declared
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I say that because it's it's a doctrine that's always under attack It was in Paul's day down through the centuries.
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It's always been under attack and one of the ways it becomes Attacked or misled or misused is it begins to move away from that standing idea before God?
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And it becomes something participatory We somehow bring something to our standing we somehow bring something to our
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Justification and that is the gateway to error gateway to heresy
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Puritans would say gateway to hell So justification is our standing
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Reconciliation though is a change in our relationship and then perhaps even more than that can connote adoption being adopted as Sons and daughters and therefore heirs co -heirs with the
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Lord Jesus Notice though that Paul will often use these terms in parallel.
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I wouldn't quite say Synonymously, but I would say in parallel for example
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Romans chapter 5 another great passage 8 and following on Reconciliation Romans 5 beginning in verse 9 much more than having now been justified by his blood
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We shall be saved from wrath through him for if while we were enemies we were
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Reconciled to God through the death of his son. Do you notice the parallel? justified by his blood
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Reconciled by his death. These are parallel statements in Paul, but they each point to something significant
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Justified in terms of our standing before God by the blood of Christ Reconciled in terms of our relationship with God through his death
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Notice again that God is always the initiator of reconciliation God is always the one who is reconciling us.
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We are to be reconciled by God Reconciliation is not something we bring about just like justification is not something we can bring about We are justified by God through faith.
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We are reconciled by God as a result of the work of Christ But notice what Paul says
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Reconciliation is the work of redemption Not only going between him and sinners justified by faith, but in the broadest terms
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Reconciliation is the work that God does for the whole world in Christ God was removing the enmity the
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Alienation between him and all that he had made so that peace could be restored
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Now there's a now and a not yet to that. Peace and peace is something that's much deeper than we might initially think
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Dutch theologian Herman Ritter boss tremendous theologian He describes it like this
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In Paul and really in all of Scripture peace refers not only to our disposition
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But it actually Embraces the whole gift of salvation this condition of peace the
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Hebrew Shalom speaks of God bringing about Everlasting dominion.
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It's a piece of his reign that knows no end Romans 1620
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The God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet. It consists of pacification not just between justified sinners
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But even hostile powers to God or the racial separation between Jew and Gentile That's how reconciliation is used in Ephesians chapter 2.
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It's the peace of the Messianic Kingdom Christ himself is our peace. The kingdom of God does not consist in eating and drinking but of peace
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And it stands in contrast to the wrath the indignation the tribulation the anguish of divine judgment
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So when we talk about reconciliation leading to peace with God, there's really two senses we need to have in view the first is the widest sense and The second is the more narrow sense by default we think of reconciliation in the narrow sense
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Narrow meaning between me and God between my offenses and his offer of peace through Christ We need to start allowing
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Paul through his gun through his explanation of the gospel to give us that wide sense of reconciliation considered in its widest sense
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Notice that in 2nd Corinthians 5 Paul begins by talking about new creation. It's very important He describes a new creation that has begun in Believers as a result of Christ's redemptive work and then he goes on to talk about that reconciliation
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And he says in Christ God was reconciling the world Meaning now
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Christ has brought about a foundation for a whole new creation That is beginning in his redemptive work.
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The old has passed away behold. All things have become new We see the same message not only in 2nd
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Corinthians 5 but in Colossians chapter 1 beginning in verse 19 It pleased the father that in him
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Christ all the fullness should dwell and by him to reconcile all things to himself
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Notice not just guilty sinners But all things to himself whether things on earth or things in heaven having made peace
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Through the blood of the cross do you see? Peace through reconciliation in the widest sense.
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This is cosmic peace This is creational peace This is every aspect of existence
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Peace all of it has been reconciled through him who fulfills all in all
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He has reconciled Paul goes on to say in his body through death to present you
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Holy and blameless and above reproach in his sight. So it begins with us We're the first fruits of that reconciliation that redemption
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But it begins to spill over into all of the categories of redemption the groaning earth of Romans 8 yearning for the day that's reconciliation
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We also consider it in its narrow sense The peace that flows from reconciliation not only is a change in our relationship to God But it's also a change in our own hearts and walk and life.
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We've seen that with Judah and his brothers Peace is not only what describes our relationship with God.
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Peace is something that describes our inner life Paul uses peace in this way as well.
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It's a peace which surpasses all understanding It's a peace which guards our hearts and minds in Christ, it's the peace of God that rules in our hearts
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So not only is our relationship changed, but as a result of reconciliation we are change
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Peace has now entered into our lives peace not just meaning the end of conflict but meaning wholeness fullness completion maturity abundance
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Trust even especially in times of need so that's reconciliation in the wide and the narrow angles
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Ritter boss again Reconciliation consists above all in the effecting of peace
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Reconciliation is the fruit of justification and it prepares the way for a new creation
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The new things peace then is the all -embracing condition of salvation And in this way reconciliation empties itself into the whole of Christian life
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Reconciliation is the foundation of the Christian life. Well, let's consider a reconciliation
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Practically in Genesis 45 we see that God was reconciling the brothers to himself through Joseph And as a result they were reconciled together
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It's the same thing in Ephesians 2 God has reconciled sinners to himself and as a result They must be reconciled together and that is how it must be for us this morning
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If we have been reconciled to God by faith in Christ, we are called to be reconciled to one another
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If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation the old has passed away behold the new has come
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That's the guiding line for Paul to begin to talk about the ministry of reconciliation He begins with the fact that Christ has brought about a new creation.
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The old has passed away there is no hope for the ministry of Reconciliation when we live as though the old remains with us and the new has yet to come
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You must begin where Paul begins Christ's work has brought about a new creation and as a result of being new
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Everything old has passed away. Look at the brothers Everything that conducted their lives and attitude toward Joseph has passed away
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They are now new creations before him. And so Joseph is able to embrace them and the way he embraces them changes them as New creations in Christ were called to receive the ministry of reconciliation
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Display it as we live We're called to proclaim it chiefly to offensive people in our lives
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That's the ministry of reconciliation We want to think about the ministry of reconciliation
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Going overseas sending checks to parachurch ministries. You want to think of the ministry of reconciliation towards strangers
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That we know neither here nor there and it's easy to be reconciled with people like that but the true ministry of reconciliation as we see in Genesis 45
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Is with those who offend you who wound you who spitefully use you? That's the ministry of reconciliation
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We see in Genesis 45 that God works through human sinfulness and pain and offense
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To bring about not only the need but the opportunity for reconciliation
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Reconciliation Reconciliation is perhaps the highest expression of God's desire of compassion toward fallen man.
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Let me say that again Reconciliation is perhaps the highest expression of God's desire of compassion
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Towards fallen man. And so we need to ask ourselves. Do we reflect God's compassionate desire?
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toward reconciliation Reconciliation How can we begin to do so Five points,
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I think we can see here in Genesis 45 five points of how we can begin the ministry of reconciliation to people that have hurt us wounded us offended us spitefully used us
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First and we see this with Joseph first. We must have a closer walk with God when offense comes
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It tends to drive a wedge in our relationship to God because of the pain because of the insult because of the anger our
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Devotion our right thinking our attention begins to stray
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We begin to cool what we know is right We don't even want to approach it because it feels better to let the anger saturate in fact it feels better to find people you can vent it toward people you can create allies out of You don't want to be ministered or told that you should cover that offense in love or go to that offender
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In fact, it's quite the opposite You want to protect it you want to nurture it you want to hide it in all the ways this root of bitterness begins to Grow notice with Joseph.
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He presses on to a closer and closer and closer to walk with God There's no way we'll be able to operate in this
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Ministry of Reconciliation If we don't constantly press to have a closer walk with God Whenever I've come across stories incredible stories of people that have forgiven amazing offenses
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And you can see them reading about house churches in China and how they bless those who persecute them
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You'll see it's a result of the closer walk they have with God They know what
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God has been toward them and as they draw close to that they begin to reflect that even toward enemies
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Sinclair Ferguson says How few of us are experientially equipped as we should be in holding deep fellowship with God How few of us are?
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Deeply equipped with fellowship with God and this is vital for reconciliation
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So first we must have a closer walk with God second We must remember that God alone is the most offended
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God alone is the most offended You remember David's great confession in Psalm 51 against you and you alone
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Oh Lord God, have I sinned and done this great evil in your sight? David came to the place where he realized my sins and all the consequences of my sins
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Have actually been of such great offense to God that it's as though I only sinned against God He begins his repentance there to the chiefly offended victim of his sin
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And it's so high and lofty that he doesn't even consider the victims and the consequences in its wake
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That is the true cry of repentance and that is how God responds with initial forgiveness
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The same way that we ought to repent against you only have I sinned. It's the same way that God tends to forgive
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C .s. Lewis captures this in mere Christianity He says this so so profound as Clive is want to do
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Jesus told people that their sins were forgiven right, you read the Gospels how often did
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Jesus come across the harlot the prostitute the tax collector the blind man and Say my son or my daughter your sins are forgiven you
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Declaration you're now justified Jesus told people that their sins were forgiven and he never waited to consult all the other people whom their sins had undoubtedly
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Affected notice that he doesn't say well, I want to forgive you But first we have to track down so -and -so and so -and -so talk to your wife talk to your children
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Talk to your colleagues talk to your relatives. We got to start tracing out all the after -effects of your sin True repentance came against you have
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I sinned and forgiveness came as you are forgiven So if that's true of our sin and our standing before God, how are we to view other people who sinned against us?
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It means we recognize that even their sins against us are still chiefly offending
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God far more infinitely than we can imagine them ever offending us and If God sees fit to forgive the offender
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Then we cannot withhold forgiveness In our own hurt and our own anger in our own rage
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We remember that sin is not ultimately against us but against the Heavenly Father And that's how you begin to entrust yourself to his care.
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You begin to look for what his purpose might be That's how you get to Joseph's confession.
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It was you but it was not you it was God He began to recognize their sin before God and how
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God is going to use that for good purposes even in his life And so you must secondly remember that God is the most offended
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So again first have a closer walk with God second. Remember that God is the most offended third
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You must remember that sin needs to be acknowledged rightly We must acknowledge sin rightly
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Joseph acknowledged sin rightly you sold me into slavery to Egypt Ideally The Christian can acknowledge sin even as they cover that offense in love.
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Ideally we overlook the offense That doesn't mean we we make light of it.
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It doesn't mean we tolerate it. It doesn't mean we wink at it Remember God is the most offended But Ideally, we're able to cover it in love
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The problem that perhaps you've seen common in churches sadly Is that those offenses that seem to have been covered in love year after year are actually just waiting to be exposed
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When some great offense or break happens and all of a sudden all the things that seem to be forgiven and forgotten
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Come rushing back into the present. That is the most un -christian way to operate
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If you've forgiven you've forgiven if you've forgotten you've forgotten So ideally as Proverbs 1911 says a man's wisdom gives him patience it is his glory to overlook an offense
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And blessed are you if you can overlook an offense? And not be like Lamech boasting about how for an insult
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You'll hunt a man down and even wipe out the next generation like some mafia Don When it comes to sin the best course is to avoid the tar pit altogether
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Right, that's how I look at overlooking offense Think of sin as a tar pit and if you go near it
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There's no way you're coming through with a little dot that you can flick off It's gonna begin to get everywhere and the more you're interacting with it
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The more it's covering you how much better it is to bypass to overlook that offense
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But remember we don't wink at sin we don't excuse sin because we remember that it's offensive to God and therefore there's times that Sin is so egregious so painful so consequential to other people's lives that it must be dealt with It cannot be covered.
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It cannot be overlooked and Jesus gives us an example of how we're to deal with that in Matthew 18.
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Matthew 18 is a model of Reconciliation and that's done in a spirit of meekness
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It's those who are spiritual who restore the offender and it's done out of a desire to speak the truth
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But to speak the truth in love So notice that grace is always surrounding this work this ministry of reconciliation guilt sin
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Consequences is never used as leverage against people not used as dirt or reasons to be cool toward people
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That is not how God is toward us Therefore that is not how we can be toward others. How many times are you to forgive the offender?
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seven times 77 times seven if they offend you that much in a day, that's a tall order, but it still doesn't let you off the hook
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Ultimately the hope of reconciliation Is to see the offender treated by God in the same way that God has treated you
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If you're thinking rightly about the work of reconciliation Your desire is not for your offense or your injury you lay that down Your desire is for that offender to be treated by God in the same way that you have been treated in that way
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You are like Christ father forgive them. They do not understand what they do
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Fourth We must release the debt of sin against us So you begin with a closer walk with God You acknowledge that God is the most offended you acknowledge that sin rightly and Then you release the debt of that sin against you
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Joseph says to his brothers don't be grieved or angry and as we said He is the one who has the right to be grieved and angry later in chapter 50
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He says don't be afraid. Am I in the place of God and So again, he recognizes it's not my place to judge not my place to take vengeance
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I'm not in the place of God. You're standing before God is between him and you my desire is for reconciliation
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Jesus taught us as his followers to pray something very simple and yet very profound Forgive my debts
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Even as I forgive my debtors sin their offense is viewed as a debt
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I Forgive my debt. I owe something now. I've done something and I I owe
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I need to rectify it. I need to pay and Jesus teaches us to pray
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Forgive your debtors so that you can be forgiven your debts We notice that Joseph is very quick to comfort come to me.
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He says He sought there to be changed. He he brought about repentance in their lives
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We've already said apart from reconciliation apart from repentance. There can be no reconciliation, but notice that once it came
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The the response was instantaneous He didn't drag it out.
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It wasn't slow and coming. It was almost bursting from him when there was genuine repentance He didn't withhold anything.
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He immediately reconciled and went beyond Reconciliation he showed favor and blessing like the prodigal father
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Bitterness and resentment Will often lead to a need and an opportunity for reconciliation scripture calls bitterness a root for a reason roots begin to grow
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Like kudzu they begin to overwhelm and shadow up everything and it begins to have all these darkening and destructive
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Effects in our lives. It begins to decay our walk with God as it decays our walk with men and so we recognize that there must be repentance and Where repentance comes after a long time of offense and bitterness and resentment maybe years
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It's very easy to say yeah, well, okay. I'm thank you for saying that and still be very cool and very distant
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Let's see how this goes. It's nothing that we see in the prodigal father. It's nothing nothing that we see in Joseph When repentance came he bursted forth in joy
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How Sure, could he have been that it was genuine. How sure could the father have been? Did you ever read
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Luke 15 and think the prodigal son doesn't really seem to have changed all that much So why this great rejoicing why this great?
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magnanimous response of reconciliation It must be That being reconciled in that way
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Works grace into the offenders life It must be that the way we carry out a ministry of reconciliation
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Will bring change into the people who offend us fifth and last
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We must patiently seek after reconciliation So we begin with a closer walk with God We remember that he alone is most offended
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We turn to the offension we acknowledge it rightly If we can overlook it or cover it we seek to do so If not, we seek help not to vent or find leverage or build allies
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But to deal with the desire to see the offender restored to the Lord For the Lord to deal with him as mercifully as the
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Lord has dealt with us and in doing so we're releasing the debt of That offense you owe me nothing and God forgive my debts as I've forgiven this debt and then fifth and last we patiently seek after reconciliation
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True forgiveness will not only anticipate reconciliation Let's say that again.
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I don't want this to be missed true forgiveness Genuine forgiveness
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Will not only anticipate reconciliation make room for reconciliation Will actually seek after it
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Joseph was seeking after reconciliation. It was going to be a long painful road
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But he was seeking after reconciliation Because reconciliation is the fruit of true forgiveness
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Now I'm going to qualify that in a moment, but I just want to establish the point first Reconciliation is the fruit of true forgiveness and that means one thing in my mind
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If we're not seeking after Reconciliation knowing it's long. It's hard.
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It's painful. It hurts to keep confronting the pain Especially when the offender seems aloof doesn't care is unconcerned
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It's just shooting more arrows at you and you have to patiently therefore seek after it But if you're not making room for that if your forgiveness has not anticipated that most likely you're just trying to convince yourself that you've forgiven the offense
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Most likely you're just coddling a lack of forgiveness in your life. Oh, well, you know,
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I forgave them a long time ago I forgave them You don't even talk to them. Well, you know
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Are you sure you've forgiven them? Something so simple reported in Genesis 45
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Joseph talks with his brother It's a simple litmus test that the reconciliation and forgiveness are in effect
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He weeps upon them he talks with them he wants to be around them again, that's reconciliation So on the one hand we may try to convince ourselves that we have forgiven but we're not patiently seeking reconciliation
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And that must follow as the fruit of our forgiveness. Otherwise, we're just coddling a lack of it but notice and here's my qualification notice we're making a distinction between forgiveness and reconciliation as Believers we're commanded to forgive full stop
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There is no ounce of excuse for you to withhold forgiveness you forgive as a
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Christian as you've been forgiven So forgiveness is the universal command for believers
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But though we are commanded to forgive it is not always possible to be reconciled Because as we said reconciliation is a change of relationship and a relationship is a two -way street we're able to offer forgiveness even for people that we may never see again even for people that have wounded us and passed on and there's no
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Opportunity for reconciliation you can have true forgiveness and receive the peace and the assurance of God But while there's still life and breath
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There's hope for reconciliation And we cannot settle for less if we are ministers in this ministry of reconciliation
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We know it's going to carry all sorts of turmoil We know the wound like surgery is going to be cut deeper before it begins to heal correctly
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We know that there'll be a painful sense of shortcoming and what we hope reconciliation will bring likely will not
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Arrive likely it'll be something less maybe something painful and awkward in its own, right?
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but as Christians we patiently seek reconciliation and when seeking reconciliation
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Feels impossibly hard Remember that it took the life of the
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Beloved Son to bring about reconciliation And that is now the ministry entrusted to us
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It's meant to be hard it's meant to be cross -bearing that is the ministry of reconciliation
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Listen if reconciliation was easy. Everyone would be reconciled The world has no interest in reconciliation.
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What would be the motivation? What would be the fuel? What would be the game? But for the
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Christian we recognize this is the gospel ministry. This is the will and plan of God This is his purpose in Christ.
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This is what he's done toward me. And therefore I must be this toward all God calls us to love from a heart that has been reconciled through the cross he calls us to remember that we were a new creation as A result of being reconciled while we were still enemies
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I cannot help but think of Joseph in that painting by bourgeois as I mentioned
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Rushing toward his brothers with open arms It's just such a moving image of reconciliation, isn't it?
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They had once used their arms to strip him bare and thrust him into the pit of death
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He uses his arms outstretched to reconcile I Was reading this week.
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I can't recommend the author necessarily But this was written in the 90s and it is a tremendous book in many respects
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He's a Croatian Believer named Miroslav wolf and he wrote a very important book called exclusion and embrace and it was it was written out of his own experience and suffering in the
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Yugoslavian war as a As a croat Facing really the the massacre of Milosevic and in the
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Serbian Chetniks as they were called And in this book in the second chapter, he's dwelling on how
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God forgets sinfulness That's one of the great Promises of the gospel is that God has forgotten our offenses.
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They are no more and so he's dwelling on this and he's thinking well, that's wonderful news for me as a sinner, but Very hard for me to want that news for the perpetrator the offender
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See, how can God forget that? How can I forget that? With a loud voice the souls of those who have been slaughtered keep reminding
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God this is from Revelation Oh Lord, how long see they haven't forgotten yet. He's saying they they're remembering and they're saying how long a lord
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How long should victims remember? Should not they to forget in the end
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What speaks so loudly against the victims forgetting is of course the thought and it's an abysmal thought of taking that perpetrator and Just dressing them in a white robe.
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I Wrote these words down as I thought about Paul's vision of justified sinners and then
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I immediately erased them Because my mind began to flood with images of burned villages destroyed cities raped women the whole history of my native country
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It Seems impossible for me to embrace a Chetnik with hands full of blood
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How can I think of a redeemed future in which perpetrators even if they've been transformed are simply dressed in white robes everything in me rebels against the image and Yet everything
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I know about the God of the cross demands I entertain it Listen to this.
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This is so profound the cross is the consequence of God's desire to break the power of enmity and Bring humans into divine communion into the embrace
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The goal of the cross is the dwelling of humans in the Spirit in Christ in God Forgiveness therefore is not the culmination of Christ's relation to the offender
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Right forgiveness is not the sort of crowning moment of Christ relating to the offender
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It is a passage leading to an embrace The arms of the crucified are wide open a
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Sign that God is opening space for communion in himself inviting still yet enemies into his presence and As an expression of this will to embrace an enemy
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The cross is no doubt a scandal in our world filled with hostility We instinctively reach for a shield or a sword, but the cross offers us outstretched arms in a naked body and A pierced side you see brothers and sisters
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Jesus on the cross has come to me Joseph's arms couldn't stretch that wide
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Not as wide as the Savior's arms as they were nailed across the beam And as he opens his arms that wide it is
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God's embrace. God is in Christ on the cross Reconciling sinners through his death and he's saying come to me
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Don't be grieved don't be angry. Don't be ashamed Just come It is that Lord who says to you this morning come to me
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We're all different people we all have different paths in life. We all have different starting points God always takes us where he calls us by his grace and brings us along in paths of righteousness
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We all have different points backgrounds baggages needs There's all sorts of reconciliation that we have in in a hundred different directions
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But at one point all of these roads to Christ converge at The point of realizing that we are at enmity with God and there is no hope of salvation
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Unless we are reconciled by Christ Chi Packer says the sense of need for a new relationship with God The most exclusive trust in Christ resting all of our hope on him the risen
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Lord That is what is most needed Real Christianity the life of knowing
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God it begins here in what Paul calls receiving Reconciliation it begins here and nowhere else
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Have you received the ministry of reconciliation? Have you come to the one without stretched arms?
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Has God begun a work of grace in your life? Marked by repentance so that you can be reconciled to him
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If when we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of his son much more having been reconciled
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We shall be saved by his life and not only that We also rejoice in God through our
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Lord Jesus Christ through whom now we have received the reconciliation
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Let's pray We thank you for your word.
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We pray Lord if there's anyone in this room An unbeliever
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Lord, but even a believer Perhaps there's a root of bitterness growing in their lives.
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Perhaps their walk with you has been cool even dry There's a need to draw close to you again
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There's a need to hear your voice your blessed voice your outstretched arms and draw near to you.
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There's a need for reconciliation Even for us who have believed upon you Might you so move among us by your spirit
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Lord that we would be reconciled be filled with the joy that Paul describes in Romans 5 That we would rejoice being the recipients of this reconciliation
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It was your design not ours it was your plan not ours all that we brought to it was our rebellion our sin
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We were just enemies to you at enmity with you But through the cross of the
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Lord you broke that down We Thank you. We praise you Lord We pray that many sons and daughters would be justified by faith in you even in this room
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We pray that you would do this ministry of reconciliation This we ask in your son's name