REFORMED CHURCH BELLVILLE: SUNDAY 13 NOVEMBER 2005: MORNING SERVICE (HOLY COMMUNION)

Sing before:   Scriptural hymn 2-4:1-3 (33: 1-3)

Let us commence this meeting with God by declaring openly to one another and to God:

Our help is in the name of the Lord, who made heaven and earth.  Beloved grace and peace be to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, through the mighty working of God the Holy Spirit.
Amen

Psalm of praise: Psalm 146:1+8
Confession of faith: Apostle's Creed

I believe in God, the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth.

And in Jesus Christ, His only begotten Son, our Lord who was conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, dead and buried. He descended into Hell, the third day He rose again from the dead, He ascended into heaven and sits at the right hand of God the Father Almighty, from there He shall come to judge the living and the dead.

I believe in the Holy Spirit, a holy catholic* Church, the communion of saints; the forgiveness of sins; the resurrection of the body; and the life everlasting.

After the reading of the Law we confess our guilt and pray for forgiveness and a new life before God with Psalm 40:4

Law
Psalm 40:4
Prayer:

• Doxology
•                                 Worship
• Confession of sins
• Forgiveness
  • Gratitude
• Prayer for the need of the congregation for the church, the authorities and the sinful world and appeal to God's promises.
• General prayer
• Enlightenment from the Holy Spirit for the sake of the ministry of the Word.

Amen

Scripture: Genesis 50
Text: Genesis 50:19

"But Joseph said to them: "Don't be afraid. Am I in the place of God?"

… Am I in the place of God?

• Only God judges and punishes.
• Only He may and can do so.

We are saved from God's punishment and we receive an eternal future through the intercession of our God and Lord, Jesus Christ. He went ahead of us and is preparing a place for us to receive us for an eternal life with Him.

The background to the passage we have read is as follows:

• Jacob has died and is buried. After the burial everything returns to normal.
• Joseph's brothers are now faced with the reality of what they did to him and are afraid that he will now pay them back for that wrong.
• While their father was alive they were not worried because they knew that he stood between them and Joseph and they knew that Joseph would for the sake of their father not harm them.

But now the situation is different. What now? His brothers feared that Joseph would now deal with them as they had dealt with him.

• Is it not true that we fear the vengeance of those whom we have wronged?
• More so – do we not fear the wrath of God for our sins? Everybody at some time or another in his life wonders whether the Lord will not reject him because he rejected the Lord.

So Joseph's brothers sought ways of escaping from his vengeance. Joseph's position as viceroy of Egypt made them very much afraid of his power.

• They were too afraid to appear before him.
• Therefore they sent a messenger to speak to Joseph.

The message they sent was intended to speak to Joseph's emotions.

They told Joseph three things:

• They reminded him thereof that their father had asked Joseph to forgive them – a message from the grave.
• They reminded him that they served the same God – the God of their father Jacob.
• Lastly they told him that they would be his slaves.

Possibly the message sent by the brothers was hypocritical, but it did express their remorse and repentance. This we should note. Do we not this morning stand in the same relationship before the Lord when celebrating Holy Communion? We are very similar to Joseph's brothers.

• We come to sit at the Lord's table as remorseful sinners, who come to pray the Lord for mercy and with the intention to repent and turn away from the wrong we do.
• When they heard that their message was well received they came to Joseph and fell down before him, promising to serve him.
• When we hear at the Lord's table that God forgives us our sins in Jesus Christ, must we not also be before God with a feeling of persevering repentance and contrition?

Holy Communion assures us that all our transgressions and sins before God can be overcome. Jesus Christ died for them. He was the Mediator between us and God who reconciled us with God because He Himself bore the punishment for the sins that stood between God and us.

That is where Christ is preached in the passage we have read.

• Joseph says that he is not the Lord.
• But, he says, the Lord used him to save Egypt.
• He was the saviour sent by God.
• Joseph could not be more than that because the true Messiah was both God and Mediator.

In Joseph's explanation we see the purpose for us God intended with Jesus Christ.

• Joseph was sent to Egypt to save it from the great famine.
• His function was to ensure that the Egyptians had sufficient corn to provide also for God's people.
• He had to go ahead so that he could prepare a safe place for them.
• Without the wrong done to him by his brothers he would not have achieved that position.
• Joseph sees that the Lord used the wrong conduct of his brothers so that he could save His people.

It is almost as if one is speaking of Christ.

• Because He had to make preparation for the great day of God's judgment.
• He had to prepare a place for us to live when this world comes to its end.
• For that He had to suffer the grief of this world.
• Eventually the hatred of His own people drove Jesus out of this world.

But Jesus suffered more than Joseph.

• Joseph arrives in Egypt as a slave.
• Eventually the Lord through His counsel makes Joseph the viceroy of Egypt so that he can govern it.
• But with Jesus it is worse. Jesus must die.
• He hangs from a cross as one rejected by the earth and not accepted in heaven.
• Only after His death does He ascend to heaven to take His place at the right hand of God.

In the Lord's counsel it was determined that our sinful conduct towards the Son of God would eventually bring our salvation.

• Jesus conquers death. He arises from the dead.
• And to us who believe in Him He gives the same privileges – He lets us too arise from the dead and live unto eternity.
• Not by ourselves, but as Joseph's brothers lived by his grace, we receive God's grace in Jesus Christ.

Where this day we remembered the death of our Lord, let us live humbly and with a repentant disposition. And we must see to it that this disposition is true.

Sorrowfully Joseph cried out: Am I in the place of God?

• No, he was not in the place of God, hence the chapter that follows in the Bible tells us that Joseph's work of saving the Israelites did not last. Pharaohs came who did not know of Joseph and who oppressed the Israelites.
• Our Saviour is God. Therefore His saving lasts. And His grace shall not leave us.

Let us then serve the Lord with our whole life in truth and fidelity because He assures you now at His table that He gives you life eternal and an eternal home. Amen

Prayer
Psalm 145:1+2+12]
Formulary
Psalm 23:1+3
During Holy Communion Psalms 116 and 118
Closing prayer
Closing Psalm 147:1, 2+4

The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God the Father and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all.
Amen

Dr MJ du Plessis
Reformed Church Bellville
13 November 2005
Scripture NIV