Big idea: Grieve with gospel hope by laying your aching grief beside active hope.
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Well, good morning. Good morning, family and friends, it is good to see you this morning. We had quite the chaos for a bit, as some of you got the text to find out, eight o'clock power goes down, we check with Avista. They say, not coming on until noon. Okay. Seth, who is the communicator extraordinaire in a few minutes, crafts a text to sell you that we'll try at 1030 because it's almost never till 12. A VISTA is really good about helping your expectations. So he sends out a text and we use the service at 811, the power goes back on, and we're out of credits with the service. And Seth laptop to buy a text just went home with his kids who were not going to be at the 830 service. I mean, it's just like, Can anything more go wrong? Poor Maria tripped and twisted her ankle on the way down from the stairs. Yes, more could go wrong, but how often does God take care of these light and momentary afflictions for us? I am so thankful for that whole team, you know, Seth and John and Willie anchor, all the stuff that happens here, and then Joe and his crew were on or off and back on again in 15 minutes, and they took a long service. So thank you to the children's ministry. Let's give them a round the children's ministry folks who joyfully let first hour seemingly run long. I don't have the excuse. Second hour, we started on time. We are turning to Genesis 23 if you're new with us this morning, we've been going through the book of Genesis, the book of beginnings. We have another first, the first burial. Well, that's a first in Genesis. It means beginnings. We have the first burial. And we have been looking at how God made Abraham promises that still impact us today. We're going to go through that turn to Genesis 23 stand for the reading of God's Word with us, just as a way to help you follow along. Here's just a couple of questions that you're going to have in your mind as you read. First of all, what's Abraham's problem at the beginning of the chapter? Second, how does God resolve this? And then why is there such a long section about the negotiation for a burial plot? I know you're dying for answers, but they actually have really awesome significance for us. So let's see what God has in store for us through Genesis 23 Sarah, lived 127 years. These were the years of the life of Sarah. And Sarah died at Kiriath Arba, that is Hebron, in the land of Canaan. And Abraham went in to mourn for Sarah and to weep for her. And Abraham rose up from before his dead and said to the Hittites, I am a sojourner and a foreigner among you. Give me property among you for a burial place that I may bury my dead out of my sight. The Hittites answered, Abraham, hear us, my Lord, You are a prince of God among us. Bury Your Dead in the choices of our tombs. None of us will withhold from you his tomb to hinder you from burying your dead. Abraham rose and bowed to the Hittites, the people of the land, and he said to them, if you are willing, that I should bury my dead out of my sight, hear me and entreat for me. Ephron, the son of Zohar, that he may give me the cave of Machpelah, which he owns. It is at the end of his field for the full price. Let him give it to me in Your presence as property for a burying place. Now, Ephron was sitting among the Hittites, and Ephraim, the Hittite, answered Abraham in the hearing of the Hittites, of all who went in at the gate of the city. This is official transactions. Stuff goes to the county courthouse after this, that's what's happening. No, my Lord, hear me. I give you the field and I give you the cave that is in it, in the sight of the sons of my people, I give it to you. Bury Your Dead. Then Abraham bowed down and before the people of the land, and he said to Ephron, in the hearing of the people of the land. But if you will hear me, I give the price of the field, accept it from me that I may bury my dead there. Ephraim answered, Abraham, my lord, listen to me, a piece of land worth 400 shekels of silver. What is that between you and me? Bury Your Dead? Abraham. Listen to Ephron. And Abraham weighed out for Ephron the silver that he had named in the hearing of the Hittites, 400 shekels of silver, according to the weights current among the merchants. So the field of Ephron in Machpelah, which he which was to the east of memory, the field with the cave that was in it and all the trees that were in the field, throughout its whole area was made over to Abraham as a possession in the presence of the Hittites before all who went in at the gate of the city. After this, Abraham buried Sarah, his wife, in the cave of the field of Machpelah east of Mamre, that is Hebron in the land of Canaan. The field and the cave that is in it were made over to Abraham as property for a burying place by the Hittites. This is the word of the Lord God. You have caused this to be written you. You by Your Spirit inspired Moses to write, write out a transaction of property Abraham finds his first possession of property. We see here that Abraham, like us, faced the death of a loved one, grieved and lamented, and this story opens a bunch of interesting questions for us, and I pray that You would help me, help the church here understand that by your Spirit, we would have understanding and be able to comprehend the gravity of the situation that's going on, the hope and promise that Abraham acted with and what our future hope is now that we're in Christ, the one who is the great fulfillment of the promises to Abraham, pray that You would open our eyes. Help us think about death in the right way. Help us grieve as people with hope. Father, I pray for churches around our city. I think of the Slavic community. Slavic speakers. There are some among us, and many in churches across our city. I pray for Harvest Church in the valley, Pastor Paul blisniak, a fellow TMS grad of mine, pastoring and preaching carefully, caring for a flock. Help him remain faithful. Help the church. Love the Bible, and I pray that that would be true across the city, among Slavic speaking churches. Of course, we want that in Spanish speaking churches and our own Nepali church, we pray that you would be powerfully at work in every tribe and tongue and language that there is in Spokane, that you would be glorified, so that all of us would know Christ the resurrection and our eternal hope. We ask this in Jesus' name. Amen, you may be seated. So as you read the first line of chapter 23 you have to think how long Abraham and Sarah had been married, over a century. Over a century, easy, easy as as he sat in the tent by her dead body, did he talk to her? It's if you've been married a long time, if you've been a son or daughter and full age and your parent dies, or a child dies, and you have had a vibrant and strong relationship, it just doesn't turn off like a spigot. I was watching pastor MacArthur's Memorial yesterday, his son, Matt, gave one of the stories from about his dad, and even there at the end, he says, goodbye to his dad, you just don't turn it off. Just don't turn it off at death like that person's there, and here she is in the tent right in front of him. What did he say? Did he talk to her? They had failed each other countless times. They had served each other countless times. They had faltered in their faith toward God. They had also hoped beyond hope. They followed God's call away from Ur of the Chaldees worshiping the moon god there to Canaan. And they did it in what we count as our retirement years. She was 65 he was 75 and they waited 25 more years for a baby, the one who is going to carry the line to Messiah. Now Isaac is 37 Sarah passes Abraham was on the land God promised, but he did not possess. It.
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The text can't really be clearer as we lead up to this, the word sojourn, which means a temporary stay. Sojourned or sojourning, happens something like 11 times, and it happens here. Abraham says to the Hittites, I'm a sojourner. This isn't my home. He was a stranger and an alien in the land of promise, but without possession, and for the first time, he's without his soul mate. He's without her. How did the father of our faith face the death of his loved one? So we work our way through Genesis, we come to the first place that the Bible talks about a believers aching grief and his active hope. They are side by side. How do Christians face death and burial of loved ones? If we look at the story we're going to we're going to see two things happening here. We're going to see Abraham grieving in hope of the promises, but he has this aching grief, and he lays beside it active hope. He has both aching grief and active hope, especially hope in God's promises. And it's significant for me to say this far too many times I've heard pastors well meaning Christians, well meaning counselors chide a grieving saint, saying that they should be happy for their Christian loved one who's died, as if grieving means you're selfish. The loved one is in heaven. After all, do you want them to come back out of heaven. Maybe I'm honest. Haven't you forgotten that you'll be in heaven soon also, won't you count it all joy? I would pose a different question. Where does the Bible say you can't grieve or mourn the death of a Christian? Where does it say that? It it never says that. Who says you can't be happy for the loved one who dies and still be sad for yourself and the people around you? Why can't both be true? Why can't they both be true? They are true. They are both true. We grieve, but we grieve with hope. We're all journeying through life. The motif on the Abraham story, like the motif tonight, when we come back for the concert, is going to be this, this wandering, this exodus. This isn't our home. We don't have possession of this land. We have a home in heaven for Christians. We're all strangers and aliens waiting for a kingdom. We're waiting for a new heavens. We're waiting for a new earth. And God often gives us someone very special to share the journey with. It could be a parent, a friend, a child. Could be a friend in grade school, it could be a sibling. It could be a best friend in your 30s, it could be a spouse. What do we do when that person moves away? A little death? What if there's a divorce, an active death? What if there's physical death? How do believers grieve serious loss? We're going to look at Abraham's example. We're going to look at addressing a believers grief. We're going to look at his example, an act of hope. We're going to finish the Bible storyline, because the promise given to Abraham about an offspring that's going to come, that's going to bless the nations, is going to be significant in Jesus Christ and His death and resurrection. To give us a picture of that. This sets us a foundation. We're going to take it in three parts, where we're going to admit the double grief of a believing friend or a loved one dying in this life. We're going to engage in active hope, in the promises of God. We're not going to leave our grief alone. We're going to engage in active hope, and then we're going to anticipate what promises are still to come. We're going to anticipate the promises still to come. Let's start with the first admitting the double grief. Admitting the double grief at the death of a loved one, a believer has a double grief. Not only have I lost my loved one, but. Am also still a stranger and alien in this world, and the one I shared this alien and strange world with is now gone, and I'm a little bit more alone. You can see it right away. Moses records some very powerful details. Sarah lived 127 years, and the way he wrote, it was extended to emphasize the length and fullness of her life, 100 years, 20 and seven years, you don't write like this normally in Hebrew, unless you're trying to make a point. These are the years of the life of Sarah. So something significant is happening here. She lived a full life. You
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life. She lived a full life, and remember that women don't get included, usually in the life span and burial process. She's a rare person because she Sarah is the mother of our faith, where Abraham is the father of our faith, and she gets special honor for that here, they had been married, certainly over a century, a century, you know, we, we had six weddings so far, two more to go, and we're kind of tired of looking around at the we've only been married 35 crowd like, why bother? And I'm like, there they are. There's the grandparents. They're at the 74 years mark. Let's just sit down skip the dance. But I mean, think about this. Abraham and Sarah were always the last couple standing. Think of all that they shared. They lived in Canaan, 62 years together in the after their retirement, 62 years together, she was beside now, I doubt Abraham ever retired, but it's another point. She was beside Abraham at every promise, every act of courage, every act of weakness, and she had her own faith. Hebrews 1111. Tells us this about Sarah by faith. Sarah herself received power to conceive even when she was past the age since she considered him faithful, who had promised and the last 37 years of her life, she and Abraham raised Isaac laughter, joy. She gets 37 years with him, and he gets 37 years with mom. She dies at Kiriath Arba. It's Hebron. Significant is that South Central Israel for the future, it's in the land of Canaan. Now, notice he's not saying Israel or Judah. Those are later names. So it's really clear that she's lived a very full life. Abraham now has lost the love of a century for a century, and they're in Canaan. And it's explicit, this isn't home. It's not Israel yet. It's not Judah. It was a land and a people dominated by idolatry and immorality. Sarah and Abraham were strangers to it. They'd always been sojourners, and Abraham and Sarah are no different than you and I. Like that. Christian live. Christians live in the tension of two poles. We have a home, but this isn't it. This isn't it. We are travelers. We are strangers, we are wanderers. We are in our Exodus the world's fundamental values and framework, reject God, choose idols, and we are left as people outside the city, not people in the city. Hebrews 1113 speak of Abraham and Sarah as an example to us saying this, not having received the things promised, but having seen them and greeted them from afar, and having acknowledged that they were strangers and exiles on the earth. For people who speak thus, make it clear that they are seeking a homeland. And if they had been thinking of that land from which they had gone out, they would have had the opportunity to return. They didn't go back to Earth the Chaldees, they looked ahead. But as it is, they desire a better country that is a heavenly one.
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This isn't their home, which leaves you with hope, but yet a double grief. I'm a stranger to this world, and I just lost my loved one. Yes, I know I have a hope, but I don't know how long that's going to be till we're reunited. So while having an indomitable hope in getting to heaven, one can have a massive hole for. When a loved one dies on Earth, verse two says it as clear as you can, Abraham went in to the tent where they had her body to mourn for Sarah and to weep for her mourning. Mourning points to the recounting of all that was and all that's now lost. I want you to think about this with death. Death is not fundamentally a loss of biological function. I want to say that again, death is not fundamentally a loss of biological function. Death is fundamentally a separation. We are sinners from birth, spiritually dead, meaning we are spiritually separated from God at our birth, lest we repent, trust in Christ. We will remain that way permanently after physical death. Ian God, so when a loved one dies physically, we are separated from them, physically, socially, emotionally, naturally. Abraham mourned and wept. Naturally he did. He lamented the morning he wept, he wailed in tears. One of the most privileged roles I have at Faith Bible Church is helping people with memorials and burials. The College pastor gets the weddings. I get the memorials, Dan. Dan, the funeral, man, I am privileged to help people at the passing of their loved ones some so I get this question, how is so and so doing after the death of his or her beloved so and so I want you to hear this mourning and weeping is not the sign of doing poorly. That's not the sign of doing poorly. A lack of mourning and weeping is not the sign of doing well. You
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there are other factors about doing well or doing poorly. We'll see it with the second stage. You've got to listen. The greater the love shared, the greater the life shared, the greater the feeling of loss, the greater the feeling of loss. So admit the double loss and lament even of the death of a believer, even a person you know you will see again, admit the double loss and the lament. What's the sign that someone's doing well? They can take their grief and they can lay aside it active hope in the promises of God. This is what Abraham does. It turns into a negotiation over a burial ground. Act on the promises, admit the double loss and lament, and then act on the promises. Take your aching grief and lay active hope aside. It as we go here, I want to say this for those of you who have not been with us for the many weeks we've been doing looking at the life of Abraham, but Abraham received seven promises multiple times. One, he would be blessed and be a blessing. Chapter 12, he would be protected. Chapter 12, he would become the great father of nations. Chapter 17, he would possess Canaan. Chapter 12, chapter 13, chapter 17, chapter 18, his offspring would possess the land of Canaan, after a long sojourn in Egypt. Chapter 15, kings would come from him. Chapter 17 kings would come through Sarah too, she was told, there would be so many children, it'd be like counting the sand on the seashore or the stars in the skies, but seven and most important of all, through a special descendant, all the nations would be blessed. They would all be blessed. Isaac was the son who would carry the line to Messiah. I want you to set your eyes on one of them, because I think something significant is going on in this with what's in Abraham's mind. Turn back to chapter 15. I don't have time to go back through all of it, but I want you to set your eyes on a couple of passages Abraham. Afraid that he's going to be attacked by enemy nations. God comes and comforts him and tells him that he is going to possess this land. Verse seven, God said to Abraham, I am the Lord who brought you out from Ur of the Chaldeans to give you this land to possess. Abraham says, O, Lord God, how am I to know that I shall possess it? Because right now, Chapter 15, he doesn't possess it. He's just a stranger. This led to a covenant ceremony in which God has animals killed, swearing an oath that if Abraham doesn't fulfill his part, or he doesn't fulfill his part, God doesn't fulfill his he would be slaughtered. God always fulfills his part, fulfills his part, and he guaranteed Abraham would possess it. Then he tells them this, let's see how, see how our equations work out. Look. Look down at verse 13, actually, verse 15. As for you, you shall go to your fathers in peace. You shall be buried in a good old age, and they shall come back here in the fourth generation. For the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet complete. Now wait a second. How am I supposed to know that I will possess it? God swears by himself at a covenant that I am going to keep the promise, and then he tells him, you will die and not possess it. You're following the math. There's something missing. Abraham believes resurrection. God has to raise the dead for this to happen, and every believer, the Jews all the way through have believed in resurrection. It's all over the Old Testament. Job says, in my flesh, after I die, I will see God. The psalmists have these repeated lines, I will dwell in the land of the living Ray. Resurrection. Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Isaiah, predict resurrection. Daniel names it the resurrection of the just So Abraham is mourning. He's at the tent of his wife, and he's got one particular problem. There's no refrigerator. There's no morgue refrigerator. So we've got to get our dead buried today. Everybody says, you know, when are the kids not at a sports event? So that we can have a memorial for grandma. No, really. Like, that's how we do it today. Like, when is it really easy for everybody? They're like, when can we get her in the ground? We can't have her rot in the tent after four days when Lazarus had died and Jesus wants to see the body. What do the sisters say? He stinketh? King James quote, he stinketh So he's got to do something. And so here his promises and his problem meet together. I need a burial place and something sparks in Abraham, something deep in his soul, the old bones would live Abraham got up, rose up, usually a sign of action. In Hebrew, he rose up from before his dead starts, calling him his dead because every culture, regardless, has a respect, a near reverence, for someone who has lived in your family in your life. We respect the war dead. We respect law enforcement dead. We respect those who have given their lives to bring us our life and to carry us along, and that's embedded into the very dignity and image bearing of man. He needs to bury his dead, but he doesn't have a plot. He says to the Hittites, he gets up and he goes to the Hittites, what they've done is they've gathered at the city square in Hebron, at the city gates, where all the legal transactions happen, and we now have a property negotiation going on. It's cordial, it's polite, but Abraham intends to buy a piece of land a cave for a tomb. There's urgency. I'm a sojourner, foreigner among you. Give me property among you for a bearing place that I may bury my dead out of my sight. The Hittites answered Abraham, verse six, hear us, my Lord, You are a prince of God among us. Bury Your Dead in. Choices of our tombs. Now this is the only verse where God is mentioned. It's not that God's absent, but just like Abimelech and fi call look at Abraham and say, God has doing it's been doing something special in you. So do the Hittites. You are like a prince of God among us, you are elect of God, and we can tell Bury Your Dead in the choices of our tombs. What's God doing in the passage? God is blessing Abraham, just as he told him, and he's blessing him with a family burial site. One other key note culturally that we may not relate to. Gary Morgan was telling me, even in Kenya still today, tribes clans prove their right to their land by the burial site of their descendants. This is our land. Our ancestors are buried here. This is a way to secure a possession. Abraham has picked out a place asked for the cave owned by Ephraim the Hittite jump down to verse 2023, or 23 verse nine, for the full price. Let him give it to me in Your presence as property for a burying place. And Abraham insists on the full price. Ephron counter offers with the cave and the field. Oh, take the cave and the field. It looks like he's generous. It's just polite. It's polite negotiations. You wouldn't want to look too presumptuous. You would want to be generous. But Abraham wants the land free and clear from Hittite control. He wants it legally. He wants it legally. He wants it permanently. And I would suspect that he wants it separate from the idolatry of the Hittites. I want my own plot for my own people. I don't want a burial plot with all the mixed idolatry of the Canaanite religions. Doesn't say that, but as we go through he doesn't want to he doesn't want Isaac to be married to a Canaanite.
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So I suspect that's going on in the scene Ephraim. Ephraim throws out a price. He says, what's 400 shekels? Like you can have it. I mean, what's 400 shekels between you and me? One Barry, you're dead, right?
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It's an outrageously high price. Shekels are a weight. They're not coins. Depending on who you read, could be 100 ounces. It could be several pounds. It's a very large price, but the way we can tell it's an overly large price, 1000 Years later, when King David needs to buy the field from Araunah at the what is going to become the Temple Mount, he offers arana 50 shekels for the part that was going to become the temple. Ephron says, what's 400 shekels? Perhaps Ephron is counting on a counter offer. Oh, I mean, I know you're good friends, and you wouldn't mind just giving that to me for 100 and they start negotiating. Maybe Ephron is hoping for a high 200 or something. But nothing happens. Abraham just goes, that's the price you're asking for he weighs out the silver God had abundantly provided for him. No strings attached, nothing in the way. All the later generations will be able to say, Our father, Abraham, purchased for us this burial ground. Abraham will get buried there. Isaac will get buried there. Rebecca will get buried there, Jacob will get buried there. This becomes the ancestral burial ground, and after the 400 years of waiting in Egypt, when they're finally released, the Israelites can look to this and a piece of property that Jacob had purchased for the same place, and say, we have a toehold in the Promised Land. I want you to notice the word that stands out verse 18. Gave it to Abraham as a possession in the presence of the Hittites. Here's the first possession for Abraham. It's the first burial. It's the first possession. And now Israel has a toehold. So the field of Ephraim Machpelah, which was the east of memory, the field with the cave that was in it all the trees that were in the field, he gets a lot. He doesn't just get a cave. He. There. He gets the fruit trees. He gets the various trees in the forest. He gets the whole field. It was made over to Abraham as a possession. The county clerk saw it, stamped it, put it in the records room, so to speak. It was official, not only did Abraham get tombs to bury Sarah, but many descendants after this verse 19, he buried Sarah, his wife, in the cave of the field east of Mamre that is Hebron, central Israel, in the land of Canaan, it was made over to him. What did Abraham do here that's significant? Yes, he bought a burial plot, but he invested in a place to honor her life, looking back and to anticipate the future. Looking forward, he bought a place a legacy for his descendants. He invested in the future. According to the promises God made, he laid his hope in God's promises, right alongside his grief, three problems are solved in one, Sarah has a burial plot. Abraham has a token of the promise that will one day be his. His descendants have a plot of land legally owned centuries before God gives that to them in Conquest. The question for us is, how much do we budget to invest in the promises God has made. What do you do with your resources to invest in future promises, supporting your church, supporting local and international missions, leaving a legacy gift for your church or for a Christian school, what does it look like for you today? Some of you might start by just regular giving. Sign up for regular giving because I have a promise that I'm investing in. I want to get to that promise in a second. But very plainly, Jesus, in His teaching, says to all, do not lay up for yourselves. Treasures on earth where moth or rust destroy, but lay up for yourselves. Treasures in heaven, where neither Rost rust or moth destroys. Invest in the future. Let's finish it out. We don't want to leave this story here, because there's so many more promises that a Christian needs to know about. Number three, let's anticipate the promises that are fulfilled. Let's anticipate the promises that are fulfilled. Let's move more light to the give more light to the story and see what Jesus did to advance these Jesus is the great fulfillment of Abraham's promise. Abraham and Sarah are going to be the mother and father of nations, King and kings. Jesus is the King of kings, the Lord of lords. Born in Bethlehem, a short trip from Hebron. Even today, he came to live. He came to die. He came to raise a people from the dead. Jesus is the greatest fulfillment of the promises to Abraham. And Jesus, hearing about his good friend, Lazarus, shows up four days late to his bedside. He is dead, and he says to Martha, looking at him like rabbi, why didn't you come sooner? Jesus said, I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live? I am the resurrection. I am the life. If we want to use the imagery from today, I'm your home. I'm your eternal home. It's me where I am, because I'm the Life Giver. Everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die. Do you believe this? She said to him, Yes, Lord, I believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God who is coming into the world. You are the answer to the promise of Abraham. I believe it, and there's going to be a resurrection. Do you believe it? Do you believe it? You might be here still. Maybe wanting to keep your own life. Emma, story was really transparent, wasn't it? I just want to live my own life. And I was kind of mad at God, at getting in the way that might be you. I want to tell you what your story is. This is your home. You're very comfortable here the world. And everything in it is generally opposed to God. This is what Jesus says, John 1519, to His disciples, if you were of the world, the world would love you as its own. But because you were not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you. So you are here. And if you have not repented and trusted Christ, it's because you love this world. It's your home. I want to tell you what there is in store for you and your story, because you're just journeying through you will face death, and it is appointed once for man to die. Then comes the judgment. You will be held account for how you lived your life in God's world. Ian, you. But that doesn't have to be your story. Your story could change today. You could say, I know I will die, and I know I'm a sinner who's in rebellion to God, and I am going to believe the promise that Jesus would forgive me, and Jesus is telling you this moment, as you sit here, come to me all who are weary and heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Your story could change today. There are believers here who have another story. It's not quite like this. Like my story with my dad. My dad never wanted to hear the gospel really late in his life, he'd tell my mom, I'm gonna surprise that boy and show up at church one day, which would have surprised me. I had a different message. If he would have come. He never did. He let me share the gospel with him, really clearly, two times, four days before he went into a coma, and he looked at me and he says, I would love to have your faith, but I don't. Four days later, he's in a coma. He never wakes up and he dies. What do I do with the loss of a loved one who has rejected Christ passively, or, like my dad, actively, I lament. I talked to him looking at his body before the memorial service, Dad, why didn't you turn
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all you have is lament for that story. But here's what's really important, don't follow that story. Don't follow that example. Don't say, like very many of us who are proud might like to say, God, you took away one that I loved. I'm mad at you. I'm turning my back as if God owes you everything you want on his world. Don't be proud. Say to God, I'm leaving that in your hands. I don't want the same story. I want to turn from my sin to you,
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to the believer looking at another believer who dies ahead of them, you have the double grief, this isn't your home. Yet. Christians, though, have a special community. We're like an embassy in a foreign land. We live life in a local church as citizens of another country. The Apostle Paul says our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform our lowly body to be like his glorious body by the power that enables him even to subject all things to himself, which is referring to Jesus return to exercise his kingship over the whole earth and all its nations. Because there isn't just a physical resurrection of your body coming. There is a resurrection of creation itself, of the Nations itself. There is a kingdom coming that will be renewed with Jesus as the head and the king overall. There will be what is called a new heavens and a new earth, a kingdom for Abraham to live in. He says to the Jews, who were hardened in unbelief and self righteousness, people will come from east and west to fulfill the kingdom of Abraham, but you will be shut out. Jesus speaks not only new bodies, but of a new creation in earth. Matthew 1928 says, Jesus said to them, Truly, I say to you, in the new world, there is going to be a rebirth. There is going to be a recreation, When the Son of Man will sit on his glorious throne, picturing Daniel chapter seven, when. He comes to rule over all and judge all you who have followed me will also sit on 12 thrones, judging the 12 Tribes of Israel, following Jesus, teaching the second century church father, Irenaeus, connected resurrection of the body and resurrection of the Earth, quoting from Isaiah, then too. Isaiah himself has plainly declared that there shall be joy of this nature at the resurrection of the just when he says, the dead shall rise again, those two who are in the tombs shall rise, and those who are in the earth shall rejoice, for the dew from thee is health on them. Is a renewal. Ezekiel also says, Behold, I will open your tombs. You will bring and will bring you forth out of your graves. When I draw my people from the sepulchers, I will put breath in you, and you shall live, and I will place you on your land, and you shall know that I am the LORD Abraham was counting on the resurrection of the dead. He was looking for a better country, a heavenly one. Hebrews tells us, what do you do when a beloved Christian dies in the faith? You have hope, you grieve with hope, but you take your aching grief and loss and you place beside it, active hope in the promises of God. I've watched it over and over again, the memory of the loved one and the future legacy coming has sparked countless Christians to put in their wills, donations to important Christian ministries, because they want a down payment in the promise. What else am I going to do with this earthly money but invest it in the future for my children, grandchildren, spiritual and literal? Abraham, does this? You do it little by little, you do it in great chunks. At the end, if you're at 23 just notice this, after the negotiation, after the seal was put on, the documents, Abraham buried Sarah, his wife, in the cave of the field of Machpelah, east of memory that is in Hebron, in the land of Canaan. The field and the cave that is in it were made over to Abraham as property for a burying place. What must Abraham have thought and felt as he laid Sarah in the tomb? The carved out shelf to put a dead body in, wrapped in Did he talk to her? I don't know, but I imagine something like this, Sarah, how I miss you
48:40
after a century, how do I go on? Sarah, I have the same promises alone that I had with you, promises of God are still alive. I will trust the Lord. What a life. Sarah God made your womb alive with Isaac, and I need to find him my wife. He's 37 next chapter. Come back next week. Sarah God promised through our offspring that all the nations of the earth will be blessed our offspring. What will he be like? What will messiah be like to bless all the nations? I can't wait to see it. Sarah. Sarah, this wasn't our home, but we started a nation.
49:53
This plot of ground is going to tell them, Sarah, that they have a homeland according to God's promise. I. Oh, as God made your womb alive, he will make the graves like a womb that will give forth new birth. Sarah, these old bones are going to live. We believed the promises, didn't we, the resurrection these bones of yours, these bones of mine, will be called out of these tombs, and we won't live in tents anymore, our family, our nation, the nations, will be together with the Lord and the city that comes from heaven. If you didn't say all those things, they're all true. They're all true. It's the hope you have at the death of a beloved believer in the Lord. Let's pray, Father. Thank you for these words, for the hope in Christ, Jesus, we're going to celebrate the Lord's Supper a different token with what you have done, taking on human flesh in the line of Isaac and Abraham, bearing our sin, rising from the dead, reigning from Heaven soon to return. Oh, we have a hope in our grief and our wanderings in this world. Give us courage to keep on, keeping on in Christ's name. Amen.
Dr. Dan Jarms is lead pastor at Faith Bible Church in Spokane Washington, as well as associate dean at The Master's Seminary in Spokane. He has been married for over 30 years to Linda, and has three adult children. He earned his B.A. in English at the Master’s College, B.Ed. at Eastern Washington University, M.Div and D.Min in Expository Preaching at The Master’s Seminary. His other interests include NCAA basketball, woodworking, and art.
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