I'm a student of last words, fascinated by them. And the first thing that leaps to mind when I think of last words are, of course, the last words of the Lord Jesus Christ, those especially spoken on that Thursday night before his arrest. We, a few years ago, spent nine months preaching through what is called the Upper Room Discourse from John 13 to 16, because these words, these last words of the Lord Jesus on that Thursday night to his disciples are so foundational for the Church of Christ. And then just a few weeks when we come to the very last words of Jesus from the cross, in our morning exposition of Luke's Gospel, we will examine in turn several of the seven last words from the cross from the Lord Jesus. And what we will see is each of these words weigh a ton, powerful words. But I'm also fascinated and instructed by the last words of some of my heroes. Robert Bruce, if you don't know him, was one of the great Presbyterian ministers and architects of The Scottish Reformation, who died in 1631, was laying on his deathbed and with his last breaths said to his daughter who was sitting nearby, bring me my Bible. And when she said, what would you have me to do with it? He said, open my Bible and put my finger on Romans 8.38. And she did. She held his shaking hand and put it on Romans 8.38. And he said, now read it to me. Read it to me as I die. I want to cling to that promise. And so as his eyelids closed, his daughter read, I am persuaded that neither life nor death nor anything else shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ. That's dying well. In 303, under fierce Roman persecution, the church leader Andronicus was asked if he would recant the gospel. And when he didn't, he was whipped Scourged much like our Lord Jesus and salt was rubbed into his bloody wounds and asked if he would then deny Christ Andronicus bravely said in his last words Do your worst? I'm a Christian and I am united to Christ. I will not be shaken from my resolve. I James Usher, better known to us as Bishop Usher, the legendary Irish preacher, died in 1656, quoting the humble publican with those glorious words, God be merciful to me, the sinner. But perhaps my favorite dying words where William Carey, William Carey that great Calvinist who was known as the father of the modern missionary movement, he poured his life into missions in India, saw tens of thousands of converts, planted hundreds of churches, and saw dozens and scores of missionaries follow him into the mission field in India. And as he lay dying, a biographer sat by his bedside, and the people from the mission wanted to get just a few last things from Carey as he lay dying. They'd hired a biographer to pin some last details of his life as he lay there in 1834. And as the biographer was trying to gain just a few last insights as Cary's breath slipped away, Cary, growing weary of talking about himself, said as his last words, when I'm gone, say nothing more about Cary, but instead speak about Cary's savior. Tonight we'll hear the last words of the last patriarch. And then we'll watch the aftermath, the death, the mourning, the burial. Most of you would prefer not to think about these matters, especially as they concern you. But the word of God forces us to consider the end of our lives and how we'll transition from this world to the next. And so as we prepare to examine the text, let's seek the help of the Lord. Oh, blessed Lord, you have caused all of Holy Scripture to be written for our learning. Grant now that we may hear, read, learn, and inwardly digest this word so that by your grace we may embrace and hold fast the blessed hope of eternal life, which you have given us through Christ our Savior, in whose name we pray. Amen. Look carefully with me at this text beginning in verse 29 of chapter 49. This is the second time that we have heard Jacob's instructions about burial. I want you to notice an interesting curiosity on the part of Jacob. Look at them there in verse 29 and following in chapter 49. You have Jacob there insisting on where he wants to be buried. This is his dying concern. Now, if you'll recall, two weeks ago, we examined chapter 47, verses 29 to 31, and we heard Jacob give these exact same instructions. Well, not exactly, because he expands on them as his last words. We heard Jacob give these same instructions to Joseph, and he made his son Joseph take an oath. He made him swear out a vow that he would not bury Jacob in Egypt, but take him back up to Canaan. Now Jacob brings back up the subject. Now you have to get the picture. Before it was just Joseph and his two sons and Jacob said, swear to me, make an oath, don't leave my body down here in Egypt. Don't bury me here. Now he has all twelve of his sons gathered around his bedside, and this is the last thing he wants to talk about with him. It's as though he wants to hold all of them accountable and say, I don't want to be buried here. As we said a couple of weeks ago, Jacob understands that he's a psychophysical being. In other words, he's a body and a soul. And he knows that death means the separation of body and soul. He's comfortable about the destination of his soul, but he's still a little concerned about his body. He knows that the nation of Israel is going to come up out of Egypt in 400 years, and he doesn't want his bones even left in this pagan land. He wants all his sons to know his wishes, that his corpse be taken back to Canaan for burial in the family plot in Hebron. This was, he says here, the cave of Machpelah that was purchased by his grandfather Abraham way back in Genesis 23, and where his family members are buried. Now this isn't, as we said, not just a sentimental wish on Jacob's part. He knows there is to be no permanent residence in Egypt for his family. And this desire to be buried up in the promised land demonstrates Jacob's faith in God's promise that one day Canaan would belong to Abraham and Isaac in Jacob's sea. All his hopes, all of Jacob's dying hopes, were tied to the fulfillment of God's word and promise. He believes God's word, so he says, bury me where the promise is. He wants his body to lie in the land where the Messiah would be born and perform the work of redemption. Now if we compare this text, 49 verses 29 and following, with the first time he named his desired burial place in chapter 47, Jacob gets even more specific here than his earlier directions. Look carefully at verses 29 through 32 and notice what all Jacob says. Now this is remarkably lucid for a deathbed statement. I've been with a handful of people when they have died and typically, and I would love to speak more on that, the way we die in American society. Typically it's with the pain medicine turned up and people knocked out and they just drift off into death. And so they, you don't get to hear last words. But Jacob has none of that, no morphine, no pain medicine. He's remarkably lucid to the end. And notice what he talks about here in these last few verses. He recalls the names of patriarchs and a matriarch and of a Hittite foreigner of two generations ago. Notice he recalls the names of places, the cave at Machpelah. He recalls geography. He remembers directions. This is east of Mamre, not west. He recalls business transactions expedited by his grandfather. And when we dwell on these words, he's remarkably lucid for his last words. He's sharp on his family history. And notice where and with whom Jacob wants to be buried. Now this comes again as a surprise. You remember his beloved wife, Rachel. died and was buried near Bethlehem. Jacob says, don't bury me there with her. You would think he'd want to be buried there with her. No, he wants to be buried with the church. He wants to be buried. Think about who is there in this little church burial ground. Abraham and Sarah are there. His parents, Isaac and Rebecca are there. His first wife, Leah is there. And so he wants to be buried with the visible church. By the way, this is a great argument for church graveyards. I'm not so sure I want to be buried in grace land with all the pagans. I'd much rather be buried with the church of Jesus Christ. And that's what you see Jacob doing here. He wants to be buried with the church. He wants to be, as he says, gathered to his people. He wants to show that he has the same faith as them. He wants to forever give testimony to who his people are. His people aren't the powerful of Egypt or the wealthy of Mesopotamia, but those who had faith in the promised Redeemer. That's where he wants to be buried, with the people of God. Well, look at his death in verse 33. We see there how he expires. To quote Hebrews 11.13, Jacob dies in faith. He closes his eyes on this life and opens them in paradise. There's something sublime in the death of a believer. This is why the psalmist can write in Psalm 116, precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his godly ones. And I want you to analyze verse 33 with me. We are told that when Jacob had breathed his last, he was gathered to his people. That's a glorious statement. gathered to his people. This, by the way, is the exact same language used for Jacob's believing father and grandfather. We're told in Genesis 25, Abraham was gathered to his people. In Genesis 35, Isaac breathed his last and died and was gathered to his people. Do you notice what death is spoken of? Again, I was talking about this this morning in the Sunday school class, how individualistic we are. Even the Christian view of dying is not individualistic. That when we die, we are gathered to the people of God. If your idea of death in heaven is that you're somehow out there in isolation, in solitary. No, death is being gathered to the people of God. Death for the Christian is not an entrance into aloneness. It is a being ushered into the communion of the saints perfected. No more ruptures or falling out with one another, no more disagreements or painful misunderstandings, only peace and harmony and unity and joy. People often ask me, Carl, do you think we'll know one another in heaven? I usually quote Spurgeon to them when Spurgeon answered a member of his congregation who asked the same question. Spurgeon said, shall we be bigger fools in heaven than we are now? We will know one another without any of the, I remember your face, I just can't recall where you're from. That won't be the case. The same thing can be said of us when you and I die. Look at those words in verse 33. It can be said of you and I. He's gathered to his people. And do you know who my people are? You. Believers. When I die I'm going to be gathered as you are to my people. The Church of Jesus Christ through all ages. Now let me point something out that has to be stated. If you don't enjoy the gathering of the saints now, if you don't enjoy the fellowship of Christians now, what in the world makes you think that you'll enjoy it for all eternity? Let's ask the question, what happens to Jacob after death? What happens at the close of verse 33? Look at it there. What happens to him right after that? Well, the soul is immediately in the presence of God with the souls of all other believers from all of their ages and his body begins to decay, awaiting the resurrection. Our culture has so much confusion about death because we've removed it from the place the scripture gives it. In this culture, we privatize death. People die in hospitals alone instead of at home surrounded by family. who must deal over and over again with the dying of grandparents, then parents, then siblings, then friends, then children, then spouses. And in doing so, they must constantly, freshly deal with issues of mortality and frailty and eternal destiny. The cult of youthfulness and vitality and productivity keeps promising us that death is not the last enemy, but can be thwarted by gyms and spas and facelifts and cosmetic surgeries and healthy foods and diets and other body enhancing procedures. It's a lie. You will die. In 2011, there are some of you here who I will probably preach your funeral. I'll stand at the site of your grave as your body is lowered in and I will say, ashes to ashes, dust to dust, and the sure and certain hope of the resurrection. Perhaps this will be your year. No matter what the media and the culture try to scream to you, you can stay young forever. If you buy this cream or do that fad diet or this exercise, you can stave off death and stay young forever. Jacob had deceived his father and brother, but no craftiness could trick death. He'd fled and outrun his brother Esau, but he couldn't outrun death. Stare at those words in verse 33, because those words will be said and written of you and I, perhaps even in this year. Well, notice what happens as soon as he dies. We see the mourning that takes place in verses one through three from Joseph and his brothers. Now I want you to notice as we look at these first three verses of chapter 50, the fulfillment of prophecy here. Do you remember back in Genesis 46 when Jacob was moving from Canaan down to Egypt? The Lord reassured him by telling him, go on down to Egypt and Joseph will close your eyes in death. Well, that's exactly what happens. What is the last thing Jacob sees in this life? He sees Joseph's face. Joseph indeed closes his eyes in death. And this shows us again for the thousandth time that not a word of scripture falls to the ground, that God's word to Jacob was true, that just as he had promised Jacob, there was Joseph at his deathbed, closing his eyes in death. I want you to stare at verse one. As soon as the death of his father happens, Joseph is thrown into grieving. I would love to speak at great length about this tonight. It is right to grieve. Joseph is not sinning by grieving this way. Now let me remind you, we are fallen in our minds, our wills, and our emotions. We don't know how to think properly. Our fallen minds come out of the womb working error. We don't know how to choose properly. We gravitate towards wrong choices, and we don't know how to feel properly. We come out of the womb wanting to mourn at weddings and dance at funerals. We don't know what to do. We're stoic when we should weep, and we laugh at the wrong times. And so sanctification happens in the life of the believers. A man is converted. God begins to change him. mold him into his image, and our minds begin to work correctly as we think God's thoughts after him. As we are conformed, not to the world, but to God by the renewing and transformation of our minds, we begin to choose correctly as we're informed and empowered by the Word and the Spirit, and we begin to feel correctly, and our emotions begin to function biblically as we study the emotional life of godly believers, and we weep when we're told to and rejoice when we're told to. And notice what we see when you look at verse 1. You ought to write down here in the margin of your Bible a huge example for me. This is a mature giant of a godly believer. As I said, probably the only other person who approaches this status in the Old Testament is Daniel. even more so than perhaps even Moses and David and Abraham, a giant of a believer, someone whose maturity and sanctification so far surpasses us. You've never known somebody as mature as this man in sanctification. And what does he do when his father dies? He weeps. See, this is a man whose emotions have been renewed by the Spirit of God. He's not sinning here, because believers aren't stoics. We aren't committed to ancient schools of Greek philosophy. We understand when to weep and when to dance and when to rejoice. Are you taking notes here? Scripture doesn't teach stoicism. Grief is natural in this fallen world in which we groan in the midst of a groaning creation. Paul tells us in Romans 8 verses 22 and 23, all of creation is groaning under the weight of sin and death and the fall. And it's only right for a believer when we are separated from someone when they die. It's right for us to groan and to weep. The restraint and check that scripture places on our grieving is this. Our grieving for dead believers can never transcend to the place that it becomes hopeless. When Paul writes the Thessalonians in 1 Thessalonians 4, 13, he says, here's the dividing line between believers and unbelievers. We don't grieve as those who have no hope. We have a hope. We recognize that our bodies will be raised up, we'll be reunited. And so any grieving that the believer does, it must always be moderated by the sure and certain knowledge that our lifeless bodies will be raised up, that we will be reunited with our loved ones, and more importantly with Christ, and that they are in sinless bliss right now. And our grieving is wrong. if it ever leads us to murmur against God and question His providence. Did you hear that? Those are the two things that should moderate our grieving. First of all, our grieving becomes wrong if it gets to the place where it's grieving without hope. And second, our grieving is wrong if it ever gets to the place that it leads us to murmur against God and question His providence and say, Lord, why now? I don't think this is wise. Why did you take my husband or my dad or my child now? Well, the text informs us in the first three verses of chapter 50 that Joseph has his father embalmed after the current manner of Egyptian society. And for him, this is the solution to a practical problem. How is he going to preserve his father's body for that long transport for burial up to Canaan? The process of embalming, we're told, took six weeks. We're also told, and I want you to stare at verses 2 and 3, that the official mourning period, and this is what happens down in Egypt, the official mourning for Jacob goes on for 10 weeks, 70 days. Now what's fascinating is this is only two days less than the mourning period mandated when a pharaoh died. So do you get it? When a pharaoh died in Egypt, the whole nation had to mourn for 72 days. When an old, worn-out Jewish shepherd dies, they're mandated to mourn for 70 days. Doesn't this show the great respect the Egyptians had for Joseph, the man who'd saved their nation during the recent economic and agricultural crisis? Are you staggered by this, that the Egyptians would mourn for over two months for a foreigner? Remember this when just in a few weeks we open the pages of Exodus 1 as we slide right into an exposition of Exodus and we see the radical shift that by the time of Exodus 1 has occurred in Egyptian foreign policy towards the Jews. Look at the burial in verses 4 through 14. Joseph seeks permission to bury Jacob, and he does so by citing the vows that he'd made to his father. And notice that Joseph leaves out one tiny detail when he goes and asks Pharaoh if he can take his father up to have him buried. He doesn't report his father's words to Pharaoh when his father said, don't bury me down here in Egypt. That wouldn't be very productive. It would probably be counterproductive and seem ungrateful. So in verse 6, Pharaoh grants permission, acknowledging the importance of keeping promises. Joseph honors the promise he made to his father earlier, since Jacob had asked Joseph to take on an oath and swear that he'd bury him in Canaan. And I want you to look at the entourage that goes up to Canaan to bury Jacob. It's listed in verses 7 through 9. Start doing the numerics with me. Look at the entourage that goes with Joseph and this body. First of all, we are told, all the servants of Pharaoh go. That would be hundreds of men and women. So keep score with me here. All the servants of Pharaoh. Hundreds of men and women. Next we're told all the elders of the land of Egypt. Again, at a minimum, this would be several hundred more men. These are the civil magistrates of the entire nation. These are the power brokers of Egypt. All the rich, the powerful, the beautiful people. Then we are told that an escort of chariots and horsemen. This is a military armed escort. Again, hundreds more men. Joseph and his brothers, only the children and animals stay home in Egypt. So when you start adding it up, it's reasonable to assume that it's probably more than 3,000 people. 3,000 people accompany old Jacob's body. And so they head out, this massive caravan heading north out of Egypt up to Canaan. And when Joseph finally gets to Canaan, it's the first time He set foot back in the promised land in 39 years when he goes home. And when they get to Canaan, they hold, according to verse 10, a week-long funeral. You don't want my sociological theories because these are just private theories, but I'm convinced that we don't know either how to mourn or how to celebrate. When you see weddings in the Bible, for example, the wedding at Canaan, weddings go on for days. It's a party for days. And when we see funerals in the Bible, they go on for days. You see, we're so fallen in our emotions, we don't know when we should weep, when we should mourn, and how long we should do either. But what we see here is one of the godliest giants of Scripture. When he's mourning his father in verse 10, the mourning goes on for a week. We usually want to get in and out. I've had parents or family members before at funerals say, Carl, can you make this be one and done in 15 minutes? This is the grandest state funeral recorded in the Bible. And it's for an obscure old Jewish shepherd, at least in the world's eyes. Well, think about the lessons for us tonight from this text. And there's really one large lesson for us. It's the practice of the Bible to make much of death and to repeatedly teach the inevitability and certainty of death. The account here is not a historical curiosity. This, what you see in verse 33, this is the lot of everyone. This will be you. This will be me. That's why the writer of Hebrews says in Hebrews 9.27, it is appointed, it's decreed or ordained for men to die once and after that the judgment. Death is going to happen to every person in this room. God has willed it to be so. Your parents, your children, your husband, your wife, your brothers and sisters, your elders, your deacons, it's going to happen. That's why Job cries out in Job chapter 30, I know that you will bring me down to death and the house appointed for all living. There are only two historical exceptions to this certainty. Enoch. We see his saga recorded in Genesis chapter 5. In Elijah, his story is told in 2 Kings 2.11. Don't count on being an Enoch or an Elijah. C.S. Lewis tells the story of teaching a class at Cambridge and examining the idea of death in literature and he turned to a young co-ed who seemed to be looking out the window and he said, what about you? What are your thoughts on death? And this young co-ed quickly replied, somebody will think of a cure for it by the time I'm old like you. Friends, let me tell you with authority tonight, there's no cure. There is no cure. It is appointed. Your name will be in verse 33 of Genesis chapter 49. David writes this in Psalm 89 verse 48 when he says, what man can live and not see death? This is a rhetorical question that doesn't need answering. It's so patently obvious. The real issue for you and I tonight is since death will happen, How do you prepare for it? There's only one way to prepare. By taking very seriously the Bible's command to repent of sin and place your whole weight of trust on the Lord Jesus. Only then are you prepared to face your last moment. You may have purchased a cemetery plot, bought a grave marker, picked out a casket, written your will, and more. But if you've not prepared your soul for eternity, you are foolishly unprepared. The Scripture, as I said, makes much of death. The time of physical death is determined by God. Job, read Job 14 tonight, I would encourage you, where Job tells us that God has minutely ordained the moment of death for everyone, not just in this room, but everyone. God's sovereign plan extends to the timing of the instant He calls us to glory or damnation. We speak of accidental deaths or unexpected deaths, but there's no such thing to God. He's firmly in control of life and death. Physical death only happens once. Remember the words of Scripture, it is appointed for men to die once. This understanding is foundational when you hear stories of those who want to say, I died, went to heaven, came back and all that. No. That's why Paul firmly and resolutely says in 2 Corinthians 5, to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord. He doesn't say, you can be absent from the body, present with the Lord for a while, back in the body, back, no. To be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord. The physical death is transitional, not terminal. The great humanist and atheist Bertrand Russell said, the only thing of me that will live on is my brilliance, my ideas as seen in my books. When I die, all there will be of me is dust. Bertrand Russell was sadly mistaken and tragically wrong. Your death, my death is but a gateway to an eternal existence. We've already said that death is not an end, it's a beginning. That's why Paul can say in Philippians chapter 1, I have the desire to depart and be with Christ. He understood that death was but a gateway. Let me just for a couple of moments think about physical death for a believer. We see here in verse 33, look at it carefully. We see the physical death of a believer. Scripture is very clear on how it describes the physical death of a believer. First of all, it calls the physical death of a believer a home going. Remember what Jesus said on that night before he went to the cross in John 14, when Jesus said, I go to prepare a place for you. Isn't it glorious to know that death for your loved ones, for you, will be a going home to a place that has been readied for you by the careful hands of the Lord Jesus Christ. That's why Paul could write in 2 Corinthians 5, we're of good courage and prefer rather to be absent from the body and to be at home with the Lord. Death for a believer is a home going. It's going to a prepared place, but it's also a cleansing from all sin. The writer of Hebrews says in Hebrews 12 that heaven consists of the spirits of just men made perfect. No sin, no wickedness, no sins of omission or commission, no sins of word, thought, or deed. The physical death for a believer is a cleansing from all sin. It's also, as we said earlier, the physical death of a believer, no matter how much you want to disbelieve this, the physical death of a believer. is a delightful thing to God. That's why the Lord writes in Psalm 116, 15, precious in the side of the Lord is the death of all his saints. The physical death of a believer, what we just read about here in verse 33, marks two, a gateway to a new understanding. Paul speaks of this in 1 Corinthians 13 when he says, right now, I see through a glass darkly." He's talking about our fallen minds and our weak cognitive abilities. But he says, then, speaking after his physical death, he says, then, I shall know as I am known. But finally, it is not a cliché. Perhaps you can say it glibly or too lightly, but it is not a cliché to comfort one another when you're grieving and you just lost a husband or a grandmother or a wife or a child, to say to them, your husband is in a better place. It is not a cliche. Because Paul says these words in Philippians 1 when he's discussing which is better, which is better, to live in his current state or to die and go be with Christ, and he quickly concludes with these words. To be with Christ is far better. Richard Baxter, the Puritan, said, oh, what a sad sentence it would be if we were bound to dwell in this sinful and fallen world forever. Writing in his monumental devotional classic, which I cannot recommend highly enough, entitled The Saints' Everlasting Rest, that Puritan Richard Baxter said to believers, meditate often on the day of your own death. and your entrance into the presence of Christ. This will be a great help to you in setting priorities day by day. The peripheral and the foolish will fade quickly and the eternal and the lasting will become clear. Let's pray together. Father, we ask that you would teach us to number our days so that we'll indeed be wise and be prepared to enter into eternal life. Deliver us from the folly of the fool who thinks he will live forever. Enable us to live from this day forward with a clear understanding that very soon we will meet with the appointed day. And if we've embraced Christ by faith, we will come home. We pray this in the name of the one who is even now preparing us a glorious place, even the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.