Why Jesus Came to Die

Genesis chapter 50, starting from verse 15, and then Alex is gonna come and preach to us.

When Joseph's brothers saw their father was dead, they said, what if Joseph holds a grudge against us and pays us back for all the wrongs we did to him? So they sent word to Joseph saying, Your father left these instructions before he died. This is what you are to say to Joseph. I ask you to forgive your brothers the sins and the wrongs they committed in treating you so badly. Now please forgive the sins of the servants of the god of your father.

When their message came to him, Joseph wept. His brothers then came and threw themselves down before him. We are your slaves. They said. But Joseph said to them, don't be afraid.

Am I in the place of god? You intended to harm me, but god intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done the saving of many lives. So then, don't be afraid. I will provide for you and your children, and he reassured them and spoke kindly to them. Joseph stayed in Egypt along with all his father's family.

He lived 110 years and saw the 3rd generation of ephraim's children. Also, the children of McKir, son of Manassa were placed at birth on Joseph's knees. Then Joseph said to his brothers, I am about to die, but god will surely come to your aid and take you up out of this land the land he promised on oath to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. And Joseph made the Israelites swear an oath and said, god will surely come to your aid, and then you must carry my bones up from this place. So Joseph died at the age of 110.

And after they embalmed him, who was placed in a coffin in Egypt. Evening, everyone. My name's Alex Hurdle, and it is a joy to have been asked to preach for you this evening. And I'd I'd like to take the opportunity on behalf of of me and Sam to just say thank you. We've been at Cornerstone for about 2 years now.

And you've loved us and you've served us in so many ways. So to be asked to preach you and serve you back, it's it's a real privilege. Our theme for tonight, we're carrying on with our series of why Jesus came to die, is that Christ came to die to show that the worst evil is meant by god for good. And we're gonna be facing some some big, hard questions in tonight's sermon. There are lots of ideas that the Bible is is really comfortable holding to together, but that we want to pull apart and sort of set against 1 another.

For example, god is 1, god is 3. Jesus is fully god. Jesus is fully man, wrath, love. And we're picking up, and we're handing another 1 of these things like that this evening, evil meant for goods. And so as we turn to the Bible together, We need to remember that god often reveals that reality is deeper than our neat boxes make outs.

We need to take the Bible on its own terms because otherwise we're gonna get into all kinds of mess. And what's more? We're gonna miss out on what god has revealed to us. But we also need to remember that that we're about a personal god, right? We're about Christ.

We're not about abstract ideas that float about in the air. The church I grew up in is a big sort of old anglican church as big oak pulpit, that sort of thing. But on the lectern, it had, that wonderful verse on it from John chapter 12 engraved. It's it's when some Greeks come to the 12 disciples, and they say So we want to see Jesus. So let's make that our prayer for this evening, shall we?

Let's pray. Heavenly father. We're gathered here tonight to hear from your holy word so please help us. When it comes to thinking about evil, some of us are tired and hurting. We all need Christ.

So please help us to listen carefully to what you have to say. Please help us lay aside our own ideas where we need to, and please show us Christ. We pray. Oh, men. A good starting place tonight might be to ask, what is evil?

What separates it from just suffering, if you like? Well, suffering is a path that's hard to follow evil is the hand that moves the signpost so that you end up lost. Evil is harm with a face behind it. Sometimes it's a heart's intention, sometimes it kind of steps out through the hands. Sometimes it remains as wreckage in a person's life.

Evil is somebody meaning harm. But we all know evil is not just a dictionary definition. It's out there, right? In the morning when you pull out your phone, evidence of all kinds of evil comes at you through that little rectangle in your hand. Not just those sort of big global headlines, although of course, they're there.

You hear about evil on your doorstep too, right? The 16 year old stabbed on Olin Road a few weeks back. A teenage girl raped in Servburton with 4 men arrested in connection. The car wash owner just down the road in Mitchham exploiting workers in a sort of form of modern slavery, including a 15 year old. It's relentless.

It's overwhelmingly awful. All you're doing is looking at your phone, and you can't escape the sheer volume of evil in our borough and our city. But evil's not just out there either, is it? Some in this room have suffered great evil, people you trusted turning on you, cruelty behind closed doors. Family lies, false accusations, people walking away when they should have stayed.

All these evils, and they are evils can so easily wreck life. How we relate to other people, whether we can enjoy the little things in life anymore, whether we can even put bread on the table sometimes. So what does god say? That's what we're gonna see in the bible tonight. Our reading that that we just had.

It isn't just the end of Joseph story, that we will look at, but it's the end of the book of Genesis too. And looking at it that way, you'd be forgiven for wondering what on earth is going on. Look down with me at, Genesis chapter 50 verse 26. It's page 57. If you've closed your bibles, please do open it up again.

It'll be a great help. So Joseph died at the age of 110, and after they embarked him, he was placed in a coffin. The book started with the glory of a creator, triune god, overflowing with life and love. Father, son, and spirit, creating everything from nothing, climaxing in man. A creature who's in god's own image.

So much so that you get to Genesis 1 31. God saw all that he had made, and it was very good. And then in verse 26 of chapter 50, we get a corpse in a coffin. It all seems to have gone so wrong. What is god saying?

Well, the answer to that we need to understand Joseph's story. Joseph had a tough life full of evil. From a young age, his 10 brothers envied him. They were enslaved by that jealousy. As they nurse a grudge.

As you read in chapter 37, they don't act at all like big brothers should. They're not protective or proud or gentle towards him, as they should be. The relationship's broken really, the there's more clenched jaws and muttered comments and cold looks than anything like brotherly love. Until 1 day, they get the chance they spot him coming at a distance, and like a shot, they're on the cusp of murdering him. They'd rather blot out their own brother than have him in their lives.

They'd kill their own flesh and blood. When Joseph arrives, they grab him, they roughly shove him, and they chuck him in a hole in the ground. And as he looks up as he gathers himself and he sees that disc of light, the 10 shadows of his older brothers linger for a 2nd, and then scatter. Because they're so cold hearted, they crack on with a picnic. The brothers decide not to kill him in the end.

They decide to sell him as a slave instead. Their warp thinking is that this is somehow okay because at least then they're making some cash off the situation. Of the misery of their brother. They don't care about him. They don't honor him as a young man created in the image of almighty God.

In fact, they value him as a slave. So they haul Joseph back out of the pit, and as he's in his days as his eyes readjusted the lights, some of his brothers are counting out the smooth silver coins with a clink clink clink Others lead into some traders that they've they've got there, they're no better because they're actually distant cousins of Joseph. They're there standing ready with the ropes and the packs and the animals. Then the brothers go home, and fake Joseph's death to cover their tracks. They decide to blame a wild beast for the beast like savagery that they've committed, and they decide to break their father's heart.

And so the sort of latest generation of god's chosen family, the 1 who's gonna bless the whole world with, they hand the blood soaked robe of their younger brother to their dad. And as he takes that fabric in his hands, he loses the strength, a gasp. Oh, I'll cry. A father's voice turned raw. And 10 silent sons watch on.

Meanwhile down in Egypt, Joseph is falsely accused of sexual assault by a woman who's burning with lust. Egypt's very own desperate housewife. Amongst the fine linen and the perfume thicken by heat, potiphar's wife tries to betray her husband by committing adultery with a slave. And then betrays the slave by accusing him of rape. There's no fair trial for Joseph.

No 1 stops to ask if the story rings true. Potifa, who surrounded by full stores and clean rooms and servants running like clockwork around the house, all thanks to Joseph, by the way. He hardens his face and throws it all back in Joseph's in an instant. Prison receives Joseph with bolts and chains and a heavy door closing. When in jail, the closest thing we see to Joseph having a friend quickly forgets him.

Ferrow's cup bearer. He gets restored to life in the palace. While Joseph remains below, forgotten, some friend. But what does god have to say? Well, Joseph's in no doubt.

In chapter 45 verse 5, Joseph knows what's happening. There he says, god sent me. But look again what he says in verse 20 at the end of the story in chapter 50. You intended to harm me, but god intended it for good. God sent me god intended it for good.

Good. Good isn't just a path that feels easy to walk. It's a signpost standing exactly where it should, pointing the traveler towards life giving water. And it's called Good is what serves life as god intended. Good is purposeful blessing, and Joseph is saying that those very same acts in his life, meant by his brothers for evil, god meant for good.

In Joseph's story, the key is there in the verse 20. God intended it for good. The saving of many lives. God sent me into slavery. God sent me into Egypt.

God sent me into prison. God sent me into Ferrow's courts. Not because the brothers weren't responsible, not because evil wasn't evil, but because god was doing something bigger. He sent Joseph for the saving of many lives, many Egyptian lives, many Hebrew lives, you intended to harm me, but god intended it for good. The saving of many lives.

Remarkable, isn't it? God meant it for good. But this raises a whole heap of questions. Does god delight an evil? Not so.

He's no tyrant. God calls it what it is. Evil is evil. He hates it. And it happens because human beings do what they love.

Yet Genesis 50 verse 20 is saying that god is sovereign in the very same decision. He plans and he oversees all evil actions without sharing in their wicked motives and without becoming morally guilty of them. So why does god use evil? Well, we have to understand the world through how it really is as shown in the by cable, not our own ideas. The world is not chaos.

It's not random with nobody controlling anything. The world is not Star Wars. There's no light side versus dark side The world, as the Bible shows us countless times, is under a god who is ruler over everything. On the sheets on your table, there's a list of verses you can you can look at in your own time, but Psalm 1 4 8, the weather fulfills god's purposes. Joe 12, god rules over all countries, proverbs 16 and 21.

God rules over people's intention and actions. Psalm 1 0 3 got his supreme in the spiritual realms. Proverbs 16, he rules over quote, unquote random chance. So is he only god when life is going well? God sent me.

God intended it for good. God was working the horrendous and tragic events of Joseph's life for good. I'm not saying this is easy, far from it. There is mystery here. We may not get all our questions answered, but we can enjoy that god is bigger than our brains can understand.

Anything less. And he's not the god of the Bible. We can begin to see that the god of the Bible, the god who rules over everything, including ruling over all evil, and intends it for good is consistent. Same got, different times, places, names, situations, same rule, same goodness. It's like when you take a piece of music and do what musicians call transposing I'll direct this to this part of the room because they already know it.

Imagine I asked you to sing happy birthday. You all know how to sing that, right? But then imagine, I asked you to sing it again, but this time to start on a higher note. Still goes up and down in the same way, right? The pattern stays the same.

It's the same song. It's just in a different key. Now the god of the Bible has given us this Bible passage exactly in its place to make sense of the whole book of Genesis, full of other keys, if you like, of evil intentions, that god purposed for goods. Like Adam and he's full in Eden, like the murderous Kain, like a humanity so wicked that god floods the whole earth, like the rebellion at the tower of babel. Like Abraham doubting god's promises, like Jacobs, many lies and deceit.

These are all different keys of the same song, but Genesis 50 verse 20 shows us that all the while god has been working this evil for goods. Same song, different key. Without this passage, we're left with a god who drops in and out of history. Disinterested occasionally popping his head around the door, broadly turning a blind eye to all the evil in the world. Without these verses, the 1st chapter of exodus just a page over seems like a group act of gross negligence on god's part, doesn't it?

This people are in bitter slavery with their babies butchered. But with these verses, doesn't our perspective begin to change? Same song, different key. And so this verse has always been a comfort to god's people. Throughout vulnerability, waiting, bitter tears, dashed hopes, and life in the rubble, they could know that god was working their situation for their good.

They could read the scriptures and know that god was working evil for goods. They could read Genesis and know that god was working harm for goods. Same song. Different key. Your life, my life, Yasin's life.

Same song, different key. It's always been this way. Even the real baddies of the bible, god's enemies are totally inside his control. Take balaam, hired by Israel's enemies to curse god's people. Can't help but bless them instead.

He meant it for evil. God intended it for goods or take nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon, who invaded the kingdom of Judah stole from the temple, hauled off the best and brightest into captivity. God calls him his servant as judgment for Judah's sin. He meant it for evil. God intended it for good.

Even god's enemies have always been a part of his plan for his people and his purposes. Same song, different key. They meant it for evil, god intended it for good. Genesis still ends with Joseph in a coffin, but Joseph's story doesn't end with evil winning. Right?

Instead of an uneasy family piece based on a lie, we see Joseph and his brothers united in a loving shalom embrace good gets the final word. That goodness from God though, it doesn't end with Joseph. The greatest good comes in the story of the lord Jesus Christ. God decisively entering into evil to upend it for goods, and make no mistake. The evil that Christ entered, the evil he entered into is the worst evil.

Just think about the evil that Jesus faced in the in the few days around the crucifixion. You have herod who'd rather cozy up to an occupying Roman governor than bow the knee to the king of all creation. He rules in his father's image you know, the scheming, baby killing, political animal, the older herod, not in the image of the living god who rules all of heaven and earth. Then you have pilot, a weak and cowardly ruler. A man who declares himself innocent, even as he hands the real innocent 1 over to death.

You have the Jewish religious leaders. By rights, they should be the 1st to follow Christ. But if the 1st to pot is death instead, you have the Jews in general who bathe for Jesus's blood and choose a literal murderer over the 1 who has come that they may have life. They deliver their deliverer into the hands of the executioners. Think about the gentiles.

They mock Jesus and smack him about a bit. They nail them up, and then they gamble over the shirt off his back. Think about Judith, consumed with greed. He values the master of the world at the price of a slave. And he betrays the lord of love with a kiss.

Wicked men kill god. They kill god. This is true evil. Right? But let's see how the Bible explains God's hand at work.

Tell with me to acts chapter 4 and verse 28. It's on page 1 0 9 6 in the Bibles. Acts chapter 4 verse 28, they, so herod, pilate, the Jewish religious leaders, the Jews, the Gentle, and Judith They did what your power and will had decided beforehand should happen or turn back a couple of pages to chapter 2 verse 23. This man Jesus was handed over to you by god's deliberate plan and foreknowledge, and you, with the help of wicked men, put him to death by nailing him to the cross. God purposed all the evil.

God purposed all the evil. And intended it for goods, the saving of many lives. Not used, not turned into, not permitted, god planned and predestined and purposed the worst evil. And through Christ's suffering achieves the greatest good. The worst evil that the world and Satan could throw against god was thrown, but pathetically wimpers, and it actually serves Christ's victory at the cross.

Why? Because god planned it as the way that his son would reign supremely forever. The defeat of evil comes to the greatest evil, for good, for the saving of many lives. But what's amazing is that we don't have a god who just uses sinners for a plan. No.

No. We have Jesus who dies for sinners. We have a god who cries out even as he's nailed to the cross. Father, forgive them. He redeems false witnesses by letting them give their false testimony so he can die for them.

He redeems murderers by letting them drive nails through his hands so he can give them life. And so, like the ending of Joseph's story, the evil of Jesus cross does not get the final words. Genesis ends with a coffin, but the gospel does not. Come see the place where he lay. It is he's not here.

The evil of the cross ends with Jesus appearing to those he loves with joy and peace and greetings of tight embrace. The final word is that the sovereign god was crucified for sinners, and now he rules history with nail scar scarred hands. And it's this good, the evil, of the cross that ends with the empty grave that brings in a whole new age. But we also need to protect ourselves from misunderstanding everything that we've just said. Oftentimes, we're left hurt and confused, because it's hard to get our heads around that god has acted at the cross.

But evil isn't over. But god has acted decisively, so evil will not win. But how can I trust this? How can I live in hope without saying god meant it for goods in the same kind of detached tone that someone might talk about, I don't know, the stamp collection? How can I say god meant it for goods without just being falsely or stupidly optimistic, as if evil doesn't really exist or matter?

How can I avoid hating god meant it for goods? Because it's confusing or hurtful, or makes me feel like God doesn't see me. Turn with me to Revelation 21, page 1249. Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth. For the 1st heaven and 1st earth had passed away, and there was no longer any sea.

I saw the holy city. The new Jerusalem coming down out of heaven from god prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, look, god's dwelling place is now among the people, and he will dwell with them. They will be his people, and god himself will be with them and be their god. He will wipe every tear from their eyes.

There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain for the old order of things has passed away. There's our answer. Did you spot it? The time for wiping away tears will be the time when the tears are still there. And so now the weeping and the mourning and the crying is the very word of assurance and of hope that it's coming to an end, that the new age of peace and plenty is coming, that the kingdom of god will be established forever, and his people can live forever in this peace and mercy.

So how do we live in the meantime? How do we live in the time when the tears are still there? But their end has already been guaranteed. Well, firstly, it does not mean that I start to 2nd guess god's exact purposes in each and every part of my life. Because there's a temptation to kind of crack the code, of evil done to me, right?

But we should be careful about naming a reason. And we should also be slow to label reason the reason for evil in others' lives, instead of encouraging them, it can cause all kinds of damage. I'll show you what I'm talking about with a quick example from the Bible. We already talked about how the Babylonians, they came to Judah, and invaded it, killed a bunch of people, and made off with a bunch of stuff. Well, in Job chapter 1, the chaldeans, another name for the Babylonians, also come, invade, kill a bunch of Job's household, and go off with a bunch of stuff.

On the surface, practically the exact same thing happens at 2 different times, but we'd be mistaken to say that they happen for the same reason. You see, for Judah, God sends the Babylonians because of the sins of Judah. For Job, god sends them to prove Job's righteousness. There's mystery here that we cannot fathom without god explicitly telling us the why in his words. So instead of trying to crack the code, know that god's primary concern for me and for you is to make you Christlike.

Know that god has an unstoppable plan for your good and for his glory. This is hard, but at a certain point, we had to embrace that we are finite, and god has not revealed everything to us because we don't need to know it. Don't try to decode what god has hidden. Secondly, don't despair when deliverance comes through evil. This works in 2 directions, evil done to you.

Sometimes God delivers us from evil by sparing us from it. Sometimes, he delivers us from evil, by sustaining us through it. And in those times, remember you worship the true living god of the promise. The god who promises to work all things, all things for the good of those who love him. He's revealed these things because it undoes despair He rules.

There is none like him. Trust that he has promised to bring you home to wipe the tears while they're still there. And cling on. In the other direction, don't despair when deliverance comes through evil done by you. Joseph brothers meant evil.

The people at the cross meant evil. We have meant evil. The awful things that you've done. The darkest corners of your heart. But Christ came to die for evil people like us.

God who rules over evil sent his son into evil. The son laid down his life to evil for you to give you life to the full. The spirit late raised you from death in your evil to life in Christ that you might live for good. Don't decode what god has hidden. Don't despair when deliverance comes through evil.

And thirdly, don't believe the lies that the devil tells about god because the devil loves to use evil to throw muck on god's character. He loves to whisper those thoughts in your mind, like How dare God let this happen? He isn't loving. He isn't powerful. He isn't present.

He isn't pure. He'll tell you, to trust yourself, to trust a worldview that's easier to swallow, or a smaller god than the 1 who rules and reigns and dies the sinners in love. Trust him. Trust him. Trust him.

Christ came to die to show us this. The worst evil ever committed was meant by god for the greatest good. We still live in the time of tears, and some of us feel that sharply tonight. But the final act has begun. It started on that hill outside Jerusalem 2000 years ago.

That final act act, we're blessed are those who mourn for they will be comforted. That final act where god's people will have all their tears wiped away wiped away by hands, that will still have the holes or the nails once were. And as we look forward to this, we remember Genesis the collapse from very good to coughing because the story doesn't end with a coffin. It ends with coffins, coffin, and it ends in everlasting joy but the 1 whom the coffin could not hold. Let's pray.

Heviny father, by your spirit, give us eyes to see you as you really are. Thank you for showing us at the cross that you mean the worst evil for good. How was to trust that deep in our poems? How was to trust that you rule over even the worst evil and intend it for good? Help us to cling to Christ through all our cries and pains.

Help us to wait for the day when every tear is wiped away. Come soon lord Jesus. Oh, man.