Sarah’s Burial

Good morning, Good News Church. My name is Mario. I'm one of the pastors here,

and today we begin a new series in the book of Genesis called From Abraham to Joseph.

This is part one of the series. It's good to be here on part one of a series.

I think it's always good to be in on the ground floor of something.

However, I figured I would let you know today is not only is it part one of

a series, but it is also, in another sense, a continuation of a series that

we did here at this church, and we ended it about five months ago.

So what I wanted to do is I wanted to show you the graphic for this series side

by side with the graphic of last year's series so that we could compare them, okay?

So how many of you were here back when we did the series? You guys remember?

Okay, good. How many of you weren't? How many of you knew since then? Okay, see?

Okay, awesome. So this is when we started the book of Genesis.

It was last year. And if you notice, this series logo from last year and the

series logo from this year sort of look, well, they look sort of similar. Did you notice that?

Yeah, yeah, they do. And so the reason that that is the case is it's not because

we got like lazy and we're like, oh, we got no good ideas. Let's just redo last year's.

Our graphic designer, Ken Bickhart, did it on purpose because he wanted to like

visually point out to you that we are picking up where we left off from last year.

This is the continuation of last year's series.

Now, the reason why it is a different title is because the focus of the first

half of the book of Genesis or the first part of the book of Genesis is different

than the focus that's in the second half.

They have two different focuses.

Sorry. That's not a word, but I didn't want to say the real word.

Do you know what the real word is?

Yeah, foci. But who wants to be the preacher that says they've got two different foci?

No, I don't want to. Nobody wants to be friends with that guy.

You go to a party, the guy saying foci, I'm going to be like, whoa.

Okay, so I'm making up a word that's not a word because I think it sounds better.

So there's two different focuses in the book of Genesis. In the first part,

you could title it How It Started, okay?

And the it means, well, pretty much everything that we're aware of, okay?

So how it started. Genesis talks about how the universe began.

It talks about how planet Earth began. It talks about how humanity began.

It talks about how civilization began. All of that happens and is discussed

in the first part of the book of Genesis.

Then partway through, it changes, and the it in How It Started,

in the second part of the book of Genesis becomes more like the nation of Israel

rather than the whole world or all of humanity.

Like how did Israel get started? How did God's chosen people get started?

There's a focus on Abraham and his descendants and the beginning of that particular

family and that particular nation that's in the back half of the book of Genesis.

So once you get through all the general humanity stuff, you have Abraham,

and there's a bunch of stories about Abraham and his life. And then he has a son named Isaac.

And then Isaac has a son named Jacob. And then Jacob has a son named Joseph.

And then Joseph is the last person to speak in the book of Genesis.

So those four people are like the four representatives of like the four generations

that are discussed in the back half of Genesis.

After you get all the stuff about humanity, you have Abraham and his son Isaac

and his son Jacob and then his son Joseph.

And that's where it ends. So the reason we're calling from Abraham to Joseph

is those are the generations that are going to be, that we're going to be learning

as we learn the second part of Genesis.

But it's drawn this way. So you can see this is the continuation.

We're in the same series. We're studying the same book of the Bible.

We are picking up right where we left off. I think it was five months ago.

And therefore, we probably should not like just jump straight into Genesis chapter 23, okay?

Genesis 23 · chapter mention

Which is where we're supposed to start today. But if we don't review what happened

in the first 22 chapters and we just jump straight into Genesis 23,

I think it could be a train wreck, okay?

Like I think jumping right in with no transition, first of all,

it would not be good for the people who weren't here.

Several of you raised your hands and said you were not here,

okay? And so to just jump into chapter 23, you're going to be like, what is going on?

And even for those of you who were here, okay, how many of you remember what

I was preaching on five months ago? I can imagine some of you go like,

no, you got to review Mario because I don't remember what you said.

I was here last year. I'm not a visitor.

Okay. I was here last year, but I don't remember what you said six months ago.

I mean, you're a good preacher, but you're not that good.

Like, I don't remember, I don't remember six months ago sermons.

And so if we just jump in, I mean, look at the top. So part one,

Sarah's burial is the title. That doesn't sound like part one of anything, does it?

I mean, people are going to look up, who is Sarah, right?

And why are they burying her is she dead she better be dead if

they're burying her she better be dead yes she is she's dead

I swear okay she's dead and then they bury her so as we get to the chapter where

that happens let me go ahead and cover what happens before that chapter as a

review going back to last year when we did the first sermon that's on the first

chapter of Genesis we covered the fact that God is the origin of everything.

And he is the owner of everything. That's what we covered in the first sermon,

and that I think the Bible makes clear in the very first few chapters of the

Bible, particularly the first chapter.

God is the origin of everything. Everything that exists comes from him.

He made it all, and so all that he made, which is everything,

is his. It all belongs to him.

Then when you get to the second chapter, you see that God creates this new colony

that he delegated to vice regents,

okay so when i say colony i'm saying

this is an idea with like kingdoms where there's a king and he's

got a kingdom and he has a particular amount of land and that's the area of

his kingdom and then sometimes kings back then would get like an extra piece

of land like they would acquire through battle or through you know discovery

or pioneers or whatever but there's this extra piece of land that we find and

now we're incorporating it into the kingdom and at first it's a colony right

it's this area that's not like the rest of the kingdom it's not settled it's

not populated by our culture and our ways,

but we're going to put people in charge of it, and we're going to incorporate

it into the rest of the kingdom, right? You're familiar with this idea?

So God creates this new, like God is the king over the kingdom of heaven,

you know, of his own kingdom.

He's the king over everything, and then he acquires a new piece of land,

okay? He acquires it by way of creating it, right? So he makes this new piece

of land that we call earth.

It didn't exist before, and then one day it did, and so now there's this colony.

There's this new piece of land that's gods.

It belongs to him. It's part of his kingdom. But it is wild. It is untamed.

It is unsettled. It is unfilled.

And so he puts people in charge of it. And so I use the word vice regents,

which I don't know. Maybe that's as bad as foci.

But vice regents is a word that I read one time that means an under governor.

A vice regent is a ruler over a particular territory that is underneath the

authority of a bigger ruler.

So you have the king that's over the whole thing, and then you have the people

that he appoints to govern over these particular territories.

You We have God who is the ruler and king and emperor of everything.

And then he creates Adam and Eve and puts them on this, puts them in this new

little colony that he made that we call earth.

And he tells them to rule over it.

He tells them to subdue it. They're supposed to settle it and tame it and fill

it up and make it like God's kingdom.

They're supposed to rule over the new territory in God's ways and for his glory.

And then we get to chapter 3 and we see they screwed it up. The beginning of

sin is described in chapter 3 of Genesis.

And we see in chapter 3 God's reaction to sin in his new colony.

Like he looks down at the land that's supposed to be being tamed and turned

into his kingdom. and he sees his people have rebelled and disobeyed.

And we see God's reaction to sin in his new colony is condemnation and judgment

and a curse, a curse that he puts onto the earth and onto the people on the earth.

So there's hardship and there's death in his new colony as the reaction to sin.

Then you get to chapter four and there's the story of Cain and Abel.

And in the story of Cain and Abel, we see the beginning of human discord and violence, right?

Cain kills his own brother Abel. And so there was relational problems between

humans and God at this point.

But then by chapter four, we see there's relational problems between humans and each other.

So much so that one family member would kill his own family member.

Over time, humans become exceedingly sinful.

And God judges them and restarts the earth with Noah's flood.

And Noah and his wife and his three sons and their three wives become like the

new Adams and Eves to repopulate the whole earth all over again.

Then after that is the story of the Tower of Babel, where we see the origin

of languages and nations and people groups.

As God confuses the languages, and there are people who understand each other,

but they don't understand everybody, and it causes the people to separate,

going in different ways, and forming different nations and different people

groups from the different languages.

And then as I said, at chapter 12, the story takes a sharp turn from focusing on the world,

and focusing on all of humanity and rather focuses in on God's people,

Abraham and his family and the people who become the people of Israel.

And remember how I said in the first two chapters of the book of Genesis,

we see that it was about God's world being ruled for his glory and in his ways.

The second half of Genesis zooms into one particular people group,

Abraham and his descendants, that they may establish God's kingdom on this earth

for his glory, which they eventually do through Jesus Christ.

But that is outside the scope of the book of Genesis. But if you skip to the

New Testament, that's what happens.

Like there is ultimately an Israelite who is there in the New Testament.

It is Jesus Christ, and he is the king over God's people, the rightful king

over God's kingdom, doing what should be done and will be doing what should

be done for all of eternity. That does eventually happen, but not during the

time period of the book of Genesis.

So at the point that we are in the story, God promises Abraham a particular

piece of land, and he promises Abraham descendants who will fill up the land and then rule over it.

And so it seems to me that this is sort of like a colony within the colony,

right? So you have God in charge of his whole kingdom, and then he creates the

earth and says, this whole thing is my land.

Now run it for me. We did not do that very well. So then he picks a particular

people group within all of the people and says, okay, I'm gonna give you a piece

of land, not all of it, a piece of land out of all of the lands,

and I want you to build my kingdom there. I want you to follow my ways and be my people there.

Doing my will for my glory and being a light to the other nations on earth.

Like a little colony within the colony that God has set up.

And Abraham is aware that the fulfillment of this promise, that land being given

to him and a kingdom being set up on it and people filling it up and ruling

over it, Abraham is aware that the fulfillment of that promise will happen well into the future.

He knows that like really early on. In Genesis chapter 15, there's a place where

Genesis 15 · chapter mention

God is speaking to Abraham and he says that there is going to come a point where

your descendants will be enslaved by another nation.

And then they'll get out of that nation, out of that slavery,

and then they will set up the kingdom.

And God mentions, I think he specifies, there's 400 years that your people are gonna be in slavery.

And then they go and set up the kingdom. So Abraham knows from the beginning,

there's a minimum 400 years between his time period and the time period where

this is supposed to happen.

Could be more, but it's at least gonna be 400 years because that's in the middle there.

So from Genesis chapter 15 to Genesis chapter 22, Abraham does a lot of wandering

Genesis 15 · chapter mention Genesis 22 · chapter mention

around on land that is not his.

Abraham does, in fact in some cases, Abraham does a lot of wandering around

on land that is not his yet.

Because as you pay attention to the story, you start to see that some of the

places that Abraham is wandering around is the very land that God has promised

to him as descendants. It's the place where the colony is going to be set up.

It's the place where the kingdom is going to be. It's the place where his people

are going to set everything up.

And Abraham's walking around on that very soil, but it's not his.

So in this section of Genesis, and I'm referring to chapters like 15 to 22,

we covered the Sodom and Gomorrah story. That happens during there.

We covered the Abraham and Abimelech story, where Abraham is like getting along

with these other kings and these other people that are in charge of other parts of the land.

We see Abraham almost sacrifice Isaac, and then God provides a substitute.

In fact, that was the last passage we looked at. And now we come to Genesis chapter 23.

Genesis 23 · chapter mention

Okay this is at this point uh abraham

is old but he's not dead and his

wife is old and she dies okay so we're about to read about

her burial and what happens next and so i'm going to read to you this morning's

text is genesis 23 verses 1 through 20 that's the whole chapter do you feel

Genesis 23 · chapter mention

like you're prepared for it now like now you remember all the stuff that happened

and now we can jump right in so now we're going to learn genesis 23 which is

almost never taught on just so you know there's a guy at the first service that

came up to me and he said he said that was the best sermon i've ever heard on Sarah's burial.

And I said, have you ever heard a sermon on Sarah's burial? And he said, nope.

But it was the best one. So anyway, so some of you, you're never going to have

heard this before, but it's been in the Bible the whole time.

And it is Genesis chapter 23. Let me read you the whole chapter.

Genesis 23 · chapter mention

Now, Sarah lived 127 years.

These were all the years of her life. Sarah died in Kiriath Arba,

that is Hebron, in the land of Canaan.

And Abraham went to mourn for Sarah and to weep for her.

Then Abraham got up from beside his dead wife and spoke to the Hittites.

I am a foreign resident among you. Give me a burial site among you so that I can bury my dead.

The Hittites replied to Abraham, listen to us, Lord, you are God's chosen one

among us. Bury your dead in our finest burial place.

None of us will withhold from you his burial place for burying your dead.

Then Abraham rose and bowed down to the Hittites, the people of the land.

And he said to them, if you are willing for me to bury my dead,

listen to me and ask Ephron, son of Zohar, on my behalf.

To give me the cave of Machpelah that belongs to him. It is at the end of his field.

Let him give it to me in your presence for the full price as a burial place.

Ephron was sitting among the Hittites. So in the presence of all the Hittites

who came to the gate of his city, Ephron the Hittite answered Abraham,

No, my lord, listen to me.

I give you the field and I give you the cave that is in it. I give it to you

in the presence of my people. Bury your debt.

Abraham bowed down to the people of the land and said to Ephron,

in the presence of the people of the land, Please listen to me.

Let me pay the price of the field. Accept it from me and let me bury my dead there.

Ephron answered Abraham and said to him, My lord, listen to me.

Land worth 400 shekels of silver. What is that between you and me? Bury your dead.

Abraham agreed with Ephron, and Abraham weighed out to Ephron the silver that

he had agreed to in the presence of the Hittites, 400 shekels of silver at the

current commercial rate.

So Ephron's field at Machpelah near Mamre, the field with its cave and all the

trees and all the trees anywhere within the boundaries of the field became Abraham's

possession in the presence of all the Hittites who came to the gate of his city.

After this, Abraham buried his wife Sarah in the cave of the field at Machpelah

near Mamre, that is Hebron in the land of Canaan.

The field with its cave passed from the Hittites to Abraham as a burial place.

All right, I want you to notice that Sarah dies in this chapter,

but the focus of the chapter is on the burial plot.

Do you see that? It's not really on her death.

There is one verse in this chapter about her dying.

There is one verse in this chapter about Abraham grieving the loss of his wife.

There is one verse in this chapter about the actual burial of Sarah's body.

And there are 16 verses about the purchase of this property.

Okay, so that shows you what the focus of the chapter is.

Let me explain what I think is going on here.

The first two verses, I think, are fairly normal, at least normal to us,

the way we are used to stories being told.

The story says Sarah died. It says how old she was when she died.

It says that Abraham was sad. He wept. He grieved for her.

And I feel like if we were telling a story, we would do the same thing.

If you've got the main character in the story and his wife dies, what would you do?

You would note that she died. You would explain that she died.

And you would say that he was sad that his wife died. Like all that matches

the way we would tell the story.

It's starting in verse three that this story is different, I think,

than the way we would tell a story about someone burying his wife.

There's all this back and forth on the land and 400 checkers of silver and no,

no, you take it. No, I need to pay for it. What is going on here?

So if I were just reading this passage and I had no access to any other scholars

or any people that have written books on this that know things about this culture,

what I'd be able to figure out on my own is just that Abraham buys a piece of

land from them and he insists on paying a price for the land.

That you can figure out just from reading it.

What I don't think I would have known, but when I've read commentaries on this,

I've noticed that people who understand ancient Hebrew and people who understand

ancient Hittite culture better than I do, some of them have pointed out that

in this culture at this time,

it may very well be that some of this back and forth that's happening in this

passage is because the Hittites did not want to sell him the land in perpetuity.

The idea being, back then, if you're Hittites and you have the land that is

the Hittites land, your plan is for that to be the land of your people forever.

So you're the Hittites and it's your land. And then one day when you die,

you're going to have kids and they're going to be Hittites and it's going to

be their land. and the one day they're going to die and your grandchildren are

going to get the land and it's going to be their land, right?

And it's going to be the Hittite land forever.

And if a foreigner comes along, if a foreign resident, if an immigrant comes

and moves among you, that's fine.

He can show up and raise his cattle and his sheep and whatever,

but he doesn't get to acquire any of our land and then give it to his kids and then their kids, right?

Because this is Hittite land. So I think the idea here is it may be very well

that when they are saying, oh, you are God's chosen one, bury your dead in our finest burial place.

Maybe they were just being really nice but it

could be that they were trying to say like hey hey we're not going to sell you

any land but you can bury her in our burial places like we don't want to begrudge

you that we want to get along with you you need to bury your wife that's fine

you can bury her in our cemetery you can have the best spot but you're going

to bury her on our land right not not your land that might be what they were aiming for at first.

But anyway, Abraham goes back and forth and no, it's got to be this and I'm

going to do this. And the guy, no, let me give it to you. No, no, no, let me pay for it.

And so by the time you get to the end, you see that whatever the motivations

are, whatever's going on here,

you see one thing is unmistakable is Abraham is insisting on 400 shekels of

silver to be paid for this land because he wants a financial transaction to

happen in public in front of everybody because he wants an official ownership

transfer to happen in their culture.

Like he wants the deed, right? He wants everybody to be aware of.

This money was given so that this land is given to me so that one day when I

am dead, it goes to my kids and their kids.

He wants to insist on a official ownership transfer. And that's what happens.

So here's how the passage ends. Let me read you the last two verses one more time.

After this, Abraham buried his wife, Sarah, in the cave of the field at Machpelah

near Mamre, that is Hebron, in the land of Canaan, which that's where you'd

end the chapter if it was just about her burial, but it's not.

So this next verse, I think, is like the point.

The field with its cave passed from the Hittites to Abraham as a burial place.

That's the point of the chapter. I guess what I'm trying to say is,

I think what's happening here is this story is the beginning of Abraham acquiring

a piece of the promised land.

Do you see that? This is the beginning of Abraham owning a piece of this land. he's been promised.

He knows he's not going to own all the land, probably. I mean,

I don't know how many hundreds of years he thought he'd live,

but he knows it's way into the future that there's this kingdom that's settled by his descendants.

But at this point, he is walking around on land that one day will be his,

and now in this story, he acquires a piece of that land that has been promised

to him, and it is now his during his lifetime. Amen.

Now, is that a big deal for him to get a little piece of the promised land early?

Like, is it a big deal for him to get it? And this is what I would say.

I think it is because the author of Genesis brings it up multiple times over

the rest of the book of Genesis.

Let me show it to you. Okay? Because you go, this is a big deal?

Yeah. He keeps, because he, watch how, like, I don't want to say the word obsessed.

But look at how the writer of Genesis thinks about this transaction as he brings

it up over and over again.

So, this is 23. So if you skip ahead like two pages and you go to Genesis 25

and you look at verse 9, it says this.

His sons, Isaac and Ishmael, okay, so the his here is Abraham.

Abraham's sons, Isaac and Ishmael, buried him in the cave of Machpelah.

You'd think you could just say that, but it goes on. No, they buried him in

the cave of Machpelah near Mamre in the field of Ephron, the son of Zohar the Hittite.

This was the field that Abraham bought from the Hittites. Abraham was buried

there with his wife Sarah.

The river hebrews doesn't just say and they buried him next to his wife it's

they buried him next to his wife and let me give you the the the legal description

of the property and and point out to you he bought this land okay then it comes

up again look at chapter 49 of the book of genesis,

At this point, let me tell you what's past, because we're skipping a bunch of

chapters here. So Abraham has Isaac, right?

Abraham gets old, he dies. Isaac gets old, he dies. Before Isaac dies,

he has a son named Jacob. In fact, everybody that has sons, they have them before they die.

So Isaac's old and he dies, but before he dies, he has Jacob.

Jacob then gets old, and he's about to die.

And this story is right as Jacob's about to die. So Jacob is Abraham's grandson.

Genesis chapter 49, verse 29. Then he commanded them, so that he here is Jacob,

Genesis 49:29

Abraham's grandson, and the them is his sons, Abraham's great-grandchildren.

He commanded them, I am about to be gathered to my people.

Bury me with my fathers. Now you'd think he could have just said that.

Bury me with my fathers. He doesn't. He says, bury me with my fathers in the

cave in the field of Ephraim the Hittite.

The cave is in the field of Machpelah near Mamre in the land of Canaan.

This is the field Abraham purchased from Ephraim the Hittite as a burial site.

Abraham and his wife Sarah are buried there. Isaac and his wife Rebekah are

buried there. And I buried Leah there.

And the field and the cave in it were purchased from the Hittites.

Isn't it interesting that Jacob doesn't just say bury me with the rest of the

people? No, he gives the description of the land. He gives the address one more time.

And twice in that passage says Abraham bought this.

So I'm about to die and I want you to take this land that is in the specific

address that Abraham certainly purchased.

And I want you to bury me there, next to my wife, in the same place with grandma

and grandpa, in the same cave with great-grandma and great-grandpa.

So what do they do? Next chapter, Genesis 50, verse 12.

Genesis 50:12

So Jacob's sons did for him what he had commanded them. They carried him to

the land of Canaan and buried him.

They could have ended it there, but look what he says. Buried him in the cave

at Machpelah in the field near Mamre, which Abraham had purchased as a burial

site from Ephron the Hittite.

You see how the author of Genesis wants to make sure that we get that this real

estate transaction happened?

So they do. So Jacob's dead. His sons are now alive.

Eventually they get old. Joseph, his son, one of his sons, Joseph,

gets old, and he's about to die. And now I'm going to read you that part, and this will be the end.

Joseph is the last person to speak in the book of Genesis, right?

Which is why we call this series From Abraham to Joseph. So Joseph's the last one to say anything.

This is how the book of Genesis ends. Genesis 50, verse 24.

Genesis 50:24

Joseph said to his brothers, I am about to die, but God will certainly come to your aid.

And bring you up from this land to the land that he promised to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

So when Abraham says, he says, when he says, God will come to your aid and will

bring you up from this land. Okay.

The, this land is Egypt. Okay. I just skipped through a lot of the story.

So you may or may not know that, but they're in Egypt at this point.

At this point, Joseph is a big wig in Egypt.

So they're there and he's saying, listen, I'm going to die soon and I will die

here in Egypt, but I know that like our family destiny based on what God has

promised is not here in Egypt. Okay.

I know that there's going to come a day when God's going to come get us and

he's going to take us to the land that he promised.

Dad, grandpa, and great grandpa.

I believe God's going to keep that promise. So verse 25, he says,

so Joseph made the sons of Israel take an oath.

When God comes to your aid, you are to carry my bones up from here.

And in this particular case, he does not specify the exact address of the cave,

and he doesn't say that Abraham purchased it, but because of all the other passages,

I think it's implied, he is saying, I know for sure God's going to keep his promise.

One day all that land's going to be ours. And when that happens,

I need you to take whatever box that you put my bones in after I die,

and I want you to take that box, and I want you to put it in the cave next to

dad and mom and grandma and grandpa and great-grandma and great-grandpa.

And the reason I want you to put in that cave is because I believe that our

people are going to have all that land, and I believe it because God said it.

I think it's obvious that this passage shows that Joseph believed that God was

going to keep his promise.

And not only does this passage show it, the New Testament writes about this,

looking back on this moment, and says that's what was happening.

So let me show you Hebrews chapter 11.

Hebrews 11 · chapter mention

Hebrews chapter 11 is written like way later, okay?

Hebrews 11 · chapter mention

Way later. In the New Testament, the writer of Hebrews, when he gets to the

11th chapter, starts writing about Old Testament characters,

some of whom lived like 1,000 years before him, some longer than that.

And as he writes about these Old Testament characters, in chapter 11,

he starts to use them as examples that he's saying, like, these are people who

lived long ago who they really trusted God.

And he uses multiple examples of stuff that happened in their life to say,

like, this is how we know these people trusted God.

This is how we know these people believed in God. And so he does it with all

sorts of characters, and he gets to Joseph in verse 22. and here it is.

Hebrews 11, 22. By faith, Joseph, as he was nearing the end of his life,

mentioned the exodus of the Israelites and gave instructions concerning his bones.

Now, we know what this means, right? Because I read to you that passage from

Genesis that this is referring back to, so we know exactly what this means.

But what's interesting is, well, okay, first of all, I'll just say this.

I grew up being aware of this verse, and I always thought it was weird.

When I was a kid, I went to a private Christian school and they made us memorize

a lot of Hebrews chapter 11.

Hebrews 11 · chapter mention

And at some point when I was a kid, I came across this verse and I remember

thinking like, that is so weird.

By faith, Joseph told people about his bones.

Like, I just always thought like, what a weird, like how did,

how did that get in the Bible? Yeah.

And so as a kid, I thought that was weird. As an adult, I still think it's a

little weird, but not as weird, because I'm aware of the passage in Genesis

now, and I go, oh, that's what he's referring back to.

But even so, isn't it a little unusual?

Think about this. For those of you that know the story of Joseph,

I know some of you don't, and that's fine. If the Lord wills,

we are going to get to the story of Joseph as we go through Genesis.

But for those of you that know it, think about this.

The writer of Hebrews writing all these years later is referring back to how

he knows Joseph trusted in God, and the example he uses is not the time that

Joseph like resisted temptation from Potiphar's wife.

And he does not use as an example the time that Joseph was faithful to the Lord,

even when he was wrongly imprisoned.

And he doesn't use the example of the time that Joseph forgave his brothers,

even though they were especially cruel to him.

The writer of Hebrews, when he refers to the moment where it's like,

we know Joseph believed, he says, we know for sure that he was faithful to God

because he said, put my bones in that cave with grandma.

That's how we know. He believed the stuff God said.

So, you might hear all this and go, okay, that was a very cool history lesson, Mario.

Now I know about Hittite real estate culture and bone boxes in Egypt, and that's neat.

What does any of that have to do with us?

And to answer that question, I would like to just go back a little bit earlier

in the book of Hebrews. In fact, still in Hebrews chapter 11.

Hebrews 11 · chapter mention

So, we're not really talking about Joseph. I just wanted you to see where this thing goes.

But the story we're looking at is when Abraham buried Sarah.

So let's go ahead and go back to the part of Hebrews 11 that talks about Abraham and Sarah.

Because in there, we're going to find something, I think, in principle that

applies to any of us who believe in Jesus.

Hebrews 11, starting in verse 8. By faith, Abraham, when he was called,

obeyed, and went out to a place he was going to receive as an inheritance.

Right? That's a reference to the promised land.

He went out not knowing where he was going. By faith, he stayed as a foreigner

in the land of promise, living in tents with Isaac and Jacob,

co-heirs of the same promise.

When it says stayed as a foreigner in the land of promise, that's what I was

talking about when I said he was wandering around on land that he didn't own yet.

With Isaac and Jacob, co-heirs of the same promise, for he was looking forward

to the city that has foundations, whose architect and builder is God. More on that in a minute.

By faith, even Sarah herself, when she was unable to have children,

received power to conceive offspring, even though she was past the age,

since she considered the one who had promised was faithful.

Therefore, from one man, in fact, from one as good as dead, came offspring as

numerous as the stars. How would you love it if the Bible called you one as good as dead?

Came offspring as numerous as the stars of heaven and as innumerable as the

grains of sand by the seashore.

So we see that God makes this promise of land to Abraham.

He makes this promise of descendants that are going to fill up the land.

The descendants are going to come from Sarah, which they do.

Sarah is the mother of all of Israel, and this promise all happens.

Verse 13. These all died in faith without having received the promises.

But they saw them from a distance, greeted them and confessed that they were

foreigners and temporary residents on the earth.

So when it says these all died in faith, it means they died still believing

in God, still trusting him. And well, who are these? Well, I mean, it's Abraham and Sarah.

That's who he was just talking about. Maybe Isaac and Jacob also,

their names come up in the paragraph before.

But he's saying these people, they were in the book of Genesis,

they died believing, they died trusting God, even though they did not receive the promises.

They saw them from a distance and greeted them.

So this is what I'm thinking. If God makes a promise to someone,

okay, and his intention with that promise is to bless that someone,

and the promise does not get fulfilled in that person's lifetime,

then there must be a promise fulfillment that takes place after this lifetime.

And that's what happens next. So they didn't get to the promised land,

these early people, right? Abraham and Sarah and Isaac.

Well, then what happens? What promise is there for them? So let's keep reading.

They confess they were foreigners and temporary residents on the earth.

Verse 14. Now those who say such things make it clear that they are seeking a homeland.

If they were thinking about where they had came from, they would have had opportunity to return.

But they now desire a better place, a what one? A heavenly one.

Therefore, God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared a

city for them. What city has God prepared for them? A heavenly city.

That's the one they're waiting on. So there's this heavenly city.

So when we look at this passage, it seems to me that it is saying that heaven

is the ultimate promised land for God's people. Amen?

Heaven is the ultimate promised land. So Abraham and Sarah, they have a promised

land. Doesn't happen in their lifetime.

It seems like the writer of Hebrews is saying, yeah, yeah, but they're still

gonna get a promised land.

Well, what are they gonna get? They died before that kingdom got started.

There's the heavenly one that God made for them.

And the heavenly city that God is preparing for them that they're looking forward

to living in is not something that's just for Abraham and Sarah.

This is for anybody that follows Jesus. The promised land of heaven is for people like me and you.

Heaven is the ultimate promised land for anyone who follows Jesus.

And we are like Abraham and Sarah

in that we are foreigners and temporary residents here on this earth.

It's not our like long-term home. We are temporary residents on earth while

we are waiting for our homeland.

Well, how do you know we are temporary residents on this earth waiting for our

homeland? You can do this for homework.

1 Peter chapter 2 says that we are temporary residents and foreigners here on

1 Peter 2 · chapter mention

this earth while we are waiting for God to return.

So if you go, how do I know? Because there's a verse in the Bible that says it.

Okay. It says we, and when it says you are foreigners and strangers here waiting

for the day of God's visitation, when it says that in first Peter,

it's not talking to Abraham and Sarah.

It's talking to Christians and saying, you guys are temporarily living here

on earth, waiting for your true home when God returns.

So in Genesis chapter 23, we see this little piece of land that Abraham acquires.

Genesis 23 · chapter mention

And I call it a little piece of land. I don't know how little it was.

Wow. I should do it like shut your phones off because the first one was fine.

And then the second one was a little annoying. And then the third one, it's like, what?

And then I'm just concerned that every phone's going to go off simultaneously

because I had a nightmare about that one time.

In fact, this will be fun for those of you. Do you remember a time that there

was an Amber Alert on Sunday morning and everybody's phones went off simultaneously.

And then I was like, okay, calm down everybody. And then like a minute went

by and then it all happened again because the Metro PCS people were getting

theirs one minute later than everybody else.

That's what happens when you pay 25 bucks a month.

None of that was planned. I don't know why. I don't know why this stuff happens.

Just stick to Genesis, Mario. Stick to it.

Okay, so I'm just so easily distracted. Your phone had such a pleasant ringtone,

and I just went to a whole other place.

Okay, sorry. In Genesis chapter 23, Abraham acquires this little piece of land.

Genesis 23 · chapter mention

And when I say it's little, it's a field with a cave and trees,

and I don't know how little it is. Maybe it'd be huge compared to our yards,

but I'm saying it's little in comparison to the rest of the promised land, right?

It's a very small percentage of the promised land that he acquired.

And it seems like getting this little piece of land ahead of time was like a

foreshadowing that he would get all the land one day.

Seems to me him getting this land, especially when we look back on it now,

him getting this land during his lifetime was like the first fruits of a harvest

where you see like, oh, the tree's alive, there's fruit coming,

but there's even more that's going to come when harvest time comes.

This little piece of land I think for Abraham was like a down payment of the

whole inheritance that would come later,

Now, why do I say it? Why do I phrase it that way? I phrase it that way because

we have something similar.

Look at Ephesians chapter one, and we're gonna end with this passage.

Ephesians chapter one, verse 13. It says, when you heard the word of truth,

the gospel of your salvation, when you believed in him, so I just wanna be clear.

When it says, when you believed in him, who's the him, anybody know?

Jesus, I usually make the answers real easy.

When you believed in him, so it's Jesus. when you believed in Jesus.

So he's talking to believers in Jesus right now. This is not a passage that's

written to Sarah and Abraham.

This is a passage that's written to Christians. Anybody who believes the gospel

of your salvation, who believes in Jesus.

He says, of those people, you were also sealed with the promised Holy Spirit.

Now look at this. He is the what?

The down payment of our inheritance for the redemption of the possession to the praise of his glory.

There is one day when we are going to possess all that God has for us.

It is going to be paid for and redeemed and given to us. It will be our inheritance.

And the down payment that we have right now, meaning the thing we have right

now that makes us know the rest of it is coming, is the Holy Spirit.

Until the day God gives us our inheritance, the eternal kingdom,

where we will live with him forever, until that day, he lives in us. Amen.

We have the Holy Spirit as we live as temporary residents on this earth until

the day that God comes and makes all things new.

And so this passage in Genesis, I don't think this passage has much to do with us real estate wise.

Like, I don't think we're able to go, well, what are we going to do with this

land? Okay, I don't even think if you flew over there now, you could find this

particular land and locate this particular cave now.

So I don't think it has much to do with us real estate-wise,

but it has something to do with us in principle.

God has promised to those who trust in Jesus a heavenly city,

and he has given us the Holy Spirit as a down payment while we wait for it in faith. Let's pray.

Lord, thank you for this passage.

Some of us in this room didn't know that was in there.

But how cool is it that you would make a promise to abraham and then fulfill

it a little bit and then fulfill it more later and then fulfill it more even

later after that in fact i thank you for that this is not the only place in

the bible where i've noticed you make a promise and then you fulfill it a little

bit and then a little bit bigger a little bit bigger.

So we thank you for your promises, and we thank you that you're trustworthy,

and we pray that we would be like Joseph, that we would say,

you know, God said it, so it's going to happen.

I pray that we would trust in you in that way. We thank you for Jesus.

We thank you for the new heavens and new earth.

We thank you that as we live in this life, we realize, well,

this is not where I live forever.

This is where I am for now, and one day I'll get to be with God forever,

and I thank you for the promise of the heavenly city.

There are some of us who this city, it's not good for us right now.

I mean, I know people in the church who are having a very difficult week, a very difficult month.

And as we're singing the songs we sang earlier, you know, like the one that

talked about the storms will come and the winds will blow.

And I'm sure there are some of us in this room that they're thinking of specific

things that went awful recently and they're hard and like we're grieving.

And so I thank you in the midst of that grief that we know there is a heavenly city to come.

That this will not last forever. And so we love you and we praise you for that.

We thank you for the gospel.

In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.

Let me end with these good words from God's word.

But they now desire a better place, a heavenly one.

Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared a city

for them. That is good news.