Well, people of God in Christ, you've heard the expression, the beginning of the end. Well, here's the end of the beginning. The book of Genesis is named by the first words of the book as Genesis 1, verse 1 reads, in the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. And so the book of Genesis is named literally beginning. And the book of Genesis is fitly named by way of several beginnings recounted within. First, there is indeed the beginning, God's own account of His own creation of the world. Second, there is the beginning of sin in the world, the account of the fall of mankind into sin. Every clever philosopher wants to know why is there evil in the world If God is good, then why is there sin in the world? And Genesis answers. It answers clearly, yet maybe not to the skeptic's satisfaction, but it answers with the account of how we abdicated the throne that God gave to us at creation. Genesis records the fall in the beginning, the fall by which all of mankind became subservient to Satan. Third, Genesis records the beginning of grace. One of the best answers to why there is evil and suffering in the world is that it sets up a kind of arena, a stage upon which a drama begins in which grace comes. Would we have known what grace is? Would we have known the deepest heart of God? Both his justice and grace, except by their being sin and evil in the world and seeing how God through Christ or over many thousands of years provide salvation for sinners who have fallen into sin. The beginning of grace is often found first as God clothes Adam and Eve. They had tried, as you recall, to clothe themselves with leaves. Presumably the fig leaf was at that time the best suited leaf to cover their nakedness. But how can anything within creation cover man's nakedness in sin? And so God clothed them. He covered them with the skins of animals, such that we have the first, the beginning of a substitutionary sacrifice for sin. But in addition, there is the promise of God for something more, indeed for everything more. The seed of Eve, one from among mankind, would come to smite the devil and destroy him and to deliver God's people from their sin. And He would do so by His blood shed on the cross and by His obedience, His righteousness, that now becomes that white robe of righteousness, the white robe of Christ's righteousness that covers the nakedness of God's sinful people. Then the beginning of the of the real spread of mankind across the face of the earth at the Tower of Babel, God had commanded that man fill the earth and subdue it. But it took the intervention of God, confusing the language of mankind to move things along in the fulfillment of his command, which is another picture of both God's justice and his grace. Finally, there is in Genesis the beginning of the covenant of grace. And where do we mark it? We could mark it by the aforementioned curse issued upon Satan in the garden, a curse that doubles as a promise to mankind. The seed of Eve would crush the head of the serpent. The Savior would come, born of man and serving as man's redeemer. The curse upon Satan serves as a kind of thesis statement for the entire rest of the Bible. Or we could mark the beginning of the covenant of grace more formally by the first time God spoke to Abraham in Genesis 12. Or we could mark it at the formal cutting of the covenant in Genesis 15. Or perhaps we could mark it in Genesis 17 as God instituted the sign of the covenant in circumcision. Well, all told, the book of Genesis is the book of beginnings. I just gave you a I hope you see it as a quick survey, a quick survey of the beginnings that we hear of in Genesis. And the thing to note is, is that even as it ends, yet it's its end is only the end of the beginning. The story continues through to Exodus. to the time of the judges in Israel, to the rule of the kings, to the prophets, to the coming of Christ, the promised one, and even on to the book of Revelation. So as we come to that passage of Scripture that marks the end of the beginning, the first point is the death of a mediator. Genesis 50 verse 15 records when Joseph's brothers saw that their father was dead, they said, it may be that Joseph will hate us and pay us back for all the evil that we did to him. What this shows us is that, at least in the minds of Joseph's brothers, they saw their father as a mediator. In other words, it was perhaps their father who was keeping the revenge of Joseph at bay. And we might be able to understand this, given that revenge is so much part of our own makeup in the flesh, we we know we must forgive when others sin against us. But, oh, given the chance, what opportunity might tempt us to take revenge? It's the stuff of human nature for Joseph's brothers to continue in fear that Joseph might finally pay them back for what they had done to him. They had seized him. They had thrown him into a pit. They had planned to kill him, but lost nerve and thought it would be better to sell him into slavery. Then they could get rid of him without having to deal with a dead body. And they could even make some money in the process. Whether Joseph was free from prison in Egypt or serving as a slave or locked in prison for years, Joseph had known much suffering, even great suffering at the hands of his brothers. Why wouldn't he seek revenge against his brothers? And so the way his brothers had it figured was that it was only because of Jacob, their father, that Joseph had not yet exacted his his revenge. In other words, they they saw their father, Jacob, as a mediator who, while he lived, provided protection for them against Joseph's revenge. So that upon Jacob's death, their mediator was dead. And they were left in the crosshairs of Joseph's revenge. So this was their strategy, to inform Joseph that before he died, Jacob had issued a command. The suspicious thing is that Joseph's brothers claimed that Jacob had issued the command to Joseph, but through them. And so the immediate question is, why wouldn't Jacob have issued the command directly to Joseph? The alleged command was this, please forgive the transgression of your brothers and their sin because they did evil to you. But even if it was true that Jacob had spoken such words to his sons for them to deliver the message to Joseph, It only resulted in the mediation of the dead among the living. And so with Christ as our mediator, here we see the need for the resurrection of Christ. One of the titles given to our Lord Jesus is that He is our mediator. 1 Timothy 2 verse 5 says, For there is one God and there is one mediator between God and man, the man Christ Jesus. And Hebrews 9 verse 15 says of Christ that he is the mediator of a new covenant so that those who are called may receive the promised eternal inheritance. And Hebrews 12 verse 24 names Jesus as the mediator of a new covenant whose blood speaks a better word than the blood of Abel. So he is our go-between, between us and God. He is the one who stays the wrath of God from falling upon us for our past sin. Even more, Jesus is the one who stays the wrath of God from falling upon us each and every day of our Christian lives as we continue to face temptation and struggle, and yet we fall time and again to sin. But Christ is always there for us as our mediator. To live the Christian life is to live by the daily mediation of Christ. As his brothers saw it, the mediator securing their safety and protection from Joseph's vengeance was their father, Jacob. When Jacob died, the brothers of Joseph were afraid and their fear was based on two factors. First, they knew they were guilty. We saw earlier in Genesis how they figured that these bad things happening to them in Egypt were happening because of what they had done to their brother Joseph. The connection was surely made within their conscience that here they were in Egypt, that place where they had sold their brother into. Now they were in Egypt and it stirred their conscience. This is happening, they said, because of how we dealt with our brother Joseph selling him into Egypt. And it was still true now that they felt conviction for their sin, and like all sinners, they expected judgment. They expected Joseph himself to exact his revenge upon them. Second, they greatly feared because Joseph had the power to do whatever he wanted to do to them. the power to deal with them however he desired. Now that their father was dead, what was there to stop Joseph from getting his revenge? And we might have the same fear. The reason sinners commit idolatry, which is to say the reason sinners create for themselves a false god of their own imagination and mental making is because they fear the one true God whom they know exists and whose judgment they know is coming. And so it's the conviction of sin that leads sinners into further sin, including the sin of idolatry. In the end, it's such a perfect picture here at the end of Genesis of where we are in sin. The difference is that we have a mediator who will never die. Here's the importance of the resurrection of Jesus. Why isn't the suffering and death of Christ enough to save us? Was the resurrection of Christ really all that necessary? If by the suffering and death of Christ, the wrath of God is turned away so that we are thereby delivered from God's judgment, well, then isn't that enough? By the atoning death of Christ, we are delivered from the wrath to come. First Thessalonians 1 verse 10. So we need to see that that what the resurrection of Christ does for us, combined with his ascension to the right hand of the father is to give us a mediator. By his resurrection and ascension, we gain, first of all, the credit of Christ's righteousness. Romans 4, 25 says of Christ that he was delivered up for our trespasses and raised for our justification. But even by our justification, even by how God counts us righteous, so we have his constant and even eternal mediation. Without the resurrection of Christ, we. We have no salvation. But by His resurrection and ascension and by His place forever at the right hand of the Father, we have an eternal salvation and we have it by way of an eternal mediator, Jesus Christ, our Lord. And yet the theme of mediation continues in Genesis 50, in verse 17, for the second point, the pledge of a new mediator. And it begins firstly with Joseph weeping. Joseph was pained to think that his brothers still did not trust him. They still feared him when he would have just simply been their brother again. But if he had the authority to feed them, then surely he had the authority to punish them. Once again, we get the connection to our own place before God. We we depend upon God to feed us. And yet by such dependence, we we also are convicted of his judgment. Some would say, no, there's no God. And and we only depend upon, you know, Mother Earth to feed us. But we know better. All people know better. The two attributes of God go together, his kindness to feed us and his justice to judge us. but Joseph was grieved by his brother's fear of him. And so Joseph makes a pledge to them. He becomes their mediator. He issues a promise to them to be their mediator in the stead of their father. Jacob was dead and the brothers were in a panic, but Joseph said, do not fear for I am I in the place of God. As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good to bring it about that many people should be kept alive as they are today. So do not fear. I will provide for you and your little ones." Thus he comforted them, we're told, and spoke kindly to them. So here is another reverse parallel, we might call it, to us in our relationship to Christ. First, the mediator between Joseph's wicked brothers and Joseph himself was their father Jacob, who died so that he could no longer mediate. But we have an eternal mediator, our Lord Jesus, who will never die. Now, as Joseph himself becomes their mediator, he says, am I in the place of God? Can we hear the irony of that statement in a reverse kind of way? Our mediator is in the place of God. Our mediator is God Himself in our own flesh. Here's the greatest joy that we have in the incarnation, Christ taking on our flesh. Here is the true joy of the birth of Christ. Christmas is not just a quaint story of the birth of a baby, even a special baby, unless we understand how special He was and is. How special He remains to us today, serving as our mediator. Unlike Joseph, Christ is in the place of God. He is Emmanuel. He is God with us. And God the Father himself has given us his son to be our savior and to be our savior, not just 2000 years ago when he was born, lived, suffered, died and rose again, but to be our savior even today by way of his resurrection and his ascension and his constant. his constant and eternal mediation for us. It must have been a great relief to Joseph's brothers. They were afraid that Joseph would carry out his revenge upon them. But what did they hear instead? First, Joseph recounts what had already happened, the blessing that had already come to them and he reminds them that this was all according to the plan of God. And he reminds them that even their sin against him, selling him into slavery was according to the plan of God for the blessing of God to them. Think of that again, because it deserves our further meditation within this last sermon on Genesis by way of the sin of his brothers. against Joseph, God had provided salvation for his brothers. Someone might say, oh, you know, better not put it that way, because that will just make people sin all the more to say that by way of sin, God provides salvation. Well, maybe it will and maybe it won't cause someone to sin all the more, but it's the truth. And hopefully by such teaching, Those who are trusting in Christ will see how much how deeply God loves the sinner. And how much he is in control, we might say, of his own forgiveness is not waiting for us to earn it, as we've said before. Instead, he he shows us that we can't outdo his grace by our sin. This is what made Martin Luther say to Melanchthon, sin boldly, brother. It's a controversial statement. But what he was saying was, quit your self-righteous groveling and needless desponding in your sin. Sin is no impediment to God. In fact, it only highlights the sovereign grace of God. You can't outperform God. You can only miss the blessing of living under the Lordship of your Savior and your mediator, the Lord Jesus Christ. So Joseph had already been a mediator to them, mediating life to them by the work of God and the hand of God. But second, Joseph makes this pledge to them for the future. I will provide for you and your little ones. And in this, we see Christ. We even see the sovereign grace of God by which we baptize our children. A parallel passage comes in Acts 2.39 when Peter preaches to the people, the promises for you and for your children and for all who are far off. Joseph gave this assurance to his brothers, I will provide for you and your little ones. And Peter said the promises for you and your children and for all who are far off. Here's where we differ with our Baptist brothers and sisters, and I do call them brothers and sisters. I hope they will return that favor to me. But they deny baptism to their children in order to reserve for them the personal decision to be baptized. Granted, Peter preached, repent and be baptized. But Peter was preaching to adults, many of whom had been circumcised, but none of whom had been baptized. What else would he say to those who needed to be baptized? He said, repent and be baptized. But he also said, the promise is for you and your children, for all who are far off. So rather than reserving for your children their personal decision to be baptized, God would instead call us to focus on His decision for us and for our children. Do we recognize how remarkable, what a blessing it is for God to give a child to grow up in a Christian family with believing parents. The place of a child in a Christian family doesn't guarantee salvation, But God has promised to show steadfast love to thousands of those who love him and keep his commandments. He makes his covenant promise to us and to our children. And we see this even in Joseph's promise to his brothers, I will provide for you and for your little ones. Let it be clear that salvation always comes by faith. And faith, if it be saving faith, is always a personal decision. But the great joy of covenant baptism, not for the parents, but for the child who is brought to faith later, the great joy is to see the covenant faithfulness of God worked out in his or her life. placed within a Christian family, raised to know Christ by the Word of God, and so brought to faith by the sovereign grace of God. And we believe that God would have this manifestation of His grace begin with the sign of the covenant, the sign of His covenant faithfulness even from birth. Finally then, the death of a new mediator. The book of Genesis ends with the death even of Joseph. And he too, like his father Jacob, had the faith by which to want to be buried in Christ, which is to say, to be buried in the promised land. And though it would be some 400 years before Israel was to return to the Promised Land, we later hear that Joseph's instructions were indeed carried out and that his bones were in fact buried in the Promised Land. But for now, there is a repetition, an emphasis here that points us again to Christ. Joseph promised to provide for his brothers and their families, but for how long? He too died. Joseph was able to provide for his brothers and their little ones only so long as he lived. And Joseph was also serving as mediator between his brothers and Pharaoh, king of Egypt. Upon the death of Joseph, things changed drastically if we know the story for the people of God in Egypt. In fact, I think we get a foreshadowing of this by the decline of Joseph's status and influence already earlier in this chapter. We didn't deal with it before, but in Genesis 50 verse four, it says that Joseph spoke to the household of Pharaoh saying, if now I have found favor in your eyes, please speak in the ears of Pharaoh on my behalf. let me please go up and bury my father, then I will return." The question is, why would Joseph, second in command of all of Egypt, second only to the king himself, why would he need to play politics? Why would he have to speak to the household of Pharaoh in order to be granted the permission he was looking for? I think I'm not going to die on this hill, but I think it shows that the status and influence of Joseph was already waning. We aren't told why, but it would seem to foreshadow even the death of Joseph when his mediation would end. So brothers and sisters, let us rejoice that we have an eternal mediator in the person and the place of our Lord Jesus Christ, He will not die on us. And He will not die because He cannot die. As it says in Romans 6, verse 9, He has already died and has risen again, never to die again. And He has died and risen again for you. Take that to heart. He has died and risen again for you. I would call you to make this your faith. Look to Christ as your mediator. And don't think you have no need for a mediator. The wrath of God for sin is greater than the wrath of Joseph that his brothers feared. The wrath of God for sin is greater than the wrath of Pharaoh that came upon Israel after Joseph was was dead. Sinners need a mediator between them and the holy God. But that same holy God has himself provided the mediator and we can trust him. We can trust him today, tomorrow and forever. The only question is, will we? Let us each answer the question today that we will. Let us not ignore such a great salvation. And as we trust him as our mediator, let us be at peace with God. Let us know that in Christ we are reconciled to God. Let us know that though we struggle, though we still fall, we cannot overcome. the grace of God by our sin, God himself has ordained to give us an eternal mediator. And his name is Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen. Let's pray. We thank you, God, that you have provided a savior for us and that he is our eternal mediator. And we thank you, Lord Jesus, for your finished work so that you might indeed take up that place in heaven where you give us such great assurance that you are there for us and that you are our saving mediator. Indeed, may we have that assurance, each and every one of us, and may we trust in Christ and with each passing day, learn more of who you are, Lord Jesus, and of how, who you are, you are for us as sinners. This we ask and pray in Jesus name and for his sake. Amen.