A Hero Rises Series

Allan Kircher

Shell Point Baptist Church

29 Dec 2013

Gen 37:1-2

All sermons are abbreviated

A Hero Rises

• Series Intro:

• Pages/Bibles/filled/stories/hundreds/men/women.

• Nearly every story contains one common thread.

• Whether/character/king/peasant/prophet/general

• a fisherman or a preacher

• Nearly every person/Bible/his/her dark side revealed.

Noah got drunk.

• Abraham/Isaac/Jacob/lied to save their own hides.

• Moses committed murder. David/guilty/adultery.

• Solomon was an idolater. Peter cursed and lied.

• John the Baptist doubted Jesus/list could go on and on.

• Pages/Bible/filled/sins/people mentioned on its pages.

Verses/today introduce us to a man named Joseph.

• Eleventh son of the patriarch Jacob. “Jehovah has added”

• lived 110 years/not a single sin attributed to this man

• endured trials/afflictions most cannot even imagine

• Nowhere does/Bible hint his faith in God waivered.

• He never seemed to get his eyes off the Lord.

Whether he was in the place of favor/father’s house or languishing/prison, he/same man.

• Hardship did not harden his heart.

• Riches and power did not corrupt him.

• Same man regardless/circumstances/he found himself.

• Joseph was truly a unique man!

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Every event/life of Joseph, God/busy fulfilling Rom. 8:28.

• Joseph/man for all seasons.

Never grow tired/telling how Joseph’s brothers betrayed him

• gripping tale/attempted seduction by a wife/wandering eye

• sad saga of false accusation and unjust imprisonment

• long lonely nights Joseph spent in prison

• unlikely journey he took from prison to the palace

• how he put his brothers to the test

• How/end it all came out alright

• he said/brothers who betrayed him

“You meant it for evil against me, but God meant it for good” (Gen. 50:20).

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Joseph “a man for all seasons.” It seems like an apt title for a man who went through so many varied experiences.

• He was chosen and rejected.

• He was loved and hated.

• He was favored and abused.

• He was betrayed and rescued.

• He was promoted and imprisoned.

• He was tested and rewarded.

• He was slandered and praised.

• At no point did he ever take his eyes off the Lord.

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• Adversity didn’t harden him.

• Prosperity didn’t ruin him.

• Temptation didn’t destroy him.

• Imprisonment didn’t embitter him.

• Promotion didn’t change him.

• He was a truly great man.

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His Story in One Paragraph

• Favored son of his father Jacob.

• Enters/biblical history/17 yrs old.

Because his brothers hated him, he/sold/slave/taken to Egypt.

• After being falsely accused of rape

• Imprisoned with no hope of getting out.

Because he correctly interpreted Pharaoh’s dream, he became the prime minister of Egypt.

• Eventually he welcomed his family to Egypt

• preserved the line of promise

• Started with his great-grandfather Abraham.

• Joseph’s story is the hinge between Gen and Exodus

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Joseph/“hinge” that connects Genesis (the Book of Beginnings) with Exodus (the Book of Redemption).

If Exodus tells us how God delivered his people from Egypt, Joseph’s story tells us how they got there in the first place.

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Lessons Joseph Teaches Us

Though Joseph/God’s man/not have an easy life.

Here are some of the things his story teaches us:

• Joseph didn’t have an easy life.

• Trusting God when in the pit of despair.

• How to deal with sexual temptation.

• How to redeem a painful past.

• What to do while you wait.

• How to see God’s hand in all things.

• How to make wise plans.

• How God awakens a guilty conscience.

• The marks of true repentance.

• How to live for God in a pagan culture.

• Overcoming lingering bitterness.

• How to die well.

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Besides those lessons, we should note that Joseph stands as an outstanding type or picture of Jesus Christ.

We do not have to look far to see the resemblance.

• He was Loved by his father.

• Hated/betrayed/brothers/Sold/20 pieces of silver.

• Falsely accused.

• Judged guilty of a crime he did not commit.

• Abandoned/forgotten/Promoted after his suffering.

• The means of salvation even for those who betrayed him.

• All roads lead to Christ

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“Impossible to avoid seeing the close, prolonged, and striking resemblances between Joseph and Christ”.

In studying Joseph, we will see glimpses/One who will be born centuries later in an obscure village in Judea.

What starts/fields near Hebron leads on/fields near Bethlehem.

Let’s not hesitate to make that journey ourselves.

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Two Key Observations

1. Joseph did not know how his story would end.

• We have a problem that Joseph didn’t face.

• We know how the story ends/Joseph/no clue/his future.

No matter how hard we try, it is almost impossible to read it as the amazing, unpredictable adventure that it was.

• When you know/end/story/lose/sense of how unexpected it all was.