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.
How much did Joseph know about his future:
• Teenager tending the flocks with his brothers?
• Cast into the pit?Rising in Potiphar’s house?
• Potipher’s wife falsely accused him of rape?
• Languishing in an Egyptian prison?
How much did he know about God’s purposes when he was elevated to being the prime minister of Egypt?
• He didn’t see it at all.
• Let me put it this way.
How much do/know/certain about what will happen/you/coming week?
• You have your plans, of course, but those could be changed
• classes to attend, calls to make, people to see,
• appointments to keep, papers to write, plans to make,
• Ideas to discuss, and decisions you have to make.
All of that is contingent on circumstances far beyond your control.
• Life is short, fragile, and uncertain.
• No one knows what tomorrow may bring.
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We will gain/more/Joseph’s story if we read/way he lived it
• With no clear idea/future
• no big picture to guide him/no “happy ending” in view.
In short, we should read Joseph’s life the way we live our own lives—one day at a time.
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2. God is the hero of the story.
• On one level, we certainly know this is true.
• Remember Joseph said/brothers “God meant it for good.
• Easy to forget through/ups/downs of Joseph’s life
• There “invisible hand” working through every single event
• Working/produce/desired result
• Joseph himself could not see until he arrived at the end.
Read Joseph’s story/do not come away/new appreciation for God’s providence over all things, we have certainly missed/point.
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What’s Your Wingspan?
• “We need a big God.” we need a big God.
When you’ve been betrayed by your brothers
• Small God won’t do.
When you’ve been falsely accused of rape
• “Medium God” won’t be enough to support you.
When you’ve been forgotten in prison
• “average God” will not sustain you.
• You need a big God.
You need a God whose ways/vast beyond understanding.
You need a God whose purposes span/generations.
You need a God who cannot be stopped/evil deeds/evil men.
• We have a God like that!
• The God of Joseph is our God too.
Check out your own wingspan.
Stand up and stretch out your arms as far as they will go.
• Then say, “I need a big God.”Good news! You’ve got one.
• He’s the God of the Bible.
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Here is how Joseph’s story begins:
Jacob lived in the land where his father had stayed, the land of Canaan. This is the account of Jacob’s family line. Joseph, a young man of seventeen, was tending the flocks with his brothers (vv. 1-2).
With no other introduction, Joseph steps/stage/biblical history.
This point we know only three things about him:
• Teenager/working/family business.
• He doesn’t have a clue about his own future.
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Worked in the family business
Asked Joseph about his career plans
Probably have said, “I’m going to be a shepherd like my father and my grandfather and my great-grandfather.”
• After all, that was the family business.
• Abraham/Isaac/Jacob had done pretty well at it.
• Expect Joseph to figure his future would include sheep.
• But God had other plans.
Before/story/over Joseph/become the prime minister of Egypt,
Couldn’t tell/day he went out/his brothers to tend to the flocks.
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Scattered Threads
As/story begins/threads/his life/scattered in all directions.
Only later will the grand design become apparent.
Clear/Joseph/being prepared by God for his destiny long before he was aware of it.
• Where’s your destiny going to be?
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Well Joseph had Abraham’s dignity and capacity
• Isaac’s purity and power of self-devotion
• Jacob’s cleverness and buoyancy and tenacity.
• Mother’s family personal beauty, humor, and management.
Although God had been preparing the way for Joseph long before he was born, it would take quite a while for him to discover his calling in life.
When he did, he saved his family/changed the course of history.
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What, then, shall we say about this young man as we begin our journey through his story?
• Stands before us as a man whose life/filled/turmoil.
• Started early/his life/never really stopped.
Through it all, he emerges triumphant by God’s grace.
• You betray him/ends up in Egypt
• Throw him in prison/ends up running the joint
• travel to Egypt/he’s the prime minister
• Try to trick him/turns around and forgives you.
• Joseph always lands on his feet.
Here is a man who conquers crisis by supreme confidence in God.
• Came/extremely dysfunctional family
• God turned him/hero who delivered/family sold him/slavery.
• He is the key link in the chain of God’s plan
He became a key link in the chain of God’s plan that would 2000 years later bring the Messiah to the earth.
As Joseph saved his own family, so Christ would come as the Savior of the world.
• What a man! What a story!
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In studying Joseph . . .
We will learn about life itself. This is how it works.
• This is what we should expect. Life isn’t easy for any of us
• most of us it can be quite difficult.
To say it another way, anyone looking for an easy life has picked the wrong planet to be born on.
We will learn how this life works for our good.
• “God is to be seen in small things.”
Since God himself stands behind the universe he created, we should not be surprised to find his fingerprints everywhere, even in the tiniest details of life.
We will learn how Christ is the power to make life worthwhile.
• Note I did not say Christ “has” the power
• but Christ “is” the power, which is slightly different.
• Christ himself lives in us
• he himself/power gives meaning and purpose to life.
It’s going to be a bumpy road.
Joseph proves you can come from a crazy, mixed-up family and do amazing things for the Lord.
But it won’t be easy and definitely not predictable.
Hang on—it’s going to be a bumpy ride for Joseph and for us.
We need a big God, and we have one.
Let that thought give strength to your heart this week.
