Joseph’s Death
Notes
Transcript
INTRO
INTRO
Have you ever done the right thing… and still gotten in trouble?
I was looking up stories about this happening and I found a story of a Canadian man
In Canada, a young man shoveled snow off his elderly neighbor's driveway for free after a big storm.
But Because he didn't have a "snow removal business license," the city fined him $100 for "operating without a permit.
TENSION
TENSION
But sometimes… it’s not just funny
In real life, people have suffered deeply for doing what’s right
And tonight, we’re going to see how Joseph stayed faithful even when life was completely unfair
TRUTH
TRUTH
Context:
last week we met Joseph and learned that he was the favorite son who had some dreams that made his brothers hate him
Hate him so much that they decided they were going to kill him
But they ended up not killing him but selling him as slave to some traders who were passing by on their way to Egypt
Tonight we pick up with Joseph in Egypt
Now Joseph had been taken to Egypt. An Egyptian named Potiphar, an officer of Pharaoh and the captain of the guards, bought him from the Ishmaelites who had brought him there. The Lord was with Joseph, and he became a successful man, serving in the household of his Egyptian master.
These verse tell us that Joseph was sold to a man named Potiphar who is an officer of Pharaoh
More importantly than that it tells us that despite all that has happened the Lord is still with Joseph
He hasn’t left Joseph
and in fact because the Lord is with Joseph it says that he becomes a successful in serving Potiphar
So successful that Potiphar notices
When his master saw that the Lord was with him and that the Lord made everything he did successful, Joseph found favor with his master and became his personal attendant. Potiphar also put him in charge of his household and placed all that he owned under his authority. From the time that he put him in charge of his household and of all that he owned, the Lord blessed the Egyptian’s house because of Joseph. The Lord’s blessing was on all that he owned, in his house and in his fields. He left all that he owned under Joseph’s authority; he did not concern himself with anything except the food he ate.
Potiphar notices that the Lord was with Joseph causing everything he touched to be successful
so Potiphar decide to put Joseph in charge of everything
like everything everything…. everything but the food that went in to his mouth
And God continued to bless everything that Joseph did
And this is great, right!?
i mean Joseph’s life has been horrible so far so finally something is going good
but we know all to well that when life seems to be too good there often comes some trials
Now Joseph was well-built and handsome.
Wait… that’s not bad news
if anything that even better news for Joseph
not only is everything touches successful but he’s good looking too
Well yes… but I want to pause here for a second because this description is important to note
see it is very rare for the bible to include physical descriptor of people
so, when it does, we know it is going to be important
so why is it important to know Joseph is jacked and good looking?
After some time his master’s wife looked longingly at Joseph and said, “Sleep with me.”
It’s important because Potiphar’s wife becomes so attracted to the man she skips the becoming friends stage, the filtering stage, dating stage, and gets straight to the point
tell Joseph straight up… “sleep with me”
brother has some crazy rizz
But imagine this for a second…
your Master trusted you with control over everything his house except he chooses what he wants to eat
and now his wife is telling you to sleep with her
how is Joseph going to respond?
But he refused. “Look,” he said to his master’s wife, “with me here my master does not concern himself with anything in his house, and he has put all that he owns under my authority. No one in this house is greater than I am. He has withheld nothing from me except you, because you are his wife. So how could I do this immense evil, and how could I sin against God?”
Joseph refuses
Look bro…
your husband has given me control over everything in this house and has help nothing back from me except you
How could i sin again him and God by doing something like that
How can I break the trust of my master like that
How can I sin against God by ruining all that He has blessed me with
But Potiphar’s wife doesn’t give up…
Although she spoke to Joseph day after day, he refused to go to bed with her.
Every single day she is doing everything she can to get Joseph to sleep with her
and yet day in and day out Joseph refuses
He is not going to dishonor his master
He is not going to throw away all that God has blessed him with
But one day…
Now one day he went into the house to do his work, and none of the household servants were there. She grabbed him by his garment and said, “Sleep with me!” But leaving his garment in her hand, he escaped and ran outside. When she saw that he had left his garment with her and had run outside, she called her household servants. “Look,” she said to them, “my husband brought a Hebrew man to make fools of us. He came to me so he could sleep with me, and I screamed as loud as I could. When he heard me screaming for help, he left his garment beside me and ran outside.”
She put Joseph’s garment beside her until his master came home.
One day she was done trying and decided to physically overcome him but Joseph took his jacket off and ran
but he left his jacket which didn’t help Joseph
Potiphar’s wife decides to use that against him
twisting the story by telling servants that it was Joseph trying to forces himself onto her
she does her best to have the servants on her side as she waits for her husband to come home
Then she told him the same story: “The Hebrew slave you brought to us came to make a fool of me, but when I screamed for help, he left his garment beside me and ran outside.”
She tells him the exact same story… a lie
how do you think he responds?
When his master heard the story his wife told him—“These are the things your slave did to me”—he was furious and had him thrown into prison, where the king’s prisoners were confined. So Joseph was there in prison.
Potiphar is livid and throws Joseph in prison
Joseph’s life is officially hit rock bottom again
From the top person in Potiphar’s house to prison
CHRIST CONNECTION
CHRIST CONNECTION
But Joseph’s story should make us pause
Joseph did everything right
He honored God
He resisted temptation
He chose integrity over pleasure
And yet he still got punished
He was falsely accused, thrown into prison, and forgotten
That doesn’t feel fair… And it’s not
But this story isn’t just about how life can be unfair
it’s about how God is faithful even when life is unfair
Even more than that… Joseph’s story points us forward to Jesus
Like Joseph, Jesus was completely innocent
He never sinned
He always obeyed the Father
He lived a perfect, sinless life.
But just like Joseph, Jesus was falsely accused
Jesus standing on trial in front of Pilate who declares Jesus’ innocence
Pilate then told the chief priests and the crowds, “I find no grounds for charging this man.”
Not only was he convicted but He was punished like a criminal
He was nailed to a cross
Why?
Not because He deserved it but because we did
Jesus took the punishment for our sin
He suffered injustice so we could be shown mercy.
And just like with Joseph, God was still in control the whole time
Though he was delivered up according to God’s determined plan and foreknowledge, you used lawless people to nail him to a cross and kill him.
The cross wasn’t a mistake
It was the plan all along to bring salvation, not just for a nation like Joseph did, but for the whole world
And here’s the hope:
Joseph didn’t stay in the pit
Jesus didn’t stay in the grave
So why does this matter for us?
Because the gospel isn’t just that Jesus lived a perfect life and suffered unfairly
it’s that He did it for you
Jesus didn’t go to the cross because of His own sin
He went because of ours
He made the one who did not know sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.
That means all of our sin:
the lies
the lust
the pride
the selfishness
the anger
all of it was placed on Jesus at the cross.
And in exchange, He gives us His perfect righteousness
That’s the gospel:
Jesus takes our place
He is punished so we can be forgiven
He is rejected so we can be accepted
And He didn’t stay dead
He rose again, proving that sin and death have been defeated forever.
And now anyone who trusts in Him can be forgiven, made new, and have a relationship with God that lasts forever.
Not because we earned it
Not because we did everything right like Joseph
But because Jesus did everything right for us
APPLICATION
APPLICATION
So how do we respond to all of this?
Joseph stayed faithful, even when it cost him everything.
But more importantly, Jesus stayed faithful, even when it cost Him His life
He was mocked
rejected
Betrayed
beaten
crucified
Yet He never gave in
He never quit
He never sinned
He was faithful for you
And because Jesus was willing to do everything right, even when it cost Him everything,
we can now live faithfully in response to Him
Not to earn His love, but because we already have it
So here’s the challenge tonight:
When you’re tempted to lie, to give in, to follow the crowd, or to take the easy way out
remember Jesus
Remember the One who was faithful all the way to the cross, for you
on a daily basis we need to remind ourselves that, “Even if it costs me something, I will stay faithful, because Jesus stayed faithful for me”
RESPONSE
RESPONSE
As we end tonight remember:
Joseph was faithful
Jesus was even more faithful, for us
And now, because of Him, we can be faithful too.
You may not always be rewarded for doing the right thing
You might even suffer for it.
But you're not alone…
Jesus has gone before you, and He is with you now.
So as you go about the rest of your week…
Will you choose to stay faithful, even when it’s hard?
Not to earn God’s love but because you already have it in Jesus.
Let’s pray and then let’s worship the One who stayed faithful all the way to the cross.
