Messiah Savior

Intro (Joseph is a type or a Pattern)

I think we probably miss the total wonder of christmas in 2025

I mean we are busy…

There are a hundred people to shop for…There are a thousand christmas parties…we are all shopping online looking for the best thing to give someone

But what we miss is the wonder of the waiting…The wonder of the expectation

The wonder of being on high alert for what will come next

Kids have this a bit don’t they…They are just counting down the day to opening presents.

I just remember when the kids were little we were driving on the 210 freeway in southern California at night near Mt Wilson and there are all these towers up there…With red lights and the kids just swore up and down they saw Rudolph

In their expectation for christmas they look everywhere for signs of christmas!

I am not sure if this is much of a comparison to the way the the Jews looked for a messiah

It is hard to even begin to describe the sense of Messianic expectation in Israel at the time of the birth of Jesus.

But what you have to understand is that Israel was a conquered and occupied nation.

They had come back from Exile about 400 years before but they had never really come back…It was world power after world power on their door step and this time it was those nasty Romans

And the Jews have in their text that a messiah is coming…So the whole nation is searching and praying for this deliverance to come from a messiah…It is very real to say that every houshold had a sense of divine expectation that God was just about to do something new…..

I guess before we get into the many verses of the Bible today my question is do you have a sense of divine expectation. That God is just about to do something new in your life? That God will use you for his divine plan.

Well In Luke 2 there is the birth of the Messiah. Jesus is Born.

Literally angels break out in song

Distant kings bring gifts

and his parents bring him to the temple to present him to the Lord!

Let’s look at this moment

Luke 2:21–35 NIV

On the eighth day, when it was time to circumcise the child, he was named Jesus, the name the angel had given him before he was conceived. When the time came for the purification rites required by the Law of Moses, Joseph and Mary took him to Jerusalem to present him to the Lord (as it is written in the Law of the Lord, “Every firstborn male is to be consecrated to the Lord”), and to offer a sacrifice in keeping with what is said in the Law of the Lord: “a pair of doves or two young pigeons.” Now there was a man in Jerusalem called Simeon, who was righteous and devout. He was waiting for the consolation of Israel, and the Holy Spirit was on him. It had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he would not die before he had seen the Lord’s Messiah. Moved by the Spirit, he went into the temple courts. When the parents brought in the child Jesus to do for him what the custom of the Law required, Simeon took him in his arms and praised God, saying: “Sovereign Lord, as you have promised, you may now dismiss your servant in peace. For my eyes have seen your salvation, which you have prepared in the sight of all nations: a light for revelation to the Gentiles, and the glory of your people Israel.” The child’s father and mother marveled at what was said about him. Then Simeon blessed them and said to Mary, his mother: “This child is destined to cause the falling and rising of many in Israel, and to be a sign that will be spoken against, so that the thoughts of many hearts will be revealed. And a sword will pierce your own soul too.”

So Simeon is a man who other than this moment would have been lost to history

For years he had been waiting and hoping…God had revealed to him earlier in his life that he would see the messiah before he died

So the driving mission of his life was to find that messiah!

His mission was to wait in obscurity until he identified the messiah! When he saw Jesus, He basically said, I can die now! I can finally have peace in my life because he was waiting for the consolation of israel…

He basically said, I can die in peace now

God’s word has been fulfilled

Now if you were a Jew in those days you were reading the torah but you were also reading the Talmud…

And really specifically in the days around Jesus birth you are reading these texts with a sense of Messianic expectation

I have spent some time with Ancient Jewish literature and it is just ripe with identifying what the messiah might be like

So I want to cover with you today Something that is one just very interesting to me and barley ever talked about…

But two…I think there is something valuable here too…Not just fun theories

So in the time of Jesus’ birth the theory of the messiah is the most prominent one that you know about today.

They called it Messiah Ben David…This is a messiah in the line of David…And this is what we looked at last week. Jesus is absolutely born into the line of David. He was called Son of David…It is so well documented that Jesus is a descendent of David

But there is another theory that had prominence in those days and especially after the death and resurrection of Jesus too…and indeed in Judaism for people who do not think that Jesus is the messiah…this theory still has a lot of prominence…

It is a little known theory in Judaism is called Messiah Ben Joseph….So it’s is a messiah in the tradition of Joseph…And he will be a warrior in the final battle of Gog and Magog and he will die on behalf of his people. He will be a suffering messiah….The literature actually says he will be pierced for his people! and then he will defeat the grave

So christians who have interacted with this theory have consistently said…You can take the messiah ben David and the messiah ben Joseph ideas and realize that there is only one person who fulfills it all and that is Jesus

a 12th century Franciscan biblical scholar Nicholas of Lyra: Christians see both fulfilled in one person—Jesus

So the messiah concept is a bit different in Christianity than in Judaism

Jesus the eternal being taking on the fragility of human flesh, by so doing he is stepping into the human story, dying for our sins…then taking his life back up again…

The concept of the Jewish messiah is that he would just be an exalted human ruler. A person who will restore true obedience to the Torah, one who will restore temple worship, world peace…One who will bring the exiles back

But Christians see the messiah as God with flesh on

So last week we looked at the Messiah in the tradition of a king…Specifically King David

And this week I want to walk down the very little known Rabbit hole as the tradition of the Messiah from the tradition of Joseph….I realize probably none of you have heard about this but I just want you to see how powerful the Messianic expectation was during this time.

Who is Joseph? Messiah Ben Joseph

So in order to Understand The messiah in the tradition of Joseph we have to walk through the story of Joseph

So I know Genesis 37 is an unlikely christmas text but remember what I tell you all the time.

The old testament is a set of stairs…EVERY verse leads to Jesus it is remarkable

So if you are brand new to the bible I don’t want to lose any of you…The basics are this:

Adam and eve sinned in the garden and were kicked out…Humanity spirals out of control

God starts a new family with a guy named Abraham…And we are told that somehow Abraham’s family will be the family that will restore the world!

So there is Abraham and he has a son Isaac and Isaac has a son named Jacob….

Well Jacob is re-named Israel and then he has 12 sons…

One of the youngest is Joseph…And he is so important that it goes from chapters 37-50…

The story of Joseph takes up some major Bible real estate…

And by the way…everything is impotrant in the bible but if you want to get a sense of how impotrant something is….You can ask the question…How much space does it take up…

So we now come to the story of Joseph

Genesis 37:1–10 NIV

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, the sons of Bilhah and the sons of Zilpah, his father’s wives, and he brought their father a bad report about them. Now Israel loved Joseph more than any of his other sons, because he had been born to him in his old age; and he made an ornate robe for him. When his brothers saw that their father loved him more than any of them, they hated him and could not speak a kind word to him. Joseph had a dream, and when he told it to his brothers, they hated him all the more. He said to them, “Listen to this dream I had: We were binding sheaves of grain out in the field when suddenly my sheaf rose and stood upright, while your sheaves gathered around mine and bowed down to it.” His brothers said to him, “Do you intend to reign over us? Will you actually rule us?” And they hated him all the more because of his dream and what he had said. Then he had another dream, and he told it to his brothers. “Listen,” he said, “I had another dream, and this time the sun and moon and eleven stars were bowing down to me.” When he told his father as well as his brothers, his father rebuked him and said, “What is this dream you had? Will your mother and I and your brothers actually come and bow down to the ground before you?”

Ok we find Joseph here as a 17 year old kid and he is out supervising his brother’s work and telling him about these dreams that he has had

One where he is gathering grain and his brothers were all gathering grain as well and and his grain suddenly rose above all of theres and their grain bows to his!

And the Bible says his brothers were like…Do you intend to reign over us? And then it says they hated him!

And then he had another dream…That the sun and eleven stars were bowing down to him…To be clear…what he is saying is that that his father and mother and all of his brothers were bowing down to him….

And this time his dad gets involved

So in these two dreams they will foreshadow so much

One Joseph will years later be in charge of the grain supplies of all of Egypt and he will save his hungry family…and in saving his family he saves a nation….

But what about this cosmic dream? Will Joseph one day be the ruler of the universe?

I mean this is why his brothers hated Joseph….He was one of the youngest! He was the runt having these dreams!

So here is what happens next

Genesis 37:19–27 NIV

“Here comes that dreamer!” they said to each other. “Come now, let’s kill him and throw him into one of these cisterns and say that a ferocious animal devoured him. Then we’ll see what comes of his dreams.” When Reuben heard this, he tried to rescue him from their hands. “Let’s not take his life,” he said. “Don’t shed any blood. Throw him into this cistern here in the wilderness, but don’t lay a hand on him.” Reuben said this to rescue him from them and take him back to his father. So when Joseph came to his brothers, they stripped him of his robe—the ornate robe he was wearing—and they took him and threw him into the cistern. The cistern was empty; there was no water in it. As they sat down to eat their meal, they looked up and saw a caravan of Ishmaelites coming from Gilead. Their camels were loaded with spices, balm and myrrh, and they were on their way to take them down to Egypt. Judah said to his brothers, “What will we gain if we kill our brother and cover up his blood? Come, let’s sell him to the Ishmaelites and not lay our hands on him; after all, he is our brother, our own flesh and blood.” His brothers agreed.

Joseph is rejected by his own brothers…

I mean do you see what happens here. Joseph does nothing wrong and just because his brothers are upset at his dreaming they plot to kill him but instead of that they sell him down as a slave to Egypt

They utterly reject him…

But the person whom they reject will end up being the person that saves them

So when the Rabbis are looking for who might be a messiah they are saying that we are going to have a messiah in the tradition of Joseph too…

Hmmm…What did The new testament have to say about this

What did Jesus have to say about this…

Well lets start in John

John 1:11 NIV

He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him.

Jesus came to Israel and Israel did not accept him!

Then Jesus points out his own rejection

Jesus…Quotes Psalm 118 which by the way is not connected directly to Joseph but 100% the theme of Joseph’s story is all there

Its all about a suffering servant who will be rejected by his own people…and save the ones who reject them…

So Jesus is like…Don’t you know what is happening

Matthew 21:42 NIV

Jesus said to them, “Have you never read in the Scriptures: “ ‘The stone the builders rejected has become the cornerstone; the Lord has done this, and it is marvelous in our eyes’?

Like Joseph, Jesus was rejected by his own people

But the story of Joseph continues…

He is sold into slavey in Egypt then he goes into the house of Potiphar

Joseph is falsely accused of trying to sleep with Potiphar’s wife

Then he gets thrown in prison for anywhere from 7-10 years…we don’t know the exact timeline

But he suffered horribly and then The Pharoah noticed that God was with this young man and he could interpret dreams

So after he was suffered he was exalted and made second in command of all of egypt.

He sat at Pharaoh’s right hand

See the idea of the messiah in the line of Joesph is less about a blood line and more about a typology

A man who is rejected by israel and then saves it

A man who is a faithful servant…whenever you see someone save isrrael in the Old Testament it is almost always pointing forward to what the messiah will be like

So let’s look at what Joseph says about his own life:

Genesis 45:4–11 NIV

Then Joseph said to his brothers, “Come close to me.” When they had done so, he said, “I am your brother Joseph, the one you sold into Egypt! And now, do not be distressed and do not be angry with yourselves for selling me here, because it was to save lives that God sent me ahead of you. For two years now there has been famine in the land, and for the next five years there will be no plowing and reaping. But God sent me ahead of you to preserve for you a remnant on earth and to save your lives by a great deliverance. “So then, it was not you who sent me here, but God. He made me father to Pharaoh, lord of his entire household and ruler of all Egypt. Now hurry back to my father and say to him, ‘This is what your son Joseph says: God has made me lord of all Egypt. Come down to me; don’t delay. You shall live in the region of Goshen and be near me—you, your children and grandchildren, your flocks and herds, and all you have. I will provide for you there, because five years of famine are still to come. Otherwise you and your household and all who belong to you will become destitute.’

Do you get what Joseph is saying…

Eventually his family comes down to Egypt because they are hungry and guess what…He is Lord over them…he has all the grain! Just like his dream when he was 17 years old

And Joseph recognizes that my brothers made me suffer…They sold me down the river

But he also noticed God’s hand in his suffering

Joseph forgives his brothers for making him suffer and he recognizes God’s plan in it

I mean…

Jesus absolutely enters into the theme of Joseph

When he is on the cross what happens?

Luke 23:34 NIV

Jesus said, “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.”

Jesus suffers for those who rejected him

Literally Joseph suffers for his brothers who rejected him

And then he forgives the people who brought him so much pain

He forgives the men who

Both Jesus and Joseph are exalted after suffering

Remember what we read

Matthew 21:42 NIV

Jesus said to them, “Have you never read in the Scriptures: “ ‘The stone the builders rejected has become the cornerstone; the Lord has done this, and it is marvelous in our eyes’?

See the at the birth of Jesus you have all of these religious scholars looking back over the text and saying what will the messiah be like?

They have been waiting patiently their whole lives

And many of them were looking at Joseph to say…

We are going to have a savior who will be rejected by his own people but he will save them

This is basically what Simeon tells Mary and Joseph!

You are going to have a lot of pain because of this child

So why does all of this matter to you….

I know this doesn’t sound like christmas: But I have 5 things that I want to pull from this story

1. God works through rejection and pain

For Joseph he was rejected and had Pain for Years…But God worked though him to save a nation

Look at Jesus, He was rejected by his own people and nailed to a cross and yet though that he forgave the sins of humanity and points the way to the father

I think we all too often reject pain and rejection in our own lives as punishments from God but instead of that what if they are God’s tool to mold you into who he wants you to be

When you feel overlooked, sidelined, betrayed, or misunderstood, God isn’t absent.

Your lowest places may become the spaces where God forms your character for a future calling.

Pain doesn’t disqualify you — it prepares you.

2. Suffering can be redemptive rather than meaningless

Messiah ben Joseph suffers not because God abandoned him but because God will use his suffering for the salvation of others.

When we suffer in our own lives, suffering is so hard and its so painful that often times you can not see beyond your own pain.

But how powerful is it if like Joseph and like Jesus you can look at your suffering and tell people how God has been faithful in your life!

This has a powerful effect

Your suffering can become someone else’s blessing.

God can transform wounds into wisdom, empathy, and strength for others.

So maybe you are walking though a seson of suffering…I want you to consider that Seasons of hardship can have a purpose that is bigger than you.

3. Faithfulness in hidden seasons matters

What do I mean in hidden seasons? What I mean is when no one sees…

Joseph was faithful in potaphers house, he was faithful in prision and all of that faithfulness shaped the person who would literally redeem all of Israel

Think about Jesus…Before the age of 30, before his public ministry he lived in total obscurity

All point to this theme:

Faithfulness in anonymity prepares you for God’s work.

Be faithful when nobody sees your work, prayers, generosity, integrity.

Be faithful when you’re tempted and no one else is around

Hidden obedience is never wasted.

Don’t buy into the lie of thinking…well no one is going to see…

Don’t despise seasons where you feel stuck — they are God’s workshop.

4. God love to bring victory out of death

The tradition of Messiah ben Joseph is that he dies and through his death, a nation is saved

Jesus literally dies and rises -from the grave

Joseph “dies” symbolically (thrown in a pit, sold, imprisoned) before rising.

When something seems dead — a dream, a relationship, a ministry — God can resurrect it in His time.

Sometimes death needs to happen so that new life can form.

You don’t have to fear “endings” with God; He specializes in bringing life out of them.

Death is not an obstacle to God

5. God redeems long seasons of waiting

Joseph waited. Israel waited. Messiah ben Joseph waits. Jesus waited for His hour.

Your waiting season isn’t wasted.

God is shaping your soul so you can bear the weight of future responsibility.

Waiting is often where God does His most transformative work.

COMMUNION

Give your life to the one who suffered for yours