Untitled Sermon (10)

Reader:

Our sermon text today can be found in Genesis 45:1-11

This is what God’s Word says:

Genesis 45:1–11 (CSB)

1 Joseph could no longer keep his composure in front of all his attendants, so he called out, “Send everyone away from me!” No one was with him when he revealed his identity to his brothers.

2 But he wept so loudly that the Egyptians heard it, and also Pharaoh’s household heard it.

3 Joseph said to his brothers, “I am Joseph! Is my father still living?” But they could not answer him because they were terrified in his presence.

4 Then Joseph said to his brothers, “Please, come near me,” and they came near. “I am Joseph, your brother,” he said, “the one you sold into Egypt.

5 And now don’t be grieved or angry with yourselves for selling me here, because God sent me ahead of you to preserve life.

6 For the famine has been in the land these two years, and there will be five more years without plowing or harvesting.

7 God sent me ahead of you to establish you as a remnant within the land and to keep you alive by a great deliverance.

8 Therefore it was not you who sent me here, but God. He has made me a father to Pharaoh, lord of his entire household, and ruler over all the land of Egypt.

9 “Return quickly 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 without delay.

10 You can settle in the land of Goshen and be near me—you, your children, and your grandchildren, your flocks, your herds, and all you have.

11 There I will sustain you, for there will be five more years of famine. Otherwise, you, your household, and everything you have will become destitute.” ’

Reader: This is God’s Word

Congregation: Thanks be to God

Pastoral Prayer

Let us pray...

Father,

You have not hid yourself from us, but in the midst of darkness and despair, you have proven time and time again that you bring abundant life to your people. We seek you this morning, may we see the rich provision of this text and see the wonderful news that all things, and we mean all things, work together for the good of those who love Christ Jesus and are called according to his purposes. Speak now, Lord, your servants are listening.

And all of God’s people said, [Amen]

Please be seated.

Introduction

We have been doing a deep dive into the life of Joseph in the book of Genesis over the course of the past several weeks and we have seen God’s steady hand of deliverance on his servants through all things.

And as with any character study we have been able to draw a number of admirable qualities about Joseph, his life, and his perseverance in faith, but I know that we as a staff  and a preaching team want you to walk away from here with so much more than merely practicalities... but that we would look at this story and see God’s glorious work on display and that it would embolden us all as we engage the world around us spreading the news of our great God. 

And here we are, at a sort of culmination in the story. At a moment where if we had never heard this story before, we would all be anxiously awaiting this moment here where Joseph confronts his brothers for the first time since they kickstarted this whole calamity when they sold him into slavery and left him for dead. 

But while you and I might be able to guess how we would act in retaliation what we see on display in this interaction today is anything but vindictive. 

It’s life-giving, gracious, merciful, and we see not only the story of Joseph, but a testimony to the character of our God. 

In our text today, we are reminded of three fundamental elements about life as a Christian, namely that we are we are confronted with our Shame, we rely on His Sovereignty, and through no merit of our own He extends to us, Salvation. 

Right from the jump we see in this monumental climax of the story, if ever there was a moment for anyone to look at their betrayers and scream, “HOW DO YOU LIKE ME NOW?” It would have been right here in this moment.

Illustration

In 1993 a movie simply titled, Rudy, made its way to the big screen. If you’re unfamiliar it truly is one of the greatest sports movies of all time, a true underdog overcoming all odds type of story. There is a whole bunch of older men in the room chanting “Rudy, Rudy, Rudy…” in their head right now.

Rudy Ruettiger is an undersized football player from a small town in Illinois who bleeds for the Notre Dame Fighting Irish. He would do absolutely anything to suit up in the navy and gold. Upon the death of his best friend he pulls the trigger and go’s all in on his dream. He moves out of his small town to South Bend, Indiana. Sounds great, right?

But time after time Rudy is met with obstacle after obstacle. His grades aren’t good enough to get accepted into the big time university so he goes to community college. He can’t afford room and board so he works the grounds in the football stadium and sneakily sleeps in the stadium at night. 

Eventually he gets involved with a campus pep squad and with that gets close to a particular girl and one night he accidentally lets it slip that he doesn’t actually attend the university. He’s tossed out of the only avenue he’s been able to draw close to his beloved Notre Dame and all seems helpless.

But things begin to shape up. He picks up his grades. He gets accepted into Notre Dame. After getting his tail whipped in tryouts he secures a spot on the practice squad and I’ll never forget the scene, even as a child I remember getting super amped up at this moment when he makes his way to the sideline in practice, pep squad working, and in full gear he goes to the young lady who ratted him out and slyly says, “don’t I know you from somewhere?”

Yes! HOW DO YOU LIKE ME NOW? I MADE IT! IN YOUR FACE!

And I know that if I were in Joseph’s position here in the story I would be all the more tempted to act in the same way. To be consumed by bitterness and heartache.

LOOK AT ME NOW! You cast me off into the pit. Sold me to slave-traders, told my father I was dead. What goes around comes around! 

But what we see play out is entirely different.

Exposition vv.1-3

Verses 1-3 show this confrontation and you can just imagine being one of the brothers. And at Joseph’s revealing of his identity you know that the hairs on the back of their necks stood tall. They got that pit in their stomach because all at a single moment they say their shame laid before them. 

Joseph begs, “Where is my father?!” But they merely stand there in stunned silence. And do not miss this next part… They… were… terrified…

There might be some of you in the room who are a touch vindictive, I’ll go ahead and throw myself into that camp. And I think that comes from a desire to see justice play out. So we behold this episode and we see all the many injustices that have taken place and we see that their response was that of terror and we scream…

“That’s right! They better get what’s coming to them!” But we would do well to deal carefully when placing ourselves in the seat of judgement. Because we will all no a day where the roles are reversed and we see a picture of holiness the glorified Christ in front of us and we won’t dare have the words in our mouths trying to rationalize, yeah I screwed up, but look at all the good I did!

The prophet Isaiah famously paints in his vision in Isaiah 6 this great and incredible picture of the seraphim calling out to one another, worshipping the glory of the Lord. Isaiah saw the temple filled with smoke, the earth quaking around him and at the mere glimpse of the glory of God what was his response?

Isaiah 6:5 (CSB)

5 Then I said: Woe is me for I am ruined because I am a man of unclean lips and live among a people of unclean lips, and because my eyes have seen the King, the LORD of Armies.

Woe is me! In modern terms Isaiah is crying out to God, “damn me! I’ve seen the glory of God and I don’t measure up! If holiness is the standard… I don’t have it!”

I think that Joseph’s brothers were confronted with a similar feeling right here. As they gazed upon the face of their brother whom they betrayed. They were crushed and in their heart of hearts they just knew… “oh no…”

Brothers and sisters, you and I would do well to realize the cost of our sin. That we are not just sometimes bad and misguided but the Apostle Paul says that by nature, we are children of wrath. My beautiful wife gave birth to our firstborn just a number of days ago. And ever since she told me that she was pregnant our prayers have remained laser focused on this phrase the entire way, “may he know you and love you from a young age.” Because the reality is that my son, only days old at this point is in desperate need of the grace of God.

Our hearts are naturally opposed the holiness of God. And while we pour over that and try to understand on this side of heaven, we will know a day when we come face to face with the risen king and we will wonder no more, in one fell swoop it will be clear. 

If holiness is the standard… I don’t have it. 

Exposition vv.4-8

A life with God means being confronted with out shame and this is bitter and hard. But as we see exemplified here in this story and in the whole story of Scripture that God… is… sovereign.

Beloved if I could have you walk out of here with one thing on your mind and how to rightly think about this passage, the broader story of Joseph and just generally about all of life I hope that you have a chorus of angels in your mind and in your heart belting out in unison Romans 8:28. 

If there is one central theme of this story it is exactly that: ALL THINGS… ALL THINGS… ALL THINGS WORK TOGETHER FOR THE GOOD OF THOSE WHO LOVE GOD AND ARE CALLED ACCORDING TO HIS PURPOSE. 

What a highlight verse. It’s one of those that granny cross stitches on a pillow and it rightly encourages us. But what does this mean for Joseph? Do you think this was Joseph’s first thought while cast down into the pit? When he was wrongly accused of sexual assault? When he was imprisoned and forgotten? 

Joseph walked faithfully with God through it all but I’d be hard-pressed to believe that it all came with total clarity and unhindered trust. But here in this moment Joseph recounts what has happened and he walks his brothers through it and he’s able to point back and say, 

SEE? 

DO YOU SEE GOD’S PURPOSES AT WORK?

I don’t want to step on Mark's toes for next week as he puts a bow on our series with the the famous concluding note on Joseph’s life, “What you intended for evil, God intended for good.”

But we see that bear out here.

All things… work together for the good of those who love God. For Joseph that meant being beaten, cast off, betrayed, left for dead. Those were his all things. But as we’ve been saying all the way through this series, God is always at work, even when it seems like he is not.

Application

What are your all things? Are you burdened? Are you broken? Are you in pain? All things. Are you frustrated? All things. 

Beloved I hope that you see this life of Joseph and much more than a model of endurance I hope that you grow a LOVE for God’s sovereignty. 

What does that mean for you? Hard times in the family? God is sovereign. Broken marriage? God is sovereign. Cancer diagnosis? 

GOD. IS. SOVEREIGN. And as a famous pastor once quipped. DON'T WASTE YOUR CANCER. 

That dark and seemingly hopeless cancer ward needs to hear about Jesus. 

Marriage on the rocks? Sacrifice yourself as Christ scarified himself for you. 

May we be a people who are zealous for His Sovereignty.

Transition

Lastly as we consider these fundamental elements of the Christian life, we’re confronted with our shame, but we rest in His sovereignty, because we know what he extends to us is the gift of Salvation.

Exposition vv. 9-11

Note here, again what we see is not an illustration of angry vindication, but Joseph extends to his brothers, to his family, an invitation to be saved! 

What you face is decimation! There’s a famine coming! Come and be with me. You’ll find home with me! God has made a way for you to find life!

Brothers and sisters this is why we have to be careful placing ourselves in the seat of judgement because at some point we are going to find ourselves in need of not just help, but salvation! And if we dive too deep into the conversation of what we deserve, all of us arrive at the reality that what we deserve is to be cast away from God’s presence in judgement.

But we see Joseph here not returning evil for evil but extending grace and praise God that he does! We’ve been pouring over the life and example of Joseph and rightly so. We would do well to emulate his faith, honor, and steadfastness just as we heed Paul’s encouragement to follow him as he follows Christ.

But I say this with all the love in my heart that as we read these accounts of the heroes of our faith that we would know fully that there is only one hero to which all of Scripture points to. 

Illustration

Pastor of the village church out in Texas, Matt Chandler once famously stood before a congregation, and taught out of 1 Samuel 17. That’s the story of David and Goliath. And he addressed a problem that many of us have when we read these kinds of stories and we ask questions like, “what are my Goliaths in life? How can I summon boldness like David to overcome?” 

To which he responds, “YOU’RE NOT DAVID!” 

And the same bears true here, “YOU’RE NOT JOSEPH.” You’re one of his brothers!

YOU’RE NOT DAVID, YOU’RE ISRAEL, COWERING IN FEAR.

YOU’RE NOT RUTH. YOU’RE GOD’S PEOPLE FACING DESTRUCTION IN NEED OF AN ADVOCATE BEFORE THE KING.

YOU’RE NOT JESUS. YOU’RE VOICE IS ONE THAT CALLS OUT AMONG THE SCOFFERS.

Does that mean that this story has nothing to offer in the way of how we are to act? Of course not. We would do well to emulate Joseph and his faithfulness. But much more than I hope you see the ways in your life that you need to shape up, I hope that you see that you have a savior who goes before you and while you face death and hopelessness what he extends to you is new life and salvation.

You’re not Joseph… but what we are calling you to now, this morning, whether you’re a believer, unbeliever, skeptic, wherever you are, look to the true and better Joseph who was cast into the pit. He faced a judgement that was not his. And he rose to extend to you and to me a way to experience life, and life to the full.