The Big Gospel Reveal

The Suffering of Joseph as a Foreshadowing of Christ

Welcome to the teaching ministry of Kungsvinger Lutheran Church. Kungsvinger is a beacon for the gospel of Jesus Christ and is located on the plains of northwestern Minnesota. We proclaim Christ and Him crucified for our sins and salvation by grace through faith alone.

And now, here's a message from Pastor Chris Roseberg.

In the name of Jesus, Amen. So now it's happened. What an amazing story. And a lot of things I want to point out here. You'll note that my sermons for the Lenten Tide have been more of a meditation on what we've been reading in scripture.

And as I've been pointing out the story of Joseph, wow, does it have amazing connections to that of Christ. But I'm going to point something out here at the very beginning. And that is that Joseph suffered terribly.

The Psalms describe the torment that he went through, the difficulty that he experienced, the pain that he physically suffered. He had to wear a fetter, an iron fetter around his neck and it dug into his skin.

And he was in prison for 13 years, yet not a single hint of revenge upon his brothers for the evil that they had done to him. And indeed it was evil. They betrayed him every bit as much as Judas betrayed Jesus.

It's really that kind of bad. But in him, there is only forgiveness, only recognizing that God had a hand in all of this. And it's here where he really exemplifies Christ. Consider this, these words from 1 Peter 2, verse 22, Jesus committed no sin, neither was deceit found in his mouth.

When he was reviled, he did not revile in return. When he suffered, he didn't threaten, but he continued entrusting himself to him who judges justly. And he himself bore our sins in his body on the tree so that we might die to sin and live to righteousness.

And by his wounds, we have been healed. You see, all we like sheep were a straying sheep, but now we've returned to the shepherd and the overseer of our souls. And so Joseph exemplifies this, but here's kind of a key thought.

And that is, is that in Christ, suffering has meaning. And we are called by scripture, explicit commands of the New Testament to share in the sufferings of Christ. These are not meaningless things. And you're going to note that the world that we live in, nobody wants to deny themselves anything.

In fact, that is the big sin that, well, the media and the culture think is the most unforgivable sin of all. If anybody, anybody is made to deny themselves and, you know, suffer, and you know, maybe it's making a decision because you've, well, you've sinned against God and you've committed sexual immorality and you've gotten pregnant.

And instead of murdering your child, you decide that you're going to confess your sin and that you are going to keep your child and give your child a life. But understand by doing that, you're making a sacrifice.

You see, and in this life, suffering is the thing that nobody wants to do. Nobody wants to deny themselves. You think that you're, you were born a man, but you think that you're a woman, you just go right ahead and you start wearing different dresses and stuff.

You get the idea here. And that's the thing. But for us Christians, we see the suffering of Joseph, how it parallels and foreshadows the sufferings of Christ. And we must acknowledge this, that in this world there is suffering and this is because of our sin.

And what we did to Jesus, Jesus has worked for our salvation. Suffering has meaning. It legitimately does. And Joseph's suffering didn't make him bitter, didn't cause him to lack anything in his faith for God, and his faith never wavered.

In fact, if anything, his suffering seems to have, well, made his faith even stronger. Something to consider in the world that we live in. But it's in this capacity then that we consider what's going on.

If you remember last week, I noted the fact that Joseph's brothers show up. They show up in Egypt, second time. And of course, the first time they showed up, they made the fatal mistake of trying to explain to Joseph how they were honest men.

Of course, who was missing? Benjamin. So what has Joseph got to do? He's got to figure out whether or not his full brother is still alive. Did they do to him what they did to him? Did they do to him what they did to him?

You got how the pronouns work there, right? And so they bring Benjamin back. But remember, before they go, Judah steps up and says, I will be responsible. I will bring him back to you. And it's here where I can't help but think about the Father's heart, God the Father, and how what Christ did is so akin to that.

Except for he went to go and rescue the lost children of God, you and me. And he's the one who lays down his life and bleeds and dies for our sins so that we can be reconciled and forgiven and returned safely to our heavenly Father.

Oh man, the themes in this text are just amazing. But coming back to Judah here, Judah, once they've been marched back after they found that cup in Benjamin's sack, a little bit of interesting planting of evidence there.

I believe that the crime scene was cooked. What do you guys think? But here Judah finally comes clean and he says this, God has found out the guilt of your servants, you think? Do you think for a second God didn't know about your guilt?

You know, and here's the thing, God knew about their guilt the entire time and he was already walking them down the path of repentance. That's what this is all about. This is not merely about Joseph being reconciled to his brothers, but also his brothers being reconciled to God and he recognizes his guilt and he confesses his sin.

If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves. The truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, God is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, cleanse us from all, not some, not a little bit, all of it, the whole thing, all unrighteousness.

And so here then he offers himself in place of Benjamin. Of course, because Benjamin is the one who was caught having the chalice, a chalice, kind of reminds me of the Lord's Supper. Just saying all these little props in here, they're not throwaway details.

God knows what he's doing. So Judah offers to be a substitute. Oh, wow. Isn't that exactly what Jesus did for us? Indeed it is. And where Judah offered it, Christ truly did it. He fulfilled it by taking on our sin.

God made him to be sin who knew no sin. So that you and I, we could be the righteousness of God. Or as Isaiah says, oh, God has laid on him the iniquity of us all. And the chastisement, the punishment that brings us peace with God was upon him.

Oh yeah. He was pierced for our transgressions, is bruised for our iniquities, yours and mine. Well, as the story goes, now comes the big reveal. And this is kind of fun. And I'm going to note here, just remember that up until this point, Joseph has been speaking to his brothers through an interpreter.

And he hasn't uttered a word of Hebrew. He hasn't spoken a single word of it. And as a result, I am convinced that the first two words out of his mouth were in Hebrew. And from the moment he says those two words, I think he's speaking full Hebrew to his brothers because he can understand them.

Right? And so here's what it says. So Joseph could control himself no longer. And so he cried, make everyone go out from me. No one stayed when Joseph made himself known to his brothers and he wept aloud.

Oh man, doesn't this remind you of Jesus at Lazarus's tomb? It says that Jesus wept. It's the same thing here. So he wept aloud. The Egyptians heard it. The household of Pharaoh heard it. What's going on in there, man?

And then Joseph said to his brothers, two words to start off in Hebrew. Ani Yosef. Ani, hi, Yosef. I am, I am Joseph. Is my father still alive? It's so good. His brothers couldn't answer him. They were dismayed at his presence.

Oh no, we're doomed. We're on, they have mistaken Joseph for somebody else. Somebody who, well, thinks the way the world thinks. Maybe the way the Klingons think. How did the Klingons say revenge is a dish, best served cold, right?

You know, I'm showing my nerdiness there, but that's not Joseph is about. Joseph is not there to reveal himself so that he can say, aha, and now call in the guards off to prison with you guys. But Joseph said to his brothers, come near to me, come please.

So they came near and he said, I am your brother, Joseph, whom you sold into Egypt. And now do not be distressed or angry with yourselves because you sold me here for God sent me before you to preserve life.

I think of the words of Peter in one of his sermons in the early portion of Acts, you murdered the author of life, right? He says, but what we did for evil, God has worked for good. What we did is the ultimate crime in all of humanity, the one sinless human being to walk among us.

And we murdered him. He turns his murder into the very thing by which he atones for your sin and for mine. Do not be alarmed. You, you sold me here. God sent me before you to preserve life. It's like what Paul says in Philippians.

He says, have this mind among yourselves, which is in Christ Jesus, who though he was in the form in the very nature of God, he didn't count equality with God, a thing to be grasped. Instead, he emptied himself by taking on the form of a servant being born in the likeness of men being found in human form.

He humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on the cross. And God is the one who is exalted Christ. And so note, it is the father who sent Jesus and he humbled himself and he suffered terribly.

If you think about it, if karma were true, then Jesus wouldn't have even suffered even a little bit. I mean, he wouldn't even had a hangnail, you know, instead he was nailed to the cross. And so here, just like Christ, that same loving, forgiving, merciful grace.

He says, God sent me here to preserve life. God sent me before you to preserve for you a remnant and keep alive for you many survivors. So it was not you who sent me here. It was God. I could go on. The story is so good and I read so much.

Repentance, Confession, and Trust in Christ's Promises

And so the idea then is that as we consider then a close of our midweek services for this Lenten season, Lent is a penitential season. It is a season for us to reflect upon our own sin, the sin that separates us from God and has separated us.

We have not seen God's face because of our sin. We, he's off in a distant land, it seems because of our sin, the ways we have sinned against him and thought, word, deed by what we've done and left undone, all the muck.

And I'm not talking about over your lifetime. I'm talking about what you did today before this service. Yeah, I know I'm a sinner too. And note that Christ forgives us all of it. So true repentance has two parts.

Contrition, sorrow, recognition that what you've done is evil and has earned God's wrath, true sorrow for that. But real repentance has a second component, and that is confidence. Absolute trust and faith in confidence in the promises of God for the merits of Christ that we are forgiven in him.

You remember when Joseph was first sold into slavery, how he was in the house of Potiphar, and it says that God blessed Potiphar for the sake of Joseph. Know then this, you are clothed in the righteousness of Christ and God blesses you for the sake of Jesus.

He forgives you for the sake of Jesus. He, just like Israel, just like Jacob and his whole family being taken up from where they were to where they were going to be, where it was going to be safe. Christ has now taken you on your exodus to the real promised land.

He has promised you a new heavens and a new earth and all of this will someday be a distant memory. But Christ assures us, behold, I make all things new. So as we wrap up our midweek Lenten services, I think it is important to say this.

We all need to repent. In the name of Jesus. Amen.

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Amen.