Tempted in Every Way

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.

Joseph’s Faithfulness in Slavery and the Lord’s Presence

A reading from Genesis chapter 39. Now Joseph had been brought down to Egypt and Potiphar, an officer of Pharaoh, the captain of the guard, an Egyptian, had bought him from the Ishmaelites, who had brought him down there.

The Lord was with Joseph, and he became a successful man. And he was in the house of his Egyptian master. His master saw that the Lord was with him and that the Lord caused all that he did to succeed in his hands.

So Joseph found favor in his sight and attended him, and he made him overseer of his house and put him in charge of all that he had. From the time that he had made him overseer in his house and over all that he had, the Lord blessed the Egyptian's house for Joseph's sake.

The blessing of the Lord was on all that he had in house and field. And so he left all that he had in Joseph's charge, and because of him he had no concern about anything but the food that he ate. Now Joseph was handsome in form and appearance, and after a time his master's wife cast her eyes on Joseph and said, lie with me.

But he refused and said to his master's wife, Behold, because of me my master has no concern about anything in the house, and he has put everything that he has in my charge. He is not greater in this house than I am, nor has he kept back anything from me except for you, because you are his wife.

How then can I do this great wickedness and sin against God? And as she spoke to Joseph day after day, he would not listen to her, to lie with her or to be with her. But one day when he went into the house to do his work, and none of the men of the house was there in the house, she caught him by his garment, saying, Lie with me.

But he left his garment in her hand and fled and got out of the house. And as soon as she saw that he had left his garment in her hand and had fled out of the house, she called to the men of her household and said to them, See, he has brought among us a Hebrew to laugh at us.

He came in to lie with me, and I cried out with a loud voice. And as soon as he heard that I had lifted up my voice and cried out, he left his garment beside me and fled and got out of the house. Then she laid up his garment by her until his master came home.

And she told him the same story, saying, The Hebrew servant whom you have brought among us came in to me to laugh at me. But as soon as I lifted up my voice and cried, he left his garment beside me and fled out of the house.

And as soon as his master heard the words that his wife spoke to him, This is the way your servant treated me, his anger was kindled. And Joseph's master took him and put him into the prison, the place where the king's prisoners were confined.

And he was there in prison. But the Lord was with Joseph and showed him steadfast love and gave him favor in the sight of the keeper of the prison. And the keeper of the prison put Joseph in charge of all the prisoners who were in the prison.

Whatever was done there, he was the one who did it. The keeper of the prison paid no attention to anything that was in Joseph's charge, because the Lord was with him. And whatever he did, the Lord made it succeed.

Christ Tempted Like Us and Prayed for Peter

Oh, Lord, have mercy on us. Please rise for the gospel. The Holy Gospel according to St. Luke, the 22nd chapter. Jesus said, Simon, Simon, behold, Satan demanded to have you that he might sift you like wheat.

But I have prayed for you that your faith may not fail. And when you have turned again, strengthen your brothers. Peter said to him, Lord, I am ready to go with you both to prison and to death. And Jesus said, I tell you, Peter, the rooster will not crow this day until you deny me three times that you know me.

And he said to them, when I sent you out with no money bag or knapsack or sandals, did you lack anything? They said, nothing. He said to them, but now let the one who has a money bag take it, and likewise a knapsack.

Let the one who has no sword sell his cloak and buy one. For I tell you that this scripture must be fulfilled in me. And he was numbered with the transgressors. For what is written about me has its fulfillment.

And they said, look, here are two swords. And Jesus said to them, it is enough. And he came out and went as was his custom to the Mount of Olives. And his disciples followed him. And when he had came to the place, he said, pray that you may not enter into temptation.

Joseph as a Type of Christ in Temptation and Suffering

In the name of Jesus. Temptation. Yeah, Jesus knows a thing or two about temptation. We read about Christ, that Christ was like us in every way except for without sin. And we do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, because he has been tempted in every way that we have been, and yet is without sin.

And so as we consider our meditation tonight, a meditation on the story of Joseph, Joseph has now had a change of vocations. Not willfully, but alas, he's had a change of vocations, and you go, he's gonna change vocations twice in our text.

First vocation, slave. What do we make of that? What should happen to you? How are you supposed to do your good works if somebody, well, hijacks you, sells you into slavery, and you find yourself waking up a couple of weeks from now in a foreign land as a slave?

What are you supposed to do? Well, scripture says that slaves are to obey their masters as unto the Lord, and that Christ will reward their good works as a slave. You'll note that rather than whine and complain and moan and go, oh, woe is me, I used to.

Be my dad's favorite, and I used to have a really nice coat that many colors, and now I'm a slave, I'm so sad.

No, that's not what Joseph did. He just kind of basically said, well, all right, God sent me here, let's get to it. So he was the best slave ever. That's what the text says. And so you'll note that although the text doesn't talk about the temptation to despair or the temptation to despise the vocation that God has put you into, we learn from the later part of the story that God is the one who sent them there.

So who is it that will that Joseph become a slave?

God.

All right? So the highest, most favored child, tiki-tiki-tembo, no-saw-rembo, has now been reduced to the slave, right? That's what has happened here, and he makes the best of it. And here we hear something about Christ, because you get to note that the story of Joseph is so similar to our stories about Christ, the parallels and the types and shadows are fascinating, that Joseph found favor in his sight, and his master put him in charge of all that he had, and that the Lord blessed the Egyptians' house, listen to these words, for Joseph's.

Sake.

Hmm.

So you're going to note here, this Egyptian who doesn't even believe in Yahweh, doesn't worship Yahweh, has no faith in Yahweh, he's blessed for Joseph's sake. Have you ever heard somebody say that we Christians, we are declared righteous for the sake of Christ or that we are saved or that we have blessings from God for Christ's sake?

Now people turn that into some kind of a curse word, you know, they'll use it disparagingly, but the reality is that we have been reconciled to God for Christ's sake. We have been given an inheritance in the new earth for the sake of Christ, because of his mercy, his vicarious suffering, bleeding and dying for your sins and mine, and so you'll note that there's a little bit of that theology in here.

This Egyptian fellow is, rather than being cursed by God for owning a slave, he's being blessed by God for the sake of Joseph, a man who has faith. But alas, temptation arises for all of us, and temptation arises for Joseph, and since Joseph is one of these fellows who is a type and shadow of Christ, rather than giving in to the temptation, he doesn't.

In the world's history's first ever recorded occurrence of workplace sexual harassment, which is what we have going on here, we have a woman harassing her employee, if you would, day after day after day, with these words, lie with me, and she probably said it seductively, and what did Joseph do?

He said, no way. Not only that, you're going to note that Joseph, 450 years before Mount Sinai, had sorted it out, knew that adultery is a great sin against God, and would have been a great sin against his master.

And without the Torah, without the words of God written in stone, he, with the law of God written on his heart, knows that sexual immorality is a sin. And by the power of the Holy Spirit, he resists the temptation.

And we'll note here, that although the scriptures hold Joseph up as a great example for us, and by the way, this is a great example, scripture itself in the New Testament says, flee sexual immorality, don't stick around for it, it's not a good thing, and the chances that you're going to give into it, the longer you stay in this situation, grow and increase, so scripture tells us to flee these things, just like Joseph did.

But Joseph, well we know this, that he died, and he stayed dead, which means that although he is held up as an example for us of not giving into temptation, we also know that Joseph was a sinner, and that he was in need of the forgiveness of sins.

And the tides and shadows point to Christ, and Jesus tempted in every way that we were, he wasn't merely tempted for a short amount of time regarding giving into sin, he was tempted day after day after day, in all the ways that we have been tempted and never once yielded.

And you're going to note that Christ didn't give into that temptation, and the fact that he remained sinless is salvation for us. Now we'll hear the words of Jesus in our Gospel text, which are very interesting, but I'm getting ahead of myself, but kind of keep that in mind.

Slander, Prison, and God’s Providence in Joseph’s Life

So well, as the saying goes, no good deed goes unpunished, so refusing to give into the temptation, into the pressure that was before him, now Joseph, in kind of an interesting turn of events, if you remember early on, Joseph had that multicolored coat, his dad basically saying, you're my favorite, now he has his coat stripped from him.

And not only does he have his coat stripped from him, he has his reputation taken from him as well. He loses his garment, he loses his honor, he loses his dignity, he loses his reputation, all to the sin of slander.

You will not bear false witness against your neighbor, the Scripture says, and yet Potiphar's wife, who was the seductress in this affair, she lies about Joseph, accuses him of being the perpetrator when all along she was, and makes herself out to be the victim, and now Potiphar's anger, it grows and grows and grows, and off to prison Joseph goes.

Now for a next change of vocation. By the way, is prisoner a vocation? Yes it is, yes it is. So if you should ever find yourself in prison, well, how are you to get on in doing your good works? Well, the same way Joseph did, by being the best prisoner ever.

And you'll know, God considers those vocations to be godly enough that the works done in them count the same as good works done for those who are free, and those who are not in prison. Keep that in mind.

God is the one who punishes people for sin, and sometimes the justice system just doesn't quite do what it's supposed to do, and the innocent end up with the guilty. But God sees it all, and he sorts it all out, and God blessed Joseph and gave him a pretty nice job, as far as nice jobs go in the prison.

Christ the Mediator Who Prays for the Faithful

But all of that being said, our theme tonight has to do with temptation. And you'll note that Peter, I have a little more affinity towards Peter, because over and again I look at my life and I think of all the different ways when I have been tempted.

I have not, like Joseph, fled the scene, and instead have sinned against God or my neighbor and had to repent and to be forgiven. Peter is a lot like us. And so here Jesus tells Simon on the night that he's going to be betrayed, he says, Simon, Simon, behold, Satan has demanded to have you, that he might sift you like wheat.

Man, the devil does stuff like that. Pay attention. Yeah, he does. But note what Christ says, but I've prayed for you that your faith may not fail. And this kind of invokes another important thing for us, that Christ is our mediator.

Christ is the one who, well, he prays to us, for us, to the Father. He intercedes for us. And so kind of an important thing here. So it says, I pray that your faith may not fail, but when you've turned again, then strengthen your brothers.

And Peter, of course, I don't know what he's thinking here, because has Jesus ever said anything and it not be true? What does Peter say? Yeah, Lord, I'm ready to go with you both to prison and to death.

Well, we know that wasn't true. And Jesus said, I tell you, Peter, the rooster will not crow this day until you deny me three times that you know me. Three times.

Three times.

And we know how the story goes, right? There's Peter warming his hands over a charcoal fire while Jesus is on trial at Caiaphas's house in the middle of the night. Kangaroo court, by the way, not real justice.

You'll note this world is chock full of injustices, is it not? And these men had set out to murder Jesus.

Jesus.

And while Peter is warming his hands, a slave girl, a slave girl says, hey, you're a Galilean. Weren't you with Jesus? I thought I saw you with him. No, no, no. I don't know the man. Never seen him. I just happened to be strolling down the street at three in the morning and happened to come across a kangaroo court, thought I'd check in and see what's going on.

Denied Christ three times. Just like Christ said. But listen to what Jesus says in our gospel text. I tell you, this scripture must be fulfilled in me. And he was numbered with the transgressors. And so you'll note that scripture tells us in 1 John, I write these things so that you do not sin, but if we do sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ, the righteous.

One.

Jesus tempted in all the ways that we were. He was without sin, but scripture had to be fulfilled. Jesus was numbered with the transgressors. He was numbered with all those folks like me and like you who, when faced with temptation of all kinds, rather than flee or resist the devil or say, I could never sin against God in that way, have said, OK, all right, and gone along with it.

And as a result of it, we sinned against God and we sinned against others. And you'll note that Jesus' death on the cross, he was numbered with the transgressors. For this reason, your sin was imputed to him.

So was mine. The sin of the whole world. And Jesus drunk to the dregs, drunk to the dregs, the whole wrath and the fury of God in our place for all of us who, when faced with temptation, yielded to it, gave way to it, made excuses for it, went for it, and sinned against God and others.

He was numbered with the transgressors, the one who tempted in every way and yet without.

Sin.

And the fact that he was without sin shows us that he truly was the spotless Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. And the way he did it was by being numbered among the transgressors. In fact, Jesus becomes the transgressor before God.

And he bleeds and dies in your place so that you and I can be forgiven. And so we pray as Christ taught us to pray, lead us not into temptation but deliver us from the evil one. But remember earlier on in that same prayer, we pray that God would forgive us our debts, our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us.

So this Lenten tide, this week in Lent, as we consider again the big themes, the sin that we've contributed that made it necessary for us to be saved, let us think of all the different ways in which we have yielded to temptation rather than flee from it.

But take heart because Christ tempted like us, never sinned, but instead he was numbered with the transgressors and suffered in our place so that we can be numbered among the righteous as a gift from God.

In the name of Jesus, Amen.

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