WWUTT 2586 The Purpose of God Through Joseph (Acts 7:9-16)

Stephen is standing before the Sanhedrin, and he is showing to them how they, like their fathers before them, have rejected God's messengers. But God works even in the midst of this rejection, when we understand the text.

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Here once again is Pastor Gabe.

Stephen’s Defense Before the Sanhedrin and God’s Faithfulness to His Promises

Thank you, Becky. In our study of the book of Acts, we come back to the speech of Stephen in Acts 7. This is Stephen's defense before the Sanhedrin. We've heard him preach about Abraham, and picking up where we left off last time, we're reading today about Joseph and the patriarchs in Egypt.

Let me begin reading in verse 9, and I'll go through verse 16. Hear the word of the Lord. And the patriarchs, becoming jealous of Joseph, sold him into Egypt. Yet God was with him, and rescued him from all his afflictions, and granted him favor and wisdom in the sight of Pharaoh king of Egypt, and appointed him governor over Egypt and all his household.

Now a famine came over all Egypt and Canaan, and great affliction with it, and our fathers could find no food. But when Jacob heard that there was grain in Egypt, he sent our fathers there the first time, and on the second visit, Joseph made himself known to his brothers, and Joseph's family was disclosed to Pharaoh.

Then Joseph sent word and invited Jacob his father and all his relatives to come to him, seventy-five persons in all. And Jacob went down to Egypt, and there he and our fathers died. And from there they were removed to Shechem, and placed in the tomb which Abraham had purchased for a sum of money from the sons of Hamer in Shechem.

And we'll get at least that far today. To recap, Stephen is standing before the Sanhedrin because he has been preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ. Stephen has performed many miracles to authenticate that this word that he proclaimed was the word of Christ, and because he preached about Jesus risen from the dead, and it's only by faith in him that you can be forgiven your sins and inherit the kingdom of God, well, this has incensed the men of the Sanhedrin, and they have brought him there and have made false accusations of him.

But Stephen, through this sermon that he is going to give, is going to make a true accusation of them. Now in this speech, in this sermon, as it would be, Stephen has been proclaiming about God's faithfulness, and that's why it was so important that he begins this sermon by talking about Abraham.

Lots of Old Testament references there, direct references to the scriptures in where Stephen talked about Abraham, for all of the promises given to Abraham would be fulfilled in his.

Offspring.

Now the one offspring that is the fulfillment of all these promises is Jesus Christ. But over and over again, the children of Israel have rejected those that have been sent by God. Here we're reading in our section today about them rejecting Joseph.

Next time we're going to read about them rejecting Moses. And on through the sermon this goes, before you get to the end, and Stephen says, this is who you're like. You're not like Abraham, our father.

You're like all those who down through the ages have rejected the prophets and put them.

To death.

And you've done that very thing by putting Jesus Christ to death, though he has risen from the dead, and it's only by faith in him that we can have eternal life. Same sermon that he's been giving, he's doing it now to the Sanhedrin, hoping to pierce their hearts that they would recognize their opposition to God and turn to Jesus Christ and live.

And Stephen will even say when they drag him out of there to stone him, he asked that God would not hold this against them. Just as Jesus prayed from the cross, father, forgive them for they know not what they do.

So Stephen has such compassion for this people. He's not just doing this sermon for them to show that he's smarter than them or to make them feel bad or to win an argument or something like that. He's wanting to win their hearts.

He wants them to recognize their sin and that they are deserving of the judgment of God so that they will listen to the messengers of God, his apostles who have been sent out to preach in the name of Jesus.

So again, in reading about Abraham and the promise in verses two through eight, we have read about how God initiates those promises and his dealings with his people is not tied to one particular location.

For God is faithful to his people, even while they are in Egypt, as we get to here, or even when they have been sent into exile, God is still faithful to fulfill his promises. God is faithful, though this people that Stephen is addressing have not been faithful.

Joseph Sold Into Egypt and Preserved by God

So let's look here at the story of Joseph, which we pick up in verse nine. The patriarchs, becoming jealous of Joseph, sold him into Egypt, yet God was with him. Now remember how we finished the section on Abraham.

Abraham was the father of Isaac, circumcised him on the eighth day. Isaac was the father of Jacob and Jacob of the twelve patriarchs. And so now having talked about those twelve sons, the patriarchs were jealous of their youngest brother, Joseph.

Well, really their youngest brother was Benjamin. But at this time, Joseph was the one who was the favored son of Jacob, and the patriarchs hated him. The dreams that he had, the things that he envisioned that God gave to him in dreams.

But Joseph, yeah, he may have been a little full of himself when he would share these dreams and he would talk about how one day his brothers were going to bow down to him. Even his brothers could understand the interpretation of the vision.

They didn't even have to have a dreamer tell them what the interpretation was. It was pretty clear to them that what Joseph was dreaming about was his brothers bowing down to him, whether it was their sheaves of wheat bowing down to his sheave of wheat or the stars in the sky that were bowing down to him.

Twelve stars, which represented his twelve brothers, and even the sun and the moon, which represented his mother and father. And Jacob rebuked him for that one. But nonetheless, it was said that Jacob pondered these things in his heart.

He didn't forget that Joseph had had these dreams because it certainly came back to his mind later when he finds out that Joseph was still alive in Egypt and was calling for his father and all of his relatives to come and join them there in Egypt.

So the patriarchs are jealous of Joseph. And of course, you know where this is going with Stephen telling the people there in the Sanhedrin, this is who you're like, you're you're like our patriarchs.

We have such great recognition for those twelve men who represent the twelve tribes of Israel. And yet you are like them in that you reject the word of the one that God spoke through Joseph, selling him into slavery in Egypt.

Yet God remained with him, verse 10, and rescued him from all his afflictions and granted him favor and wisdom in the sight of Pharaoh, king of Egypt. And Pharaoh appointed him governor over Egypt and all his household.

Now, that's a very brief summary of this story of Joseph that we have in the book of Genesis. In fact, the story of Joseph is longer than any other person that is talked about in the book of Genesis. Joseph's story goes from chapter thirty seven to fifty.

So thirty seven at the end of Genesis, 14 chapters, whereas Abraham's story was not that long. Adam's story, certainly not that long. Noah was just a few chapters of a few chapters even. So Joseph has like the longest portion of the book of Genesis.

So this is a real brief summary of this story, but we all know the story, right? Even unbelievers know this story of Joseph in Egypt, Joseph in the coat of many colors. There was oh, who was the the guy that did Jesus Christ Superstar Andrew Lloyd Webber, who is a great composer, playwright, writes all these operas and rock operas and things like that.

And I say great in the sense of the world would call him great, very blasphemous man, hated God. The way that he wrote Jesus Christ in Jesus Christ Superstar was was horrible, blasphemous, like I said.

So not a great man personally, but certainly very talented in his musical ability. He just doesn't use it to glorify God. Anyway, in addition to having written Jesus Christ Superstar, he writes this musical that's called Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat of all of the plays that I did after I graduated high school.

That was the first one that I did. I was actually in the cast of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat. I played one of the brothers. I was too young to know, though, that this this story really was a twisting of scripture.

It was written by a guy who had no reverence for the biblical narrative at all. I shouldn't have been in that musical, but I was. So I knew it very well. I knew all the songs by heart. We did multiple showings of this, you know, like a full on musical production, huge stage setting that we did and all this kind of thing.

A friend of mine played Joseph. As a matter of fact, he and I were in in a lot of drama together. But this this play, this very popular play, I think the version of it that most people know, the character of Joseph was played by Donny Osmond.

Wasn't it Donny and Marie Osmond? Wasn't that the brother sister, the Mormon brother sister duo? Anyway, Donny Osmond played Joseph in the the big Broadway production of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat.

Now, the point of the story is actually given at the beginning of the musical. There's someone kind of like a narrator who sings something at the beginning of this story about how your hopes and your dreams can come true, too, just like this happened for Joseph.

And that's the way that the story of Joseph is most often talked about, right? If you just hold fast to your hopes and dreams, God will give you everything that you want. So there are unbelievers that even know this story and that's what they take away from it.

And and therefore I have heard many Christians say that that's the point of the story of Joseph as well. Genesis 37 through 50. And the point is that even all your hopes and dreams will come true and you can become the second most powerful person in the world, as God did for Joseph.

Is that really the point of the story? No, that's not the point at all. As a matter of fact, Joseph did not view his own story that way. He did not see what had happened to him as God fulfilling all of his hopes and his dreams, even when he becomes the second in command in Egypt right under Pharaoh.

He is still a slave in Egypt. He's the slave of Pharaoh in Pharaoh's house. He may have a lot of authority in that position that he's been given, but he's still a slave. He's not living in his own land, which was why he gave instructions at the end of his life that his bones were to be carried back into the land of Canaan and he would be buried where his father would be buried.

And we read about that even in the book of Exodus, when the children of Israel are set free from slavery, they take with them the bones of Joseph to go back into the land of Canaan and bury him there in the land that God had promised.

Yeah, God had promised to give to the descendants of Abraham. So God being faithful to his promises, even when his people are in another land. So the land itself is not where God fulfills his promises.

He will fulfill his promises to his people anywhere. But Joseph, while he is in Egypt, still feels like a stranger in this land. Even when he he is wrongfully imprisoned, he is wrongfully accused and then thrown in prison again.

When I say the first imprisonment, that was the slavery that he was sold into by his brothers. And then he ends up in the house of Potiphar. Potiphar's wife wrongly accuses him as making moves on her when really he was fleeing to try to get away from her.

So embarrassed by the whole thing and wanting to get her revenge, she falsely accuses him. Potiphar has Joseph thrown into prison. It's there in prison that he interprets the dreams of the of Pharaoh's baker and his wine taster.

And it was the cupbearer who gets restored to the court of Pharaoh. But he forgets about Joseph and doesn't tell Pharaoh about Joseph being wrongly imprisoned. And years go by. And then when Joseph or sorry, when Pharaoh has these dreams, now the cupbearer remembers, Oh, I know a guy who can interpret dreams and calls for Joseph who comes before Pharaoh interprets Pharaoh's dreams that there's going to be seven years of plenty in Egypt.

It'll be followed by seven severe years of famine. And so someone needs to be appointed who can oversee the gathering of this food in the years of plenty so that they will have enough food when the years of famine strike.

And that's when Pharaoh says, well, I know just the guy and appoints Joseph to be the one who would oversee the collection and the distribution of food. So that's the that's the broader summary that Stephen didn't share there.

Of course, Stephen has somewhere that he's going with this particular sermon. But I draw that out because the story of Joseph is not about how all your hopes and dreams come true. And we know that even after Joseph became the second most powerful man in the world at that time, he still viewed Egypt not as a land of promise, not as a land of plenty, not as a land in which all my hopes and dreams have come true.

He still saw that as a land of his affliction. Consider when Joseph had sons who were Ephraim and Manasseh, the names that he gave to them. The firstborn was Manasseh, and that name Manasseh means to forget.

And Joseph said, because God has made me forget all my trouble and all my father's household. Now, Joseph, forgetting all of his trouble in his father's household, what that means is everything that my brothers did to me, I'm going to let it go.

He was not holding on to that or bitter over it. He rather wanted to return to his homeland and return back to his father. That's where he would rather have been. And that's reflected in the name that he gives to his firstborn son, Manasseh.

Well, then his secondborn son, Ephraim. And this name means fruitful. And Joseph said, for God has made me fruitful. In the land of my affliction. Which is what land? That's Egypt. So Joseph still thought of the of the land of Canaan, where his father was, he still thought of that as his homeland.

That is the land of promise that God was giving to the descendants of Abraham. That's where Joseph wanted to be. And in honor and recognition of his God who had promised this. But there in Egypt, though, he has he is a wealthy man and living in a palace and has authority over everyone else in the land except for Pharaoh.

Yet Joseph considered that land the land of his affliction. He was still a prisoner there. But God had made him fruitful in the land of his affliction, and that's what Stephen says here, that God remembered him, rescued him from all his afflictions and granted him favor and wisdom in the sight of Pharaoh, king of Egypt, and appointed him governor over Egypt and all his household.

Now, God did this. And in so doing, Joseph saves his brother Judah from the severity of the famine. Why is that significant? Because Judah. Is the one through whom the Messiah would come. So Joseph in that place in Egypt is put there by God.

So that the Messiah could be born over 1500 years later, but that was the purpose and plan of God. And even when Joseph says to his brothers in Genesis 50, 20, he says to them what you purposed for evil, God purpose for good, what you meant for evil.

God meant it for good. That many persons would be saved. And of course, that's talking about the people in Joseph's household and his family that they would be saved from the severity of the famine. But you can still extrapolate that out and see God's intention behind that was that many people would be saved through Jesus Christ.

Who would come through the line of Judah, would live, die on the cross for our sins, rise again from the dead so that all who believe in him will be saved. Now, Stephen goes on to explain the rest of the story, a famine came over all of Egypt and Canaan, great affliction with it, and our fathers could find no food.

But when Jacob heard that there was grain in Egypt, he sent our fathers there the first time. And on the second visit, Joseph made himself known to his brothers. And Joseph's family was disclosed to Pharaoh.

Then Joseph sent word. Jacob came, all of his relatives. It was there in Egypt that his father died. All of the patriarchs died. So Jacob died, Joseph and all of the patriarchs. But then they were removed to Shechem and placed in the tomb, which Abraham had purchased for a sum of money from the sons of Hamer in Shechem.

God Uses Rejection for Deliverance, Preservation, and Salvation

Now, the key point that Stephen is communicating here in remembering this. Is that God's chosen messengers like Joseph are often rejected by their own people. And again, we're going to see that more as we continue through this speech of Stephen.

But God sovereignly uses even that rejection for deliverance and preservation. And salvation. And that's what's going to come when we get to the end of the speech. And he mentions that these people whom he is addressing had put Jesus Christ to death.

You rejected the son of God himself. And yet God used that rejection. For deliverance. For preservation and for salvation, for all who believe in Jesus Christ, who was rejected, despised by men. But it pleased God to crush him and receiving that sacrifice, raising him from the dead so that all who turn to Jesus Christ will live.

And so let us all recognize the way that God uses affliction for his ultimate purpose, and he is ultimately delivering us from this affliction through the person and work of Jesus Christ. Hold fast to the promises that we are given in Christ.

Heavenly Father, we thank you for what we have read, even recalling such a famous story as Joseph. And seeing through the life of Joseph, how you have worked even in the midst of affliction to save many people.

So, Lord, whatever afflictions we go through now, we know that you are working and will deliver us. And the promise of the eternal kingdom to come for us is a place where all these afflictions will be no more.

Help us to endure in a way that is worshipful and pleasing to God. And bring us into your presence with great joy. It's in Jesus' name we pray.

Amen.

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