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Acts 7:9-16 JOSEPH A TYPE OF CHRIST
Introduction:
Stephen
was on trial before the Sanhedrin. He is
speaking in his own
defense.
The things he says about Joseph do not directly refute the charges
made against him. It is just a part of the history of
Neither
does Stephen seek to show that Joseph was a type of Christ. But
it is important that we not fail to see
that he is.
I.
The mistreatment of Joseph
V.
9, “And the patriarchs, moved with envy, sold Joseph into
Joseph’s brothers were envious of
him. Usually the older children love the
youngest and spoil him. But the older brothers of Joseph hated
him. Jacob,
their father, did not help matters. He showed such strong favoritism toward
Joseph that Joseph’s brothers were jealous
and envious.
Joseph,
himself, did not help the situation. He
dreamed dreams about his
father and mother and brothers all bowing
down to him and he delighted in
taunting the brothers talking to them
about his dreams.
(V.
9), “...but God was with him.” Joseph’s
brothers hated him and worked
against him. They sold Joseph into slavery, but Stephen
said that God was with
him.
At this point it did not really look like God was with him. God allowed
his brothers to sell him to Midianite
merchants, but God was with him. God
allowed the Midianites to carry him to
family, but God was with him. God allowed Joseph to be sold as a slave to
Potiphar and allowed Potiphar’s wife to
falsely accuse him of attempting to rape
her, but God was with him. God allowed him to stay in prison for two
years, but
God was with him.
God
was with him just as God is with His people today when they have
trouble.
God never leaves nor forsakes His people.
II.
The exaltation of Joseph
God
enabled Joseph to correctly interpreted dreams of two of the servants
of the Pharaoh, who were in prison with
Joseph. As a result, Joseph was called
to interpreted two dreams of Pharaoh,
which Pharaoh himself could not even
remember.
God helped him not only to correctly know what the dreams were, but
to correctly interpret them. V. 10, “And delivered him out of all his
afflictions, and gave him favour and wisdom
in the sight of Pharaoh king of
Joseph from the prison to the become the
governor of all Egypt, under the
rulership of Pharaoh, of course.
During
the seven years of plenty predicted by Pharaoh’s dream, Joseph
stored up much grain in
oversaw the distribution of that
grain. It was during the years of famine
that
Joseph’s brothers came to
dearth over all the
fathers found no sustenance. But when Jacob heard that there was corn in
he sent out our fathers first. And at the second [time] Joseph was made
known to his brethren; and Joseph's
kindred was made known unto Pharaoh.”
The
result was that Jacob and all his family moved to
“Then sent Joseph, and called his father
Jacob to [him], and all his kindred,
threescore and fifteen souls. So Jacob went down into
our fathers, And were carried over into
Sychem, and laid in the sepulchre that
Abraham bought for a sum of money of the
sons of Emmor [the father] of Sychem.”
During
the next 400 years Jacob’s family grew to be the great nation that
God had promised to Abraham. But through the suffering of Joseph he became
the
savior of all the nations around,
including his own brothers who had hated him
and mistreated him. He saved them from starvation and death.
III.
The suffering of Jesus Christ
The
suffering of Joseph was nothing compared with the suffering of Jesus.
He suffered mentally from the hatred of
the Jewish leaders of His day. He
suffered mentally and emotionally from the
hard cruel things that they said
about Him.
Just as Joseph’s brothers had been jealous of Joseph, even so the
Jewish leaders were moved with envy and
jealousy against Jesus. They were
jealous of the popularity which Jesus had
with the great masses of people in
Jesus
also suffered the cruel whipping which was administered to him by a
Roman soldier. Many strong men had died under such
punishment. He suffered
death by crucifixion, which was an
exceedingly cruel way to execute a man.
He
suffered the physical pain of having a
crown of thorns pressed into his brow.
He suffered ridicule and abuse as many
hundred people marched by Him, spit in
His face and beat Him in the face with
their fists.
The
most painful experience of all was when God the Heavenly Father turned
His back upon Him and would not comfort
Him. This was because, even though He
was innocent of any wrong doing, He had
taken our guilt upon Himself.
IV.
The exaltation of Jesus
Like
Joseph, who first suffered but was later exalted by the power of God,
even so Jesus first suffered and then was
exalted. He was exalted by being
raised from the dead. His name was highly exalted among all the
disciples who
saw Him and by all of the other people who
believed the disciples when they
spread the news that Jesus had risen from
the dead. Even today, the
resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead
brings much praise and glory to His
name.
God
exalted Jesus further by receiving Him back to the throne of God in
heaven.
We have no record in the Scripture of His arrival there, but we can be
sure that there was a grand welcome
awaiting Jesus when He arrived in heaven.
God
will further exalt Him at His return to earth.
God will give Him
complete rulership over all the
world. He will sit upon the throne of
David and
rule the world for a thousand years. Then after the millennium is over God will
bring forth a new heaven and a new
earth. God will bring down the Holy City
New
Jerusalem to the new earth and Jesus,
along with the entire God-head, will sit
upon the throne. He will be exalted as The King of Kings and
The Lord of Lords.
He will rule forever over all the redeemed
of all the ages as they live in the
New Earth.
But
the greatest exaltation comes to Jesus through His suffering on the
cross of Calvary. It is through His suffering there that He is
the Savior of
lost sinners. Joseph saved his family and all that part of
the world from
physical death by providing for them food
to eat. But Jesus Christ is the
Savior of the everlasting soul of
man. He is the Savior of all who repent
of
their sin and place their trust in Him for
salvation. Every Jewish leader who
crucified Him could have been saved if
they had just repented and called upon
Him for salvation.
Conclusion:
If
you have not trusted Jesus s your Savior, why not? Are you going to
fool around until it is everlastingly too
late? If you had been a brother to
Joseph would you have refused to come to
him for the salvation of your life?
Then why would you refuse to come to Jesus
that you might have the salvation of
your soul?
I am going to ask you to come to Him now and place your faith in Him
to save you.