Turn in your Bibles with me this morning to 1 Corinthians 15. 1 Corinthians 15 for a brief New Testament reading. We're going to break into the middle of this chapter at verse 20. 1 Corinthians 15 and verse 20. Paul has been arguing with the Corinthians about the terrible consequences if they deny the resurrection. If Jesus has not been raised from the dead, then we are hopeless people. In verse 20, however, with that little word, but, the argument shifts, and Paul writes, but in fact, Christ has been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. For as by a man came death, by a man has come also the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive, but each in his own order. Christ the firstfruits, then at his coming those who belong to Christ. Then comes the end, when he delivers the kingdom to God the Father, after destroying every rule and every authority and power. For he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet. The last enemy to be destroyed is death. For God has put all things in subjection under his feet. But when it says all things are put in subjection, it is plain that he is accepted who put all things in subjection under him. When all things are subjected to him, And the Son himself will also be subjected to him who put all things in subjection under him, that God may be all in all." Now, let's turn to Genesis 41. Genesis 41. during the Christmas season, I typically preach a series in January around the doctrine of the incarnation. I do plan to do that for the following three Lord's Days in December, but because of last week's unusual circumstances, us just being on Facebook Live, and I wanted to have a special message for you regarding those circumstances. I want to return to Genesis 41 this morning. I don't want to leave you hanging partway through that chapter without finishing it before the holidays here. So let me remind you of where we are. This chapter, the longest in the book of Genesis, deals with Pharaoh's strange dreams. When he was standing by the Nile River, he saw seven fat cows come up out of the river. They were followed by seven ugly skinny cows that ate up the fat ones. Then there was a stalk with seven heads of grain that were healthy and plump and good, and there were seven heads of blighted grain, withered and dry, that came up after them, and they consumed them. And Pharaoh was mystified, as were his magicians and wise men, as to the meaning and significance of this dream. But then the chief cupbearer remembered that he had encountered a man in prison who had the ability to interpret dreams. And they called Joseph into Pharaoh's presence. And Joseph told him, this is the significance of what you have dreamed. There are going to be seven years of great plenty. And that will be followed by seven years of severe famine such as the earth has never seen before. And you need to prepare Pharaoh for those years. You need to seek out a man of wisdom and understanding and let him be an overseer over a series of overseers throughout the land so that during those seven years of plenty, they may stockpile one fifth of the produce so that you may survive then the seven years of dearth. Now, that brings us up to verse 37, where we're going to begin our reading this morning, Genesis. chapter 41 and verse 37. This proposal, this proposal of stockpiling food, we're told, pleased Pharaoh and all his servants. And Pharaoh said to his servants, can we find a man like this in whom is the Spirit of God? Then Pharaoh said to Joseph, since God has showed you all this, there is none so discerning and wise as you are. You shall be over my house and all my people shall order themselves as you command. Only as regards the throne will I be greater than you. And Pharaoh said to Joseph, see, I have set you over all the land of Egypt. Then Pharaoh took a signet ring from his hand and put it on Joseph's hand and clothed him in garments of fine linen and put a gold chain around his neck. And he made him ride in his second chariot and they called out before him, bow the knee. Thus he set him over all the land of Egypt. Moreover, Pharaoh said to Joseph, I am Pharaoh, and without your consent, no one shall lift up his hand or foot in all the land of Egypt. And Pharaoh called Joseph's name Zaphonath-Paneah, and he gave him in marriage Asanath, the daughter of Potipharah, priest of Om. So Joseph went out over all the land of Egypt. Joseph was 30 years old when he entered the service of Pharaoh, king of Egypt. And Joseph went out from the presence of Pharaoh and went throughout all the land of Egypt. During the seven plentiful years, the earth produced abundantly, and he gathered up all the food of those seven years, which occurred in the land of Egypt, and put the food in the cities. He put in every city the food from the fields around it. And Joseph stored up grain in great abundance, like the sand of the sea, until he ceased to measure it, for it could not be measured. Before the year of famine came, two sons were born to Joseph. Asenath, the daughter of Potiphar, a priest of on, bore them to him. Joseph called the name of the firstborn Manasseh. For he said, God has made me forget all my hardship and all my father's house. The name of the second he called Ephraim, for God made me fruitful in the land of my affliction. The seven years of plenty that occurred in the land of Egypt came to an end, and the seven years of famine began to come, as Joseph had said. There was famine in all the lands, but in all the land of Egypt, there was bread. When all the land of Egypt was famished, the people cried to Pharaoh for bread. Pharaoh said to all the Egyptians, go to Joseph. what he says to you do. So when the famine had spread over all the land, Joseph opened all the storehouses and sold to the Egyptians for the famine was severe in the land of Egypt. Moreover, all the earth came to Egypt to Joseph to buy grain because the famine was severe. over all the earth. This is God's living, inerrant, and life-giving word. Let's pray. Father, come now as we worship you through hearing your truth. Guide us, we pray, that we might know you and know your word and be made like you. For we ask this in Jesus' name, amen. as we have worked our way through this chapter, and we sought to unpack the theological message for today, we have seen over and over again how Joseph is a type of the Lord Jesus Christ. In other words, Joseph's life and ministry prefigures the life and ministry of Jesus. God chose Joseph to be his man to carry out the plan to save Egypt and the known world of that day from certain death through famine. Joseph was a savior. but he pointed forward through redemptive history to the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, the one who delivers us from certain death and damnation because of our sins. Now, when we look at the parallels between Joseph and Jesus, when we pay close attention to the text and read it carefully, We're going to see in the last part of chapter 41 that Joseph's elevation to the position of prime minister in Egypt, a position that allowed him to prepare for the coming famine, prefigures the exaltation of the Lord Jesus Christ and his gracious provision of life through the gospel. Now as we've worked our way through this chapter, we've seen that emphasis upon God's man to carry out God's plan. And there are two cycles in this chapter, God's plan and God's man. We saw first the mystery of his plan in verses 1 through 6. Then we saw the rescue of God's man as Joseph is brought out of prison to the palace of Pharaoh. That was in verses 7 down through about verse 16. Then we saw the disclosure of God's And that's where we were last time, as Joseph interprets the dream, and as a prophet, gives the way forward for the people to survive. He not only tells of God's judgment, but he proclaims God's way of salvation. Now we come to the last section of this chapter today, where the focus is on the preeminence of God's man. The preeminence. Joseph, in his exaltation, prefigures the preeminence of Christ as he is exalted at the Father's right hand. And as we look at these verses, we're going to see that in his exaltation, Joseph prefigures Jesus in eight ways. Now, when a preacher announces he has eight points, he should probably have the ushers lock the doors. But let me say that we're going to move quickly through this passage. We'll spend a little more time at the beginning than at the end. But I'm going to try to do what a Southerner has a hard time doing. I'm going to try to speak quickly. And I want you to listen quickly as we make our way through this. Eight ways in which Joseph's exaltation typifies Jesus. First of all, I want you to see in verses 37 and 38 that he is the spirit-filled man. When Joseph disclosed this plan to prepare for the coming famine, it pleased Pharaoh, it pleased all of his servants, and then in verse 38, Pharaoh said to his servants, can we find a man like this in whom is the Spirit of God? Now when I read those words, I'm reminded of the saying of Caiaphas in John chapter 11. Caiaphas was concerned that if they didn't do something about Jesus, if they did not somehow stop him and his influence among the people, the Romans would come and remove their place, he said. And so Caiaphas and John 11 says, you know nothing at all, nor do you understand that it is better for you that one man should die for the people, not that the whole nation should perish. And then John comments on that. He did not say that of his own accord, but he was high priest that year, and so he prophesied that Jesus would die for the nation. In other words, Caiaphas spoke more truth than he realized or intended. And the same is true here for pagan Pharaoh. Let's not imagine that he had an orthodox doctrine of the Trinity, that his pneumatology was all according to the confession of faith. But he did speak the truth because he had heard Joseph interpret his dreams and attribute this interpretation to the God he served. And it became evident because the word of God is always self-attesting. always, it became evident that a man who could interpret dreams with the Word of God as Joseph did, had the Spirit of God living within him. Now you and I have the advantage of reading this passage from a post-Pentecost perspective. We look at this passage through the lens of Acts chapter 2, and we say a hearty amen. Joseph was a man filled with the Spirit of God, filled with the third person of the Trinity. And this is one of the major ways that he depicts for us the Lord Jesus Christ. Christ as the God-man, dwelt eternally as the second person of the Trinity in fellowship with the Father and the Spirit. But when he became incarnate, as a man, he was filled with the Holy Spirit to carry out his ministry. Isn't that what we see in Matthew chapter three, when he comes to be baptized by John at the Jordan River, when he comes up out of the river, the heavens open, the Spirit of God descends upon him, the Spirit fills him, the Spirit then leads him into the wilderness where he is tempted. Jesus did not begin his ministry publicly. until he was filled and anointed with the Holy Spirit. And he carried out that ministry from beginning to end, all the way to Calvary, all the way to the tomb, all the way out of the tomb, and in through his ascension to the Father's right hand, in the power of the Spirit. And because Jesus is the Spirit-filled man, that means you and I can be Spirit-filled men and women. How did Peter explain the phenomenon of Pentecost? Well in Acts chapter two he said, this Jesus God raised up and of that all of us are witnesses. Being therefore exalted at the right hand of God and having received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, he has poured out this that you yourselves are seeing and hearing. Christ is exalted to pour out the Holy Spirit and you and I may then be filled with the Spirit to live for Him. This is the basis of Paul's admonition in Ephesians 5.8 when he says, don't be drunk with wine, that's debauchery, but be filled with the Spirit. If a person is pulled over, driving while intoxicated, they will be charged with a DUI, driving under the influence. Because the alcohol that they've consumed has now taken control of them. It now influences the way they speak. Perhaps you've heard of the man the policeman pulled over and he said to him, Anish, Ossiphor, I'm not under the affluence of alcohol. It affects the way you speak. It affects the way you walk. A sobriety test is walk the straight line along the side of the road, and a person who's intoxicated can't do it. It affects the way you think. How many people have awakened with a hangover the next morning to regret the decisions they made while under the influence? But let me ask you this morning, brothers and sisters, could anyone look at your life and charge you with LUI? Are you living under the influence of the Spirit? Is that evident in your life? Can it be seen in the way you talk? Or the way you walk? Or the way you think? And the decisions that you make? Shouldn't this be our goal? Shouldn't this be our daily prayer? Paul says, be filled with the Spirit, he commands it. And we must open ourselves up to drink in the Spirit, not spirits, but the Spirit to influence everything about us. Christ is the man filled with the Spirit. But you will see here in the second place, he is also the man of wisdom. Joseph said, set aside someone who has skill and understanding to prepare for this coming famine. And he was the obvious candidate. He was the man who had the skills and the abilities to supervise and oversee this preparation. And that helps us to understand why Paul in 1 Corinthians 1.24 will call Jesus the wisdom of God. Because it is Christ and Christ alone who has the knowledge by which to justify us, who has the skill and the ability to carry out our salvation. What is our problem? From birth to death, we keep trying to justify ourselves, don't we? When we're brought to faith in Christ, we are converted from being Pharisees and self-righteous, but don't we honestly spend the rest of our Christian lives repenting of being Pharisees? Because isn't that the temptation that comes to us time after time after time, to rely upon our own self-righteousness? But who of us has the wisdom to please God? Who of us has the skill to offer to Him an acceptable sacrifice? It must be Christ and Christ alone. He is the embodiment of the infinite mind of God. And that's why He's not only the wisdom for our salvation, but also for our daily lives. What's the promise of James 1.5? If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God. Because Christ has been made unto us wisdom and righteousness and sanctification and redemption. And so if everything that we need is found in Jesus, we must simply come to him for it. You want to know how to face the difficulty you're facing right now in your life. You don't know how to work through it. Come to him for wisdom. You're suffering right now. Maybe you're battling an illness. Maybe there's a broken relationship in your family or a wayward child and you're dumbfounded as to how to approach it. Come to him for wisdom. He's promised it infallibly. Let him ask of God. God will generously give it because Christ is our wisdom. And if God held back nothing in Jesus, if he gave up his son for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things? He is the man of wisdom and understanding. I want you to see in the third place that he is the sovereign over all. Pharaoh put Joseph in charge of everything. Look back at verses 40 through 44. He says, you shall be over my house and all my people. They shall order themselves as you command. Only as regards the throne will I be greater than you. And Pharaoh said to Justice, see, I have set you over all the land of Egypt. And he made him ride in his second chariot. And they called out before him, bow the knee. Thus he sent him over. all the land of Egypt. Moreover, Pharaoh said to Joseph, I am Pharaoh, and without your consent, no one shall lift up hand or foot in all the land of Egypt. Do you think Moses has a point he wants to get across here? I think he does. Joseph is in charge of all the land of Egypt. He was brought from the pit to the palace. He was brought from mortality to majesty to rule and to reign. And isn't that the story of the gospel? Isn't that what we were reading earlier in 1 Corinthians 15? That Christ has been raised up from the dead, the first fruits of those who have fallen asleep. And what has God done? He has put all things in subjection under his feet. And one day it will be seen as Christ rules and reigns over all, that God is all in all. I don't think anyone has captured this truth more memorably than Abraham Kuyper. Kuyper was an amazing man. In fact, a friend of mine, Jim Goldrick, has written a biography of Kuyper called God's Renaissance Man, and indeed, he was that. He was a pastor. He was a theologian. He was an educator. He was a newspaper editor. He founded one of the leading universities in Europe, the Free University of Amsterdam. In his spare time, he served as Prime Minister of the Netherlands. In 1880, at the inaugural address for the Free University of Amsterdam, Kuyper wanted to stress that Jesus rules and reigns over the universe, and he is sovereign, not just over seminary studies, but over the entire university, and over every area of study. And to point out that comprehensive reign of the Lord Jesus, he said this, there is not a square inch in the whole domain of human existence over which Christ, who is Lord of all, does not exclaim, mine, mine. Joseph could point in any direction in Egypt, And he could say, I'm in charge of that. I'm in charge of that. I'm in charge of that. And so can the Lord Jesus. He points his finger to the entire universe. And this morning, he points his finger at your heart and at mine, and he says, I'm in charge of that. It's mine. I have died to rule and reign over your life. And that gives us hope. Christ's comprehensive sovereignty gives us hope in this world gone mad. When David fled from Saul, he went down to Gath, to King Achish. And he was recognized by the Philistines, and so he was afraid that the Philistines were going to turn on him and kill him. So as a clever and cunning fellow, he devised a plan to escape their clutches. And he acted as though he was a madman and he began to drool and to scratch at the door. And Achish says, what's up with this? I've got enough crazy people already. I don't need another one. And David fled and went on his way. But Achish was still the king of Gath. That's my point. We look at this world and we say, it's crazy enough already, isn't it? But it seems to be getting crazier every day. But Christ is still King. And the craziness that we see is but the vain, futile attempt of sinful man to exert his rebellion against the Almighty. But one day, One day when everything is put in subjection under his feet, when God is all in all and Christ is all in all, it will be seen that Jesus indeed can point to everything and to everyone and rightfully claim possession. Mine, he says, mine, sovereign over all. You'll see in the fourth place here, that he is beautiful in his splendor. Look at verse 42. Pharaoh took his signet ring from his hand and put it on Joseph's hand and clothed him in garments of fine linen and put a gold chain about his neck. He bore the symbol of the king's authority. A signet would enable Joseph to impress documents with the seal of the king. He bore his authority. Then there was this beautiful white linen robe, and here once again, clothes come to the forefront in the story of Joseph. All the trouble began, right, with this coat of many colors. His trouble continued when he fled from Potiphar's wife and left his cloak in her hands. Prior to this, we find him changing clothes and shaving so that he's presentable to the king. But now he receives this beautiful new robe with a gold chain around his neck. But the glory and splendor of Joseph is nothing, brothers and sisters, to compare to the beauty of our Savior. Listen to how he's described in Revelation 1. John says, I turned to see the voice that was speaking to me, and on turning I saw seven golden lampstands, and in the midst of the lampstands, one like the Son of Man, clothed with a long robe and a golden sash around his chest. The hairs of his head were like white, like wool, like snow. His eyes were like a flame of fire. His feet were like burnished bronze refined in a furnace. And his voice was like the roar of many waters. There's none so marvelous as Jesus. None so regal in his splendor. And the essence of worship is to admire that beauty. I don't know if you've noticed this trend in the modern church, but it tends to limit worship simply to music. Have you noticed that? Well, we'll pray, we'll have a prayer, then we'll worship, then there'll be a message. I hope you know From the very beginning of this service, from the call to worship to the benediction, that it's all about worship, it's all about Jesus, and that every element of this service is designed for you to admire his beauty. Whether it's in reading the word, praying the word, singing the word, or hearing it proclaimed, as thus saith the Lord. Splendor, splendor and beauty. In the fifth place, see you didn't think I could do this, did you? In the fifth place, he has a new name. Pharaoh gave him the name Zaphonath-Paneah, an Egyptian name to befit his new position of authority in the land. Now there's a lot of debate over the meaning of this name. Probably the consensus revolves around the meaning of God saves and lives, or God speaks and lives. That would certainly be appropriate for this situation. God was speaking the living God through the mouth of Joseph. But what I want you to see is that it's this new name authority through which he reigns and it's through that new name of authority given to Jesus through which he reigns. in what has to be one of the greatest theological Christological passages in the New Testament, Philippians 2, a passage that parallels the Joseph story in remarkable ways. We read about the descent of Christ and his humiliation to the point of death, but then the ascent of Christ as God raises him up and exalts him and gives him a name. above every name, that at the name of Jesus, every knee should bow." Joseph got a new name, and they put him in a chariot, and he rode throughout the land, and there were servants going before him, and what were they saying? Bow the knee. Bow the knee. This is Zephath-Paneah. The Word of the Gospel comes to us. Bow the knee. Because Jesus is Lord. But the question this morning is, is He your Lord? Does He reign in your life? No one can say He's Lord, Paul reminds us in Corinthians, but by the Holy Spirit. Oh, anyone can say the words. You can get anyone to parrot the vocabulary, but you cannot bow your heart to King Jesus without the Spirit at work within you. Is He your Lord? Only you can answer that question. He has a new name. and he has a Gentile bride. From early in our studies in Genesis, we've emphasized that God's covenant included Abraham's descendants, but the intention from Genesis 12 onward was that in Abraham's seed, all the nations of the earth would be blessed. And throughout redemptive history, you get little glimpses of that where Gentile brides are brought into Israel and play significant roles like Rahab. from Jericho, who married Salmon, who became an ancestress of Boaz, and then there was Boaz who married Ruth the Moabitess, who became an ancestress of David, so that there were these Gentile brides in the line of Jesus. But before there was Rahab, and before there was Ruth, there was Asenab. And so this story is not just about Joseph and Jesus, but because it's about Jesus, it's your story and mine as well. The majority of us here are Gentile believers, and we have been grafted into the people of God, a bride for the Savior, so that at the final day, when every knee does bow and every tongue does confess that Jesus is Lord, The bride of Christ will be gathered around the throne and there will be some from every nation and tribe and people and tongue. But he not only has a Gentile bride, he fathers sons. The first child born to Joseph in Asenath is named Manasseh. His name sounds like forgetting and Joseph named him that because the Lord enabled him to forget all of his hardship and his father's family. Now this doesn't mean that he no longer loved his family or that he completely pushed them out of his mind. What this means is that Joseph no longer played the stories of heartache and life in the past over and over in his mind on a continuous loop. Do you know what that's like? To go through a time of suffering and heartache and you just can't get it out of your mind and you know you're starting to heal from that when you stop hitting replay in your brain. That's what Joseph was doing. The Lord enabled him to experience what Paul would later write to the Philippians, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forth to those things which are before. He pressed on toward the upward call of God in Christ. But then there was a second son, this one named Ephraim. Ephraim, now that name sounds like the word for fruitful. And Joseph named him Ephraim because he said, the Lord has made me fruitful in the land of my affliction. Think about that for a moment. Fruitful in affliction. Do you know a better way to describe the gospel than that? Listen to the way that Isaiah conveys that theology to us from Isaiah 53. Yet it was the will of the Lord to crush him. He has put him to grief. The suffering servant crushed, bruised, wounded. There's the affliction. But Isaiah goes on to write, when his soul makes an offering for guilt, isn't that what Jesus did when he suffered on the cross? His soul made an offering for guilt? What happens when that occurs? He shall see his offspring. He will be fruitful in his affliction. He shall prolong his days. The will of the Lord shall prosper in his hand. You and I are saved today because Christ is fruitful in his affliction. And through his death on the cross, we have been brought to new life. But that also gives us such great hope and encouragement because it means that The gospel enables us to be fruitful in our affliction. As you draw near to the Lord Jesus in your own suffering, as you seek that fullness of the Spirit that we were talking about earlier in the message, then you experience the fruit of the Spirit taking deep root and growing up in your life. especially that fruit of endurance, of perseverance, and of patience. Joseph, as a type of Christ, is the man filled with the Spirit. He's the wisdom of God. He's the sovereign over all. He's clothed in beauty and splendor. He has a new name, a Gentile bride. He fathers sons. And then finally, finally, he provides for the needs of the people. He stored up all the grain, and then the years of famine came. The Egyptians had food in their homes for a while, and then when they became hungry, they turned to Pharaoh. Give us food, they cried. And what was Pharaoh's response? Go to Joseph, and what he says to you, do. Now those words echo in Holy Scripture. And we hear them again, not in Egypt, but in Cana. Not during a famine, but during a wedding feast. They ran out of wine, and Mary came to Jesus and said, they have no wine. What does this have to do with me? My hour's not yet come. And there was something in those words of Jesus that indicated to his mother, perhaps it was a tone, a look that only a mother could understand. Mary turned to the servants and said, whatever he says to you, do it. Do it. Is your soul hungry this morning? Hungry for the bread of life? Are you thirsty? Thirsty for that new wine, that better wine that Jesus provided at the Feast? The wine of the New Covenant? The wine of His sacrifice? You want that? Then go to Jesus. And what He says to you, do. What does the Savior say? believe. And so I invite you to come now to this feast he lays before us in this famine stricken world. Find sustenance for your soul. Go to Jesus and what he says to you, do. Let's pray. Our Father as we come now to celebrate the sacrament that the Savior has given to us. May we, by your grace, taste and see that indeed you are good. Amen.