I know you're excited to see each other and that's always really good. But let's go ahead and open our Bibles to Genesis chapter 50. So obviously I am not Pastor Sean, I'm Pastor Mike. Pastor Sean is on some much deserved vacation and he will be back with us next Sunday morning. And so we're in Genesis 50, thinking through for preaching for this morning as Pastor has been trying to help us understand when we read the Old Testament, There's definitely learnings and understandings in the Old Testament from the standpoint of the characters and being godly or ungodly, and we need to learn that, we need to apply that. Now, the laws in the Old Testament, we don't need to apply those because we've got the law of Christ, the law of the Spirit that we lead now, we follow now. But then, you know, he's trying to make sure that we're always looking for Christ in the Old Testament passages, and so, I wanted to do this passage because I think we can see in the life of Joseph. life from a godly perspective lived out, life from an ungodly perspective lived out, and we can learn from that. But then we also get to see Joseph as a type of Christ and be able to apply what we're seeing going on in this passage into what we see in Christ's life. And so if you'll join with me, we're in Genesis chapter 50. I'm gonna start there at verse 15. When Joseph's brothers saw that their father was dead, they said, it may be that Joseph will hate us and pay us back for all the evil that we did to him. So they sent a message to Joseph saying, your father gave this command before he died. Say to Joseph, please forgive the transgression of your brothers and their sin because they did evil to you. And now please forgive the transgression of your servants, of God, of your father. Joseph wept when they spoke to him. His brothers also came and fell down before him and said, behold, we are your servants. But Joseph said to them, do not fear for "'Am I in the place of God? "'As for you, you meant evil against me, "'but God meant it for good, "'to bring about that many people should be kept alive "'as they are today. "'So do not fear, I will provide for you "'and your little ones.' "'Thus he comforted them and spoke kindly to them.'" Let's pray. Father, we thank you for your word. We thank you for being able to read it, that we can let the Holy Spirit help us understand, to discern the learnings that we need to have, the meanings that we need to find, and then how we apply it. And so, Father, in the next few moments, help us to do just that, that we would truly gain in our understanding, and then that we would live it out in this coming week. In Jesus' name I pray, amen. Be seated. So as we work through this passage, I thought we just needed real quick, let's just do a rundown Joseph's life because he's the longest referenced character in the Bible other than Jesus. And so why is he in there for so much is because I think he points to Jesus. But just as a little review, so we have Joseph's birth, Jacob and Rachel. We know Jacob, this was his second to last child. Rachel was the first love of his life. And then we have that Joseph was the favored son. He had the coat of many colors. So he found favor in his father, but yet his brothers didn't like that Joseph had a couple dreams that basically meant that his whole family would be bowing down to him Of course that did not go over well with his brothers and then they sold Joseph into slavery now They were gonna kill him, but they decided no Let's just go ahead and we'll just get rid of them this way and they sold him and then he ended up in Potiphar's house and God blessed Joseph was faithful and so he was able to lead Potiphar's house well, but then Potiphar's wife came along and she tried to connect with Joseph. Joseph wasn't having that. That would be a sin against Potiphar, but also against God. And he runs, but then he's accused and he's imprisoned. While he's in prison, he's faithful. God blesses It's a wonderful time as much as you can have I guess in prison for Joseph there and then come along Pharaoh's cupbearer and his baker and they both have dreams and so Joseph interprets the dreams and we get the cupbearer getting reinstated and the baker is not reinstated then Finally, the cupbearer remembers Joseph when Pharaoh has a dream. And so Joseph comes, he interprets Pharaoh's dreams there, that there's going to be seven years of greatness, plentifulness, and then seven years of famine. And so they need to prepare and Pharaoh sees the wisdom that Joseph has from God. And so he puts him in charge. Joseph is exalted to power. He's at the rank of number two in Egypt. And then, Joseph's family, his brothers, come to Egypt because of the famine that's affecting the promised land, and so they come down to Egypt to get family. And as Joseph is there, he ends up revealing himself to them, they have a moment, and then he sends for his dad, they go back up, they bring his dad, the whole family, down to Egypt, and then we end up here in the final words. And so that's where we're gonna pick it up, or we already did there in verse 15. And so now let's walk through our passage. As we think about the big idea, we're going to start with one perspective of Joseph and God and the relationship that they have, how he lives out his life compared to his brothers. And so what we see there is, you know, if you're living faithfully with God, God is going to work in your life to bring him glory. Sometimes you might see it, but sometimes you might not see it in this passage We're gonna be revealed that at this point It does seem like Joseph clearly understands it, but we don't know exactly when he figured it all out But yet we have that idea that I mentioned earlier Joseph is clearly a type of Christ. And so that's where we need to also be looking for, how does Joseph point to Jesus being back here in the book of Genesis? I thought I would just come up with a little definition. And so I just wanna read this, comes from our Logos software that many of us use, but it points to the perspective of a type of Christ. Joseph is widely recognized as a significant type of Christ in the Bible, with numerous parallels between their lives and roles, Like Christ, Joseph was beloved by his father, sent on a mission to his brethren, rejected by them. He was sold for pieces of silver, falsely accused and unjustly imprisoned, foreshadowing Christ's betrayal and suffering. Joseph's rise from imprisonment to become a ruler in Egypt, saving many from famine, mirrors Christ's resurrection and exaltation as Savior. Both Joseph and Christ were initially unrecognized by their brethren, But later revealed as their deliverers Joseph's actions towards his brothers reflect aspects of divine judgment and grace similar to how the Holy Spirit works to bring sinners to Christ and so what we're gonna see is that as Joseph talks to his brothers and he said what you meant for evil God meant it for good and I think we can clearly see a foreshadowing of the Jewish leaders. And as the Jewish leaders clearly meant Jesus's death to be evil for bad. It was good for them type of thing there, but it was really going to be bad against Jesus, of course, but God needed to use that so that he could bring about that salvation opportunity for all of us. And so we're going to look at that just in a few moments. So we're kind of a two fold big idea. We're going to be looking at part of it will be that godliness and ungodliness. And then part of it's going to be that understanding of seeing type of Christ theology within the Old Testament. And so that's why the name is Joseph and God, and also a type of Christ. So verse 15, when Joseph's brothers saw that their father was dead, they said, it may be that Joseph will hate us and pay us back for all the evil that we did to him. So at least at this point, it's great to see that the brothers are acknowledging that they did actually treat Joseph wrongly, that they did sin against him. Now, we've got a few years of time in between this, so at least it's good that at some point they came to that realization. Also think about David, how David had sinned there, but it took until, yeah, Who was the prophet that came to David? What? Nathan. Thank you so much. You know, Nathan came to him and he said, it was you that sinned. And that's where we get, you know, Psalm 50 there. And, uh, that just a powerful time. So my question to you is how long does it normally take for you to recognize the sin in your life? How quickly can you let the Holy spirit bring it to your attention? So the brothers recognized that they had done evil, but yet they're still treating him wrongly because they're still not trusting what Joseph has already told them. If we think back or look back to Genesis 45, you know, we can see there in verse five, and now do not be distressed or angry with yourselves. And so Joseph has already told them, We're good, all right? So he's made peace with it. He's okay with them. He's forgiven them and he's moved on. But yet the brothers aren't realizing that. They're not trusting Joseph and what Joseph is saying. And so I just ask you, is there anybody that you haven't forgiven? Is there somebody that has wronged you, done something, said something, and you're still holding on to it? You haven't forgiven them and you haven't let it go. You still pull it up and it still bothers you. So we see Joseph being at peace with God and at peace with where his life turned out, where he is, even though he went through many trials, many challenging times. And I'm not saying that he perfectly handled everyone. We just don't see that in scripture, whether he did or didn't, but it surely does seem like that he kept a faithful perspective most of the time of his life. But at this point, we can clearly see that he's at peace with God. He's at peace at what God let happen, at what God did. And he's at peace with his life situation. And so I just ask you, are you at that same place that Joseph is? Are you at a point where you're at peace with God today? Are you okay with your life situation, with what he's allowing to happen with you and around you in your life? So let's jump to 16 and 17. So they went or they sent a message to Joseph saying, your father gave his command before he died, say to Joseph, please forgive the transgression of your brothers and their sin because they did evil to you. And now please forgive the transgression of your servants of God, of your father. And Joseph wept. And, uh, when they spoke that and we'll cover that in a minute, it's interesting. Joseph's brothers don't go to Joseph directly. They send somebody else with this message. Now, we all know that clearly in the New Testament, when it comes to that discipline, when we have odds with each other, what are we supposed to do? You address them. You go one-on-one to them. Now, if things don't fall out the way that they should, then what do you do? Take some other ones with you. And then that last one, after some time has happened, if that person is still not moving forward, then what needs to happen? You bring them before the church. And so they didn't do what they should have done. But interestingly, I wonder where they learned this. Anybody got an idea? If we go to Genesis 32 and Jacob sent messengers before him to Esau, his brother in the land of Seir and the country of Edom instructing them, thus you shall say to my Lord Esau, thus says your servant, Jacob, I have sojourned with Laban and stayed until now I have oxen and donkeys and flocks and male servants and female servants. I have sent to tell my Lord in order that I may find favor in your sight. I'm thinking that, They lived through this situation and they saw what their father did. Their father didn't go straight to Esau himself, as he should have done. He sent other people and he sent little gifts along the way with that discussion. And so I'm thinking that they learned it. I just wonder, what are your children learning from you? What are your grandchildren learning from you? You know, what are the young people within the church family? What are they learning from you? So, are you a person that talks directly to people when there's a challenge going on, when there's an ought? Do you go to that person and have that one-on-one? Or do you talk to other people about them and about that situation? So, are they making this up? Do you think that Jacob really had said this to the brothers? Hey guys, I know that you really haven't gotten along with Joseph. And so when I die, then you need to tell him that I said this. Um, yeah, uh, I'm kind of thinking that Jacob probably already did have this conversation with Joseph himself. because we see the interaction of Joseph and Jacob there in those final years. And I would think that during the blessing time of the kids, the boys, that there probably was a conversation about, you know, Hey, you know, please let this go. And I'm thinking that Joseph said, dad, I have, you know, I have let it go. I see what God allowed to happen. And so I'm not holding it against them. You know, So it seems to me that they're trying to manipulate him. And so we see Joseph coming from a godly, faithful perspective, but then we see the brothers coming from an ungodly, unfaithful perspective in the decisions that they're making. And so I think we need to be challenging ourselves. How do we engage people? Do we ever try to manipulate people that are around us? Do we try to work them to get things the way that we think that they should be? The end of verse 17 there, Joseph wept when they spoke to him. I think we can see that Joseph was very sad because he realized that his brothers still weren't getting it. They still didn't realize that he had already forgiven them. And that saddened him. Now, interestingly enough, we also have that Joseph had wept earlier with his brothers, you know, but that was weeping for joy. And so if we think back there to Genesis 45, you know, it got to that point that he just couldn't hold it in. Joseph just couldn't hold it in any longer. He was so excited to see his family, all of his brothers together. And he just wept very loudly to the point that he had to excuse all the Egyptians because they definitely wouldn't have understood. And then he told his brothers, it's me, you know, it's Joseph, uh, in that passage there. So when we think about loving others as we're commanded to do, you know, Matthew 22, the first and the second great commandment, Jesus says we got to love God and love others. They're intertwined together. And so as we obey God and we love others, we have to realize sometimes that will create joy within us, but sometimes it will create sadness. It will create pain. But yet we can't let that opportunity that could come of pain to stop us from loving other people. Because as Christians were commanded, we need to love God and love others. And again, they're intertwined together. They go together. We have to be both. We had a good discussion in Sunday school class this morning, talking through and some points were brought out that for some, It's easier to love God than love other people. But yet, that's still not enough. We can't just love God greatly and love people so-so. And so I just ask you. Are you loving others or are you holding back because you don't want to be hurt? You don't want to be inconvenienced. You don't want the challenges that come by opening yourself up and being transparent and loving people around you, being in relationship, in family, in community, even though that's what we're commanded to do. Are you holding back? Are you not allowing that to happen in your life? And then another question that I want to ask you. So in your relationships that you do have, are you a person that brings joy into the life of the people that you're in relationship? Or do you bring sadness? When people see you coming, are they excited? Bless you. You know, does it, does it bring a good feeling to them? Or if they see you come in, they're just like, Hmm, We need to be more like Joseph and less like his brothers in this story. Verse 18, his brothers also came and fell down before him and said, behold, we are your servants. So interestingly, as I mentioned earlier, we have the two dreams that Joseph had, where basically his family is falling down and worshiping. So in this passage, we see that they're doing it again because they've already done this twice. But yet, interestingly enough, this time is a little different. The first two times that they came and did it, They did it not knowing that Joseph was their brother and they saw him as he was the second in command of Egypt. He was the one that had the power and the authority to allow food to be distributed or not to allow the food to be distributed. And so they humbled themselves to him from that authoritative position, not saying that that was wrong, but yet now they're realizing it a little bit differently. They're seeing him clearly as their brother. And in my head, I'm just wondering if each of them thought back now to the dream. Are they putting it together? I doubt they saw it the first two times because they didn't realize that he was their brother. But I'm thinking this time, now they're connecting the dots. And I hope they're allowing God to work within them as they're remembering those dreams and they're going and seeing that God is in it. Hopefully they're not just thinking about those dreams and still being angry and bothered that Joseph actually ended up being in this high position. Are you a humble person? How does humility look in your life? I know for me, it's a daily work in progress, you know, not being prideful, not being self-centered, you know, not thinking that, you know, I know the best way I had the best understanding for me, that's a daily challenge. It's a daily surrender to the Holy spirit, to be a humble person, to listen to others, to care for others, to subject myself to others. Jesus clearly showed us being God the Son, having all the authority, but yet he humbled himself to be part of creation. Yes, he did go to the cross, but yet even just being part of what he created, what humility to do that. and then the humility to be willing to die a painful death to bear our sins on him. So verse 19, but Joseph said to them, do not fear for I am in the, for am I in the place of God? It's a rhetorical question. As Joseph answers this question, he's not looking for them to answer it verbally, but clearly the answer is no. Joseph clearly understands even though he has the authority as the number two in Egypt He has the authority to bring judgment He knows that God is the judge How do you handle people in your life Are you tempted to bring judgment on people? Look at them with that judging eyes, think judgment against them, or do you allow God? You say, okay, God, you're the one that's going to judge. I need to love them. How do you approach the people that are around you? Romans 12, 19. Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave it to the wrath of God, for it is written, vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord. Revenge, vengeance. It's not something that as believers, as disciples of Christ, that we're to participate in. We're not to think about it. We shouldn't be desiring it. We should not be contemplating and working through, okay, how can I get back at this person? We need to push that aside. We need to forgive. We need to let it go. We need to allow God to be the one that brings the accountability, the one that brings judgment. So in your life, When somebody wrongs you, do you keep count? Do you track it in your head? Oh, they've wronged me. Oh, now they've wronged me again. Man, this is the third time that they've done this to me. Are you that type of person that tracks, that you keep a count, and you're like, oh, I'm gonna get them back. I'm gonna do this, I'm gonna say this. I'm gonna get them. Verse 20, as for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good to bring about that many people should be kept alive as they are today. So as I mentioned earlier, we're going to focus on this clearly from those two perspectives, from Joseph's perspective. Okay. From Joseph's perspective, we see that when he says this, the way he says it, Even though he's forgiven them, it doesn't remove that they did treat him with evil desires, with evil actions. So his forgiveness is not saying what you did was okay. Often that's what we have to work through. When people wrong us, we don't want to forgive them because we don't want the perspective to be that what they did was okay. because it wasn't okay. But still that's where we have to forgive and we have to let God take care of it. So Joseph, he forgives them, but he still knows and he recognizes that it was evil. Jesus, Joseph is not saying that their sin is okay. He's just pointing out that he's let it go. and that God worked through their sin to bring out something that was good. So God allows the brothers to sin, but we clearly have to always understand, even though God allows, because he's sovereign, he could stop all sin and one day it will, but yet here on earth he allows the sin. but yet that doesn't remove the culpability of us in the sin. We're still guilty. We still choose to do it. It's our engaging in the thought, in the action, in what comes out of our mouth or what we don't do. And so the brothers are still accountable for the sin, even though it turned out good. Now, sadly, you know, well, Getting ahead here, so in Genesis 45, so it was not you who sent me here, but God. He made it, a father of Pharaoh and the Lord of all his house to rule over all the land of Egypt. Now here's where I've been in too many conversations around fellow believers. And here's where they'll drop in the Romans 8.28. and they'll talk about a bad situation, but yet, oh, God is gonna make it right. And so just like Joseph went through a lot of bad times, God made it right because Joseph was faithful. And so the implication that those people were saying to you and to me is even though you're going through a bad time, if you just remain faithful, God guarantees that it's gonna get a lot better. That's not good exegeting going on there. That's not what that passage promises. They're taking that passage out of context. And so I just challenge you, please be careful when you use Romans 8.28. Don't say, well, God will make things good for his faithful servants. because that's not what that verse is saying. All we have to do is look through church history, look around the world right now, look at our own lives. Many have been faithful believers, but their lives were not really good. They were abused, killed, struggled. So that's where we have to make sure we're clearly exegeting the passage So as we look at the whole passage around romans 8 28 Likewise the spirit helps us in our weaknesses for we do not know what to pray for we For as we ought but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words and he who searches Hearts knows what is in the mind of the Spirit because the Spirit intercedes for the Saints according to the will of God and then here's the Romans 8 28 and And we know that for those who love God, all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose, for those whom he foreknew, he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers, and those whom he predestined, he also called, and for those he called, he also predestined, and for those he justified, he also glorified. What's the context of the whole passage of the whole pericope? What's the topic that Romans eight 28 is right in the middle of anybody want to holler out the answer? Somebody a little louder. It does talk about difficulties, but what is the main contextual point of reference within the paragraph? We see that it's really talking about salvation. When we look down through especially the back half of the paragraph there, it's really focusing on that those that are elect, that those are called, will be saved. And in the end, they will be with God for eternity. So it's not guaranteeing that earthly things will work out. It's guaranteeing that eternal things will work out for those of faith, for those that believe that's the promise that we're given here. Not that in struggles at work, if you just remain faithful, it'll turn around and the work situation will get better. It's not talking about in your family dynamic. If you just remain faithful to God, that your family dynamic is guaranteed to get better. That that is not a promise that God makes that is not a promise that we see in scripture But yet what we do see in scripture If we go to 2nd Corinthians So we do not lose heart, though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day. For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison. As we look not to the things that are seen, but to the things that are unseen, for the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal. We're not promised that the circumstances of our life will be great and wonderful as faithful believers. But we're promised that God is doing a work within us, that he will fulfill within us, even when chaos is going on around us, pain and agony, he can bring us peace. He can bring us contentment. He can grow us from the inside, that we will then carry on glorifying Him for all eternity. That He does promise. Doesn't promise that no matter how faithful you are, your life will be peachy keen. He does not promise that. But He will bring you what you need within you. He will fulfill you there. That is a promise that we have. So now I want to stop just for a moment and highlight. We're really going to look at Joseph being a type of Christ here and what the Jews should have seen, should have understand, should have understood what was coming in the Messiah. But then definitely once Jesus came and they saw how his life was lived out, they should have been able to connect the dots back to, Oh, I saw this in Joseph. This is in Christ. I saw this in Joseph. Oh, I can see this was in Christ. I saw this in Joseph. Oh, I can see this in the life of Christ. As a type of Christ, Joseph was there, yes, to teach them about being godly versus ungodly, but yet he was clearly there in the Old Testament and highlighted so much in the Bible so that people could see Jesus. So back to that verse 20, as for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good. Bring it about that many people should be kept alive as they are today. And so when we think through, Yes, people's lives were saved because the famine was overcome because they banked up the food. They saved all the food so people didn't die of starvation. But yet that was just a little picture of the salvation that comes through Christ. and how through Christ's death on the cross, burial, resurrection, that so many people would have eternal life, life of abundance with God. So we get a little picture from Joseph of the big picture of Christ. Look at the brothers in Genesis. As the brothers said to him, are you indeed to reign over us? Or are you indeed to rule over us? So they hated him even more for his dreams and for his words. Notice the Jewish leaders. For he, Jesus, perceived that it was out of envy that the chief priest had delivered him up. So again, we see that picture, that foretelling The brothers were angry, they headed in for Joseph. The Jewish leaders were angry, they headed in for Jesus. When we look at this passage in John. But one of them, Caiaphas, who was the high priest that year, said to them, 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. He did not say this of his own accord, but being the high priest that year, he prophesied that Jesus's death would die for the nation. not for the nation only but also to gather into one the children of God who are Scattered abroad so that that day on they made plans to put him to death So from that day on they made plans to put him to death We see a glimpse of They were meaning this for evil against Jesus. They headed in for Jesus and They were meaning this from a personal perspective and earthly perspective. Okay. If we just get rid of Jesus, the Romans are going to be okay with us. This uprising is going to get squashed down. And so it's going to be better for everybody all around. If we just go ahead and kill this one guy. But yet, as we see through Joseph, the evil that his brothers meant against him, God used it to bring life to them. The same with the Jewish leaders here. Now, sadly, I don't think many of them ever did actually believe in Christ. So they did not receive the opportunity that they had given to them, but yet millions have since. So the old Testament can be very valuable for us to understand those that are faithful, those that are godly. We need to pull those out and we need to live that out. We know that we don't need to follow the law in the Old Testament. Jesus fulfilled that law. And so when we're reading through the law components in the Old Testament, we don't have to follow those. But yet through Christ, we do have a new law, a law that's been given to us through the Holy Spirit. And so that's the law that we sing about. That's the law that we need to be living out in our lives today. but we always need to be looking for Christ in the old Testament. A few weeks ago, pastor asked the question, is Christ in every passage in the old Testament? I don't think we can say yes to that. I don't think that we can read every single verse or paragraph and that each of them are pointing to Christ. But yet I think throughout every book in the Old Testament, we can see that promised Messiah coming in some way. And so when we're reading the Old Testament, we need to be looking for Christ in the Old Testament because the Old Testament offers us so much of Christ. We need to follow that. So as we think from creation, from the foundation of what is ours, the creation of man. So from Genesis one on plan a has always been Jesus. It was never to keep a law. It was never to try to be righteous in and of ourselves. It was always to trust God, to trust his promises, to surrender ourselves to him. From the promise of Genesis 3.15 through all the promises until Jesus is here incarnate. And so I just challenge you. Are you living obediently? Are you following Joseph's example? Or are you being more like the brothers? Are you living a life that points to Jesus? Now, from a Bible standpoint, we're not officially types of Christ. But yet as salt and light here on the earth today, we have the opportunity through the Holy Spirit to be that visible picture of Christ. If you think when the Christians were first called Christians, it was not a positive name. They were being made fun of. Oh, look at the little Christians. Look at the little Christ. But they were being recognized because they were following the way. They were following Christ like Pastor talked about last Sunday. And they were being made fun of for following the way, for following Christ. And that's how they got that name. But yet for us, how do we wear that name? Are we being faithful Christians? Are we setting the example? Let's pray. Father, I ask that you would help each of us as we leave out today to be faithful believers, that we would focus on living out Christ, that we would surrender each moment each day to the Holy Spirit's leading, and that we would be striving for Christ-like transformation in our lives. In Jesus' name I pray. God's people said, Amen.