Continue or resume our study of the book of Acts, and we find ourselves in many ways the second point of Stephen's sermon. And if you remember from last time Stephen's speech, his address is really addressing the trumped up charges against him by the religious leaders. Or while he was falsely accused, the nature of the accusations against him underscored the prevailing religious thought of the St. Hedren.
What they believed and what they held dear was what underlined their charges against Stephen. You'll recall that one of Stephen's emphases from his opening argument involved showing the St. Hedren that the Lord's presence is not bound to the temple. Rather even pagan Abram, the Lord called out of Ur, and even as Abram sojourned in a foreign land, Stephen reminded the St.
Hedren that the Lord was with him. You'll notice in our text this evening that there's a similar line of thought that is taken out that even though Joseph is sold into slavery, and so dwells in Egypt, Stephen notes, but God was with him. In fact, we'll notice that Egypt has mentioned some six times in these verses as we anticipate reading God's word this evening, but implying that just as he was with Abraham, as he was with Isaac, as he was with Jacob, he is with Joseph. And so, Yoly continues to be with his people.
That is his point. That is Stephen's overarching point that God is with his people. And so, that's the backdrop of this passage. The Lord is continually with his people before there was ever a tabernacle, before there was ever a temple.
And however this evening, Stephen also picks up on a new line of argument. In fact, he points out a pattern through which the Lord operates, and the Old Testament, a pattern that's ultimately realized in the person and work of Jesus Christ. But I think before we look at the text, the question here we need to ask is, why Joseph? This is the only instance in the New Testament where Joseph's narrative is mentioned in any detail.
And if we're not careful, I'm afraid we look at these verses merely as a divine segue connecting Abraham to Moses, a historical footnote, if you will, that describes how the Israelites ended up in Egypt anyway. But this speaks serves to condemn the Hebrews who have rejected Jesus. And so, in light of that point, we need to consider Stephen's inclusion of the Joseph narrative as evidence against them. But what's his point?
We'll conclude that this evening with our sermon. But now, let's walk through the text together. We're going to be in Acts chapter 7. Acts chapter 7.
For I read God's word, would you pray with me, please? Father, we come asking that you would indeed open our eyes that we may see wondrous things in your word, that by your spirit you would bless us and that you would hide your word in our hearts, and that we would be hold you as our God exalted in heaven, who does all that he pleases, whose will is good. And Lord, help us to believe upon you and to increase our faith tonight. We ask these things in Jesus' name.
Amen. This is God's word, Gegen Acts chapter 7 verse 9. In the patriarchs, jealous of Joseph, sold him into Egypt, but God was with him, and rescued him out of all his afflictions, and gave him favor in wisdom before Pharaoh, King of Egypt, who made him ruler over Egypt and over all his household. And now there came a famine throughout all Egypt and Canaan, and great affliction, and our fathers could find no food.
But when Jacob heard that there was grain in Egypt, he sent out our fathers on their first visit. And on the second visit, Joseph made himself known to his brothers, and Joseph's family became known to Pharaoh, and Joseph sent and son in Jacob his father. And all his kindred, 75 persons and all, and Jacob went down into Egypt, and he died. He and our fathers.
And they were carried back to Shechem and laid in the tomb that Abraham had bought for a sum of silver, from the sons of Abort, and Shechem. The grass where there's a flower falls. The word of our God stands forever and ever thanks the God. What is Providence?
What is Providence? Well, the larger catechism, number 18, actually answers this for us. God's work of Providence are his most holy, wise, and powerful, preserving, and governing all his creatures, ordering them and all their actions to his glory. Now, that's a theological answer to the question, what is Providence?
Well, what does it actually look like in real life? Well, it could look like Elmer Bendiner's bombing run over the German city of Castle. Bendiner recounts that our B-17 was barrage by flak from Nazi aircraft guns, and that was not unusual. But on this particular occasion, our gas tanks were hit.
Later, as I reflected on the miracle of a 20 millimeter shell piercing the fuel tank without touching off an explosion or pilot, Bon Fox told me it was not quite that simple. On the morning after the raid, Bon had gone down to ask the crew chief for the shell as a souvenir of unbelievable luck. The crew chief told Bon that not just one shell, but 11 had been found in the gas tanks. 11 unexploded shells were only one was sufficient to blast us out of the sky.
It was as if the sea had been parted for us. Even after 35 years, so awesome an event leaves me shaken, especially after I heard the rest of the story from Bon. He was told that the shells had been sent to the armorers to be diffused, and the armorers told him that intelligence had picked them up. They could not say why the time, but Bon eventually sought out the answer, and apparently when the armorers opened each of those shells, they found no explosive charge.
They were clean as a whistle and just as harmless. Empty? Not all of them. One contained a carefully rolled piece of paper.
On it was a scroll and check, and the intelligence people scoured our base for a man who could read check, and eventually they found one to decipher the note, and it was marvelling. Translated the note read, this is all we can do for you now. Some call this happenstance. Some call this coincidence.
Others call this just plain luck. But we reconcile this, even this event that we see here, that took place in World War II many years ago. We see even this as an act of God's providence. Yes, a check armorer may have left bullets empty, or shells empty.
Yes, the 11 shells did not explode upon impact and explode a gas tank. But what's not God who orchestrated and ordained all of these things to come the past. If this idea of providence is what underscores Stephen's message in this evening's text, and his referencing the Joseph Narrative, he is drawing our hearts and minds to behold our God, who causes all things to come to pass. It's all about God's providence.
But let's walk through this account and come to this conclusion and come to our conclusion together first. I want you to notice that Stephen begins with the Brothers betrayal. For all the law and honor and the patriarchs it appears that they were often revealed at the expense of ignoring their own sinful and fallen state. Last time Stephen reminded his audience that they were descendants of Abraham, yes, but of Abraham who was an idolater.
And now he reminds them that their forefathers were murderers, liars, and thieves who were not beyond harming their own blood and kin even for a little bit of gain. And so Stephen picks up at their portray. But do you recall the events that led to this point? Moses tells us in Genesis 37 that Joseph being 17 years old was passoring the flock with his brothers, and he was a boy with the sons of Bill Ha in Zilpa, his father's wives.
And Joseph brought a bad report of them to their father. And now Israel loved Joseph more than any of his sons because he was the son of his old age. And he made him a robe of many colors. But when his brothers saw that their father loved him more than all his brothers, they hated him and could not speak peacefully to him.
Now we will do well to consider the nature of this sibling rivalry because here we find Joseph returning home from the fields with a bad report. And commentators note that elsewhere this phrase is used as a false report or literally a bad report. And so at worst, Joseph returns home bearing false witness, and at best he's being in a suffragal on a tattle tale. This sibling dynamic is only magnified by Jacob's showing favoritism, his giving a lavish coat to a visual reminder to Joseph's brothers of Jacob's clear and favorite son.
In the final straw were these dreams that seemed to imply the young Joseph in a place of power and position over his older siblings unheard of in this time, even his mother and father. And so his brothers devised a scheme to get rid of their brother once and for all and to make something for themselves in the meantime. And Joseph was likely not innocent in his behavior, possibly a spoiled brat. Did it justify such a response by his brothers?
Well, we know. The answer is no by no means. What's interesting here is that there is a link between the Sanhedrin and the brothers, for they both exhibited jealousy. But if you recall from our sermon back in chapter 5 that a high priest rose up and all who were with him, that is the party of the Sadducees, and they were filled with a jealous rage.
Even those who belong to the synagogue rose up against Stephen in light of his doing signs and wonders among the people that would appear that not only is Stephen connected to the dots regarding they're rejecting the one who would redeem them, but revealing to us the nature of their hearts. And with that said, the jealousy is the poison we drink while we wait for someone else to die. It slowly kills us and makes us rot from the inside out. And I think the series of events here in these opening chapters of Acts reveals to us the slow corruption of a heart given over to jealousy.
For the religious leaders didn't just wake up one day and decide to stone Stephen, but rather there is this simmering and this buildup that takes place between chapters 1 and 7 that overflows to a boil and let us be a lesson to us regarding the nature of sin in us, for sin typically festers, and it typically slowly overtakes us. And yet it's the sin that the Lord uses to bring it out his ultimate purposes. It's this jealousy that the Lord would use to see his good and sovereign will be done in Joseph's case, right? It's the means to which God would see Joseph to Egypt and so rise in the ranks to bless the Egyptians and to preserve his people.
That God in fact uses our sufferings and trials to bring about his good. He uses sin sinlessly to bring out even our own redemption. There is yet another instance in the scriptures in the New Testament where the religious leaders are marked by their jealousy. And it's in Mark chapter 15.
And it's that jealousy which drives them to bring charges against Jesus that would ultimately lead them or lead him to his crucifixion, his death. And our salvation. I think there's a link here. It's even as linking the jealousy of the Sanhedrin with that of the brothers in the Joseph narrative.
And he's showing us that God is not bound. He is not overcome by our sin. But rather he uses it for his glory and praise. Secondly, what we need to see here is the Father's faithfulness.
The Father's faithfulness. And his faithfulness shows us how the Lord not only is with us in the midst of our trials, but rescues and redeems us from them. And so Joseph stands as a testimony to the Lord's ability to use a crooked stick to make a straight line. But I want to point out the progression of Joseph's time in Egypt.
Because to say the Lord is faithful to his word, it's not to say that our lives will not be without trial and not be without difficult circumstance. It's Joseph who is betrayed by his family and sold into slavery. It's Joseph who serves Potiphar in his house who is the captain of the guard and officer of Pharaoh, whose wife makes an advance and Joseph runs away only to be placed in prison after being falsely accused. It's in prison that he interprets a dream of Pharaoh's cut bear only to be forgotten when the cut bear is restored to his position.
And in prison, he remained for two years until the cut bear recalled the one who could interpret Pharaoh's dreams. And it wasn't until then that Joseph was quickly brought out of the pit. And so when Stephen says that the Lord rescued him out of all his afflictions and gave him favor and wisdom before Pharaoh king of Egypt, this doesn't mean that Joseph did not know his own suffering and affliction. It's here we need to be reminded that our hope of deliverance and redemption isn't merely found in the absence of trial and in the absence of suffering.
But rather that the Lord is present with us and promises to be our Redeemer. I want you to consider with me the account of Jesus asleep in the bottom of the boat. You recall it? A squal of a storm breaks out and is strong enough to instill fear and to experience fisherman.
And what's the comfort we find in that narrative? Is it that Jesus stands with full authority of God himself to exercise power over creation and to cease the winds and the waves? Surely it is. Or could it be that this Jesus who has all authority or all the authority of the Creator was present with him in the boat and he was near?
Well surely it is. Or could it even be that it was by Jesus's own direction that the apostles would have been in the boat in the first place? That Jesus knew what would befall them upon the sea of Galilee and so say, let us go into the boat and cross the sea. What I want you to see is that account that goes Isaiah 43, that when you pass through the waters I will be with you.
And though the rivers and through the rivers they shall not overwhelm you. And when you walk through the fire you shall not be burned and the flame shall not consume you. Each of the glory of that narrative is yes that Jesus ceases the winds and the waves. But that Jesus also directs them and is with them.
Jesus not only leads us through our suffering but he is present with us. And so for our redemption and our rescue from our trials this should focus our attention on the one who rescues in Redeams. Corrie Tendon who suffered under Nazi persecution for hiding Jews tells of her mother's embroidery work. As a child Corrie would sit at her mother's feet watching her so beautiful tapestries.
And from underneath all Corrie could see were messy threads, knots and tangles and dark colors and it made no sense to her. But when her mother turned the fabric around Corrie saw a stunning pattern woven with precision and beauty and suffering she later realized it's like looking at the tapestry from the underside. Always they are tangled, dark threads of our pain but God is the divine lever. And she sees the finished design from above.
And she would say that in Christ we trust that none of the threads are wasted. None of the threads are wasted. Sometimes we are afraid we are so concerned with the tapestry or the cross stitch. What it looks like the design of the picture that we fail to see the weaver or give him proper glory and praise.
And when we doubt it might we look to Christ as we see the fullness of time in which all things come together. That surely the Lord who can bring salvation by way of such evil as the cross can do far greater things than we can ever imagine to rescue in Redeam. Better than we want to see is this providential promotion. But now we get to the tapestry.
We need to behold the weaver for all that he is. But we also don't need to not behold the tapestry, the bigger picture. And we see that Stephen references this. God was with him and he says, and rescue him, Joseph out of all his afflictions, and gave him favor and wisdom before Pharaoh, King of Egypt, who made him ruler over Egypt and over all his household.
And now there came a fan throughout Egypt and came in and a great affliction and our fathers could find no food. But when Jacob heard that there was grain in Egypt he sent out our fathers on their first visit. What's the purpose of the Lord sending Joseph to Egypt? To be placed in the house of Pharaoh's captain of the guard, to be imprisoned by Pharaoh's cupbearer, with the Pharaoh's cupbearer, to interpret his dreams that he might be called upon as the only one Egypt, as the only one in Egypt who could prophesy for Pharaoh.
What's that the Lord would save a multitude? That the Lord would save and preserve his own covenant people? And so Joseph's story tells us that our suffering has a purpose. And this is Joseph's own conclusion in Genesis 50 as his brothers fear retribution from him and how he treated him.
And he says this, he says, do not fear. For 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. This providential promotion is the end and purpose of Joseph's suffering.
And yet I can't help but wonder if this passage doesn't sit well with us, maybe some of you. Because maybe some of you are in the midst of a tribe. Maybe some of you are faced with suffering. Maybe you're on the other side of it longing to know what it was all for.
Let me read Joseph's account and we wonder if we will ever know the true purpose of our suffering. That we might trace God's divine hand through every event and every circumstance of every day we come up in a year to have our own grand tapestry to behold. The fact of the matter is that's not how life works most often or even typically. We don't have some obvious tangible product that we can point to and say this made it all worth it.
And so we ask if not saving a nation or not saving a family or not preserving God's people, what is the point of our own suffering? I think John Piper helps us immensely when he answers this question with the five Rs of suffering. First, Piper says, repentance, that suffering is a call for us and others to turn from treasuring anything else on earth above God. And Piper means that we should find our ultimate delight in Christ.
That's one of the purposes of suffering, repentance that we might find our ultimate delight in Christ. Second, he says, reliance. Suffering is a call to trust God and not the life-sustaining props of this world. He asks the question in whom do or what do we trust?
And suffering has a way of making us cling to and lean upon the Lord and to rest upon him alone. And so another aspect of our suffering is reliance upon God. Third, he says, righteousness. Suffering is the discipline of our loving, loving heavenly fathers that we come to share his righteousness and holiness.
And it's the means to which God lovingly chastises and corrects us that we may know the loving care of our heavenly father. And so God uses his suffering that he might bear within us, righteousness. Fourthly, it's reward. Suffering is working for us a great reward in heaven that will make up for every loss here, a thousandfold.
What does Paul say? But this light momentary affliction is preparing us for an eternal way to glory beyond all comparison that we have. In fact, a greater restore for us in glory. And so suffering prepares us for our reward.
And fifth, lastly, it's a reminder. Suffering reminds us that God sent his son into the world to suffer so that our suffering would not be God's condemnation, but his purification. That it's through the means of suffering that you and I know salvation. That it, our, we suffer that we might be reminded of and know more intimately and deeply the suffering which Christ bore on our behalf.
And so we come to the end of such suffering. And we ask, what's the point? What's the purpose? Well, that we may know Christ and be conformed to his likeness, all the bore.
And when we're tempted to long for a reason or some sense of purpose and our suffering, might we pray that God will give us eyes of faith to be holed Jesus up and across? That is the end of our suffering. Even when we cannot see how the Lord is working all things for his glory and good, might it be that we behold Jesus? And so we see that God even uses our circumstances and our sufferings that we might become more like Christ.
So what's the conclusion? What's the point of Stephen's conclusion? Again, I want to remind you, I don't think this is merely a divine segway between Abraham and Moses, but I think he's making a point. And I think what we see here is that the covenant continues.
The covenant continues. Remember when he spoke of Abraham, he was making a point that God was present with Abraham. And here he's pressing his point further. It's not that God is merely present with his people, people, but providentially present with his people.
It's not that he's just present, but providentially present with his people. That his divine hand is guiding all things according to his divine will. That's the point of Stephen, including Joseph's narrative. That God is for his people, even when they cannot see it.
God is for his people, even when they cannot see it. He is not merely present, but he is at work. And so when we consider this in light of Stephen's ultimate point that they rejected the Christ, he's pointed them to the God who has orchestrated all things to bring about the fullness of things. To bring about the fullness of time.
That through Abraham and Joseph and soon Moses, that the Lord have been guiding all things and keeping his covenant promise to protect and to preserve his people that would find his fullness in completion in the person and work in Jesus Christ. Here we find this narrative that the patriarchs rejected Joseph who would later be their Redeemer. And this is what the Saint He does. This is what the Jews have done in this text.
And throughout this narrative they have rejected the Christ whom God sent to be their Redeemer. The one who was at work, God made manifest that we might see him and behold him. Let me ask you this question as we conclude and close. Do you know that he's at work in you?
Do you understand that he is orchestrating and that his divine hand is causing all things to come to pass in your own life? And he is prepared for you, a life that you will live. And that he is never absent, that he is never far, but his will comes to pass. Which of the God is with you?
That your suffering has a purpose? That our trials have, our trials matter? And what if he then in it we would see Jesus? That's right.
God, we thank you that you.