Today's Word Radio

Brett Meador: Joseph is one of the most incredible pictures or types of Jesus in the Old Testament. His brothers left him for dead actually in a pit, but he came out of a pit and went on to become their savior.

The Jews put Jesus in the tomb. He came out and he would save the very same Jews that would crucify him. Now, it's possible for them to be saved because Jesus died on the cross for their sins.

Guest (Male): On today's word, Pastor Brett Meador with an Old Testament reflection of the Gospel. In Stephen's sermon to the Sanhedrin of Acts chapter seven, we'll examine Israel's history from Abraham, reflecting on the beginning of God's plan for the Jewish people, but also how Jesus is pictured throughout this history.

From today's word, Pastor Brett Meador marvels at God's continued presence despite the rejecting of his chosen servants Moses, Abraham, and Joseph.

Brett Meador: Here we are finally at Stephen's sermon. This is a big one. One of the things that Stephen's going to show is the glory doesn't have to be in the temple. The Jews by the first century would say the only place God's glory could be possibly is in the temple with us and the priest. We have a monopoly on God's glory.

But one of the things you're going to see Stephen say is, guess where the glory of God first appeared? Was it in a temple anywhere? Nope. It was actually in, as it says here, Mesopotamia before he dwelt at Haran. God appeared to Abraham in Ur of the Chaldees, which is kind of important. Where's Ur of the Chaldees? Well, it's in what is today Iraq.

We're going to have Stephen talking about the story of Abraham. And he's even going to give us some information that we didn't have in the Old Testament by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, so it's pretty cool. This is going to be helpful. So God calls Abraham to leave Ur of the Chaldees. Let's take a look at verse three.

It says, "And said to him, get thee out of thy country and from thy kindred and come into the land which I shall show thee. Then came he out of the land of the Chaldeans and dwelt in Haran and from thence, when his father was dead, he removed him into this land wherein you now dwell."

He's talking to the Jews in Jerusalem, so he's saying you guys are here because of the story that I just referred to. Now, Stephen's sermon, God called Abraham, and he mentioned something that is actually kind of a black eye on Abraham's history. Many of you know some of Abraham's biggest mistakes. What was probably one of his bigger mistakes?

Remember he called Sarah his sister down in Egypt? That's a bad one. What's another bad thing Abraham did? Went down to Egypt. Anybody remember who he picked up in Egypt? Hagar. Is there a little problem there? Yeah, that might be the biggest one. The biggest mistake. Why? Because the Arab-Israeli conflict today is because Abraham did that. He slept with Hagar, the end.

If he hadn't done that, we wouldn't have had Ishmael, and Ishmael is the father of the Arab nations and there's been nothing but trouble ever since between Jews and Arabs. It's quite a story. And it's like Abraham's in heaven, "Did I do that?" watching all the bloodshed and warfare, even the Gaza and all that stuff that's happening right now. It's because Abraham made a mistake there. It's kind of brutal.

But there's another thing that you may not know was a mistake, and actually, I think it's interesting that Stephen brings this up. God called Abraham to leave Ur. Did you see what it said there? It says in verse three, "Get thee out of thy country and from thy kindred." What does it mean, the kindred? Well, that's his family.

So leave your homeland, Ur of the Chaldees, and leave your family behind. Question: Did Abraham leave his family behind? No. Who did he bring with him? Lot. Anybody else? His father. In fact, let me show you, this is the Genesis, this is part of the Abrahamic Covenant, but it starts out in verse one.

"Now the Lord had said unto Abram, get thee out of thy country and from thy kindred and from thy father's house." So from thy kindred, that's leave all your family behind and from specifically your father's house, leave that unto a land that I will show thee. And I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee and make thy nation great, and thou shalt be a blessing.

"And I will bless them that bless thee and curse him that curseth thee, and in thee all families of the earth shall be blessed." So Abraham departed as the Lord had spoken unto him, and Lot went with him, and Abraham was seventy and five years old when he departed out of Haran.

So there's some things we learned here that's kind of a bummer. What information did we not get from the Old Testament? That Abraham moving from Ur went to Haran. Now, in the New Testament, by the way, don't be confused by this, you'll see Haran is with a "CH", but in the Old Testament it's an "H". And so you say, is that the same place? Yes. Same place.

Greek translation of the Old Testament is the "CH" one, which these guys would read in their day. So what was Abraham, at the time his name was Abram, what was he doing? He brought his father and he brought Lot with him, and he was supposed to leave them behind. And then after his father died, if you remember the story of Genesis, then he made his way to the promised land.

Does anybody know about how many years he hung out there waiting for his father to die? 25 years. That's an interesting thing. God says get thee up, leave your father and your family and go, and he goes like 50 miles downriver and hangs out in Haran waiting for his father to die. And then when his father dies, he finally says okay, now I can go.

He put off 25 years what God had told him to do. But Abraham's partial obedience didn't take God's promise away. Instead, it seems like the promise was on hold until Abraham was ready to do what the Lord told him to do. The fulfillment of that promise didn't progress until Abraham left Haran.

What would have happened had he left Ur of the Chaldees and went straight to the promised land without his dad and without Lot? Remember we had some problems with Lot, if you recall. That's a part of the story of Genesis, Abraham having problems with his nephew Lot. The whole Sodom and Gomorrah thing and Abraham had to go rescue Lot. There was all kinds of problems with Lot.

I think it's interesting that Stephen brings up that sort of black mark on Abram's record. Now, you say, what does that have to do with anything? It has to do with these guys as well. These guys, the highest thing they could say is "we be the sons of Abraham, we're the descendants of Abraham," and they're so proud of that.

But actually, Stephen's bringing up something that's not so proud in their history. And so I think he's starting to even make his argument even right now. So he starts out with Abraham. That was the father of their nation. Verse five goes on. It says, "He gave him none inheritance in it, no, not so much as to set his foot on."

"Yet he promised that he would give it to him for a possession and to his seed after him, when as yet he had no child." Verse six. "And God spake on this wise that his seed should sojourn in a strange land and that they should bring them into bondage and entreat them evil four hundred years." This is part of that Abrahamic covenant of God giving the land to the children of Israel.

So we looked at that, is it Palestine or is it Israel? And there's people arguing to this very day on that. Well, we know the answer from the Bible. It's Israel, the land of the Jews, God gave that land for an inheritance. Well, there's something I want to point out though before we read on, and it's about the 400 years.

This is just a warning for some of you college students with your pipe-puffing cardigan sweater-wearing professors at your universities who will say the Bible's full of contradictions. This is one of those, right here. Did you see what it said at the end of verse six? It says bring them into bondage and entreat them evil for 400 years.

And they say see, contradiction in the Bible because the book of Exodus says they were in Egypt for 430 years. Let me show you. Exodus 12:40-41. "Now the sojourning of the children of Israel who dwelt in Egypt was 430 years, and it came to pass at the end of the 430 years, even the self-same day it came to pass that all the host of the Lord went out from the land of Egypt."

So they see this big huge contradiction. There's some contradictions seemingly in the Bible that are harder to defend than this one, I'll admit. They're all defendable and you can find the truth in all of them, but this is like the no-brainer one. I love the one that Time Magazine did this whole article on how the creation story can't be possible because this article waxes eloquent how there's never been and never will be any apples that have grown in that region of the world where they believe the Garden of Eden was.

They went the whole article in Time Magazine, this is years ago, but was like really in-depth about how there's no apples, there's never been apples in that region of the world so there's no way the garden—but the Bible doesn't say it was an apple, it says fruit. That's all it says. Somebody got a thing that they colored it in Sunday School that was an apple and they thought, oh okay.

Then they prove there was no apples in the Middle East or whatever. And so it's just ridiculous. Dumb. This is kind of the same way. What do you mean, Brett? Well, in Exodus 12, the 430 years seem to be indicating from the time where the children of Israel went from Jacob traveling down to Egypt with Joseph.

When Joseph and his brothers during that famine came down to Egypt, from that moment all the way then was 430 years. But Stephen's not talking about that time definition. He's talking about the time where suddenly another Pharaoh comes on the scene and, well, look at our text where it says there in verse six.

It says that they should bring them into bondage and entreat them evil 400 years. So if you're doing the math, Joseph goes down as large and in charge, second most powerful man in the world, saves his brothers through the famine. Thirty years later, the people of Israel they've grown after those years, the 12 sons, and somewhere in there a Pharaoh came and started treating them really badly.

That's when you set the clock for what Stephen's talking about. From the time they were treated evil to the time they left was 400 years. That's possibility number one, probably the one that I believe. Others say even if that's not true, he's probably rounding up. People do that all the time. It could be just something as simple as that.

One of the things that also makes a difference, Stephen is learning from as were all these guys from the Septuagint. 270 BC Greek translation of the Old Testament. And there are some things about the Septuagint that got translated differently than from the ancient Hebrew writings. So there's some tricky things there. I'll show you what I mean maybe in a minute.

We keep reading verse seven. "The nation to whom they shall be in bondage will I judge," said God. "And after that shall they come forth and serve me in this place." Question: Was Egypt judged? Soundly. You say how bad did they get defeated? It ends with the whole Egyptian army drowning in the Red Sea. That's a problem if you've got an army and it's just drowned, the whole army.

Plus their firstborn of everybody died. Plus all their livestock dead. Plus all their rivers blood. They were in a world of hurt Egypt was. And so then when God judges nations, he judges them soundly. Keep that in mind because God is the judge of nations. He's going to do that even in the future at the end.

But then it says they'll leave Egypt and then come and serve me in this place. And when he says that in verse seven, he's talking about Israel, Jerusalem specifically. Well, verse eight. "And he gave him the covenant of circumcision, and so Abraham begat Isaac and circumcised him the eighth day, and Isaac begat Jacob and Jacob begat the 12 patriarchs."

Now we're onto the 12 tribes of Israel. Reuben, Simeon, Levi, Judah, Dan, Naphtali, Gad, Asher, Issachar, Zebulun, Joseph and Benjamin. One of the things about the 12 tribes though you'll read them in the Book of Revelation and you'll see different names that are left in or left out. It has to do with Simeon and Levi being cursed in the Old Testament.

Sometimes instead there's a tweaking of the names going from leaving out Dan because they were a cursed tribe and Joseph his two sons Ephraim and Manasseh get included sometimes. So it's a little tricky sometimes knowing who really are the 12 tribes, but if you read your Old Testament carefully, you'll know why the New Testament lists of the tribes are different sometimes than the Old.

It has to do with tribes that got cursed out of the line, which is kind of interesting. Now let's bring up circumcision because it's brought up here, the covenant of circumcision. What would be that sign? Well, when you read the story of the Old Testament, it's kind of brutal. Abraham says, "I got a covenant from God, an everlasting covenant," and the Lord says "Yes, Abraham, and I'm going to give you a sign."

"A sign? Great! What is it?" "Drop your drawers." Like this sign for the Jews, circumcision. The Jewish male on the eighth day he would be circumcised, cutting away of the flesh, the foreskin. It was an amazing picture really historically of really what would futuristically our old sin nature, our flesh, that would be cut away.

And so do you as parents, do you need to circumcise your children today to be marked by God? No, you don't. It's a trend right now. I've watched trends come and go on this one whether it's healthier. There's reasons why circumcision used to be celebrated even among secular medicine. We won't get into all that.

But in the New Testament, no longer, remember they were talking about that in the early church. Should these Gentiles, should they be circumcised? And there was a bunch of guys saying absolutely, start circumcising the guys. But they had a council and they said that circumcision of that nature would not be required of those Gentiles.

But there was something that would be a picture of circumcision in the New Testament. Does anybody know what that is? Baptism! Thank the Lord for that. All the guys are like praise the Lord, baptism, I'll get dunked in the water, that's okay. How do we know that? Well, it's Colossians 2:10-13.

"You are complete in him, which is the head of all principality and power, in whom you also are ye circumcised with the circumcision made without hands, in putting off the body of sins of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ." And it goes on. "Buried with him in baptism wherein also you are risen with him through the faith of the operation of God who hath raised him from the dead."

"And you being dead in your sins and the uncircumcision of your flesh hath he quickened together or made alive with him, having forgiven you all trespasses." There's a like topic here: circumcision, cutting away the flesh; baptism, burying the old sin nature, the old flesh, leaving it in the river, coming up a new living person in Christ.

Circumcision is now pictured by baptism in the New Testament. Sort of like when you slay a lamb and put it on the altar at the temple, we don't do that anymore either. We're not under that law. But what we do is we take communion. We eat the bread and drink the cup to remember the Lamb, Jesus, who would die on the cross for the sins of the world.

So those are the kinds of things. Two of the main ordinances: that is to take communion in place of the sacrificial system and then also in place of circumcision we all get to be baptized, marked as Christians. That's why the circumcision was a mark of a Jew. Did you know in history there were times, anti-Semitic people who wanted to ethnically cleanse the world from Jews, they would find and confirm that the person was a Jew if they were circumcised.

And if you were circumcised, they would kill them on the spot because that would be the mark of a Jew. So it cost Abraham and his people to be circumcised. But I just wanted to address that because Stephen brings that up and the cutting away of the flesh is kind of a big deal to the Jews.

Well, we pick it up there in verse nine. "And the patriarchs moved with envy," that's the 12 brothers of Joseph, "and sold Joseph into Egypt. But God was with him and delivered him out of all his afflictions and gave him favor and wisdom in the sight of Pharaoh, king of Egypt, and he made him governor over Egypt and all his house."

Okay, now we're getting into the story of Joseph. Now again, technically Stephen's making a defense, not a defense as much as a case against these religious guys and now Stephen's going to turn up the heat by mentioning Joseph. This is something that you and I as Gentile people we might miss this if we're not careful.

But Joseph is one of the most incredible pictures or types of Jesus in the Old Testament. There's a lot of those, but Joseph just might be one of the most amazing if you ask me. If you read the whole story of Joseph, that is, remember Jacob sent his son Joseph to go find his brothers and they were looking around to try to find the brothers and see how they were doing.

And then Joseph found his brothers. But when he found his brothers, his brothers hated him. That's what it says here: "They were moved with envy." And so they hated Joseph, sold him as a slave. Left him for dead actually in a pit. But he came out of a pit and went on to become their Savior.

Okay, there's a few things that I've already mentioned that—does anybody see anything about Jesus? What did God the Father do when he sent his son? He sent his son Jesus said, "I have come to seek and save the lost," just like Joseph started out sent by the Father, favored of the Father. Joseph was Jacob's favorite.

When Jesus came, how many times did God say "This is my beloved son in whom I am well pleased"? Like Jesus was highly favored just like Joseph. And Jesus went to look for his brothers, just like Joseph looked for his brothers. His brothers despised him and rejected him. I'm using that language on purpose.

Just like Jesus's brothers, the Jews, despised him and rejected him. The Jews in the story of Joseph was thrown into a pit. Jesus was thrown into a grave, a tomb. But Joseph emerged out of the tomb and went to prison. Just like Jesus came out of the grave and went to the prison of the earth if you would and preached to the demons, if you remember Ephesians 4 and that whole story 4:9.

And then Jesus emerged from the prison just like Joseph emerged and guess what? Joseph was the second most powerful guy in the world. And because of his power, he was able to save his brothers. So the Jews put Jesus in the tomb, he came out, and his power was that which would save the very same Jews that would crucify him.

Now it's possible for them to be saved because Jesus died on the cross for their sins. There are hundreds of things about Joseph and Jesus that are an amazing picture. By the way, Joseph is one of the only Bible characters that get a lot of ink, a lot of story written about him, but no record of sin.

Daniel's another one who doesn't have any record of sin. But most other people—Abraham's got records of sin, Moses got records, David sinned—but Joseph is perfect. Why? Because he maintains the perfect illustration of Jesus the Savior. So all that to say you got this amazing thing here that Stephen brings up in Acts chapter seven.

Verse 10, that he delivered him out all their afflictions, gave him favor with Pharaoh. Then verse 11. "Now there came a dearth over all the land of Egypt and Canaan and great affliction and our fathers found no sustenance. But when Jacob heard that there was corn in Egypt, he sent out our fathers first."

"At the second time Joseph was made known to his brethren and Joseph's kindred was made known to Pharaoh." This is another example. When will the Jews understand that Jesus really is the Messiah? His second coming. Kind of interesting. The first time, what did the Jews think of Jesus when he came?

They thought he was like a bad-acting Jew or they even called him like a Gentile because he would break their dumb traditions. Remember he picked corn on the Sabbath? And to those religious guys, Jesus sort of looked like a Gentile to them. He was not doing all their Jewish things that they wanted him to do.

Just like when the first time Joseph's brothers saw Joseph, he shaved his head, the Bible says. He was bald, he spoke the Egyptian language, and he stood before his brothers and his brothers didn't recognize him because he walked like an Egyptian. Talk like an Egyptian. They just didn't recognize him.

That's what happened to the Jews. They say this guy's like a Gentile and they rejected Jesus because of it. But it'll be in the second coming when Jesus will be revealed. That's what we're seeing here. Now you say Brett, why are you going into all this? I think this is all part of Stephen's indictment against these guys.

All of this, if you think about how this story shakes out, all of this is marks against these guys that are speaking against Stephen. So Joseph's was made known to his brothers. Verse 14. "Then sent Joseph and called his father Jacob to him and all his kindred, three score and 15 souls."

So that "three score and 15" is the King James way of saying 75. And again, this is another one where the pipe-puffers like to say contradiction in the Bible because in Genesis 46:27 it says that 70 altogether of the family of Israel came. 70. When Stephen says in Acts 7:14 here that it was 75, he's quoting the Septuagint.

If you get your Septuagint marked by the "LXX", the symbol of the Septuagint. If you get the Greek translation of the Old Testament, it says 75. So then you say, what happened there? This is where scholars that know these things—the number in the Septuagint is not wrong. It just derived in a different way specifically adding five more sons or grandsons of Joseph that were born to him in Egypt and where it wouldn't have been counted in the earlier rendition.

Guest (Male): Pastor Brett Meador using the whole of scripture as Stephen preached in Acts chapter seven to verify that God's word remains true. And we've got more to learn from Stephen's sermon to the religious leaders in today's word next time. I also invite you to stay right there as Pastor Brett will join me here in a moment.

But first, our teacher Brett Meador is the senior pastor of Athey Creek Church just outside of Portland, Oregon. Each day Pastor Brett will bring you a verse-by-verse study of God's word. If you missed any portion of our time today, you can find all of his messages online at todayswordradio.com. That's todayswordradio.com.

All right, Pastor Brett is here now. One of the things that most Christians have a hard time doing is sharing their faith in Christ with others. Brett, can you describe some practical steps that would make it easier for a believer to do that?

Brett Meador: I agree, a lot of people feel intimidated by this. But sharing your faith doesn't have to be complicated. I think people are intimidated because they think they may not know enough or are trained well enough. But first of all, I think the key is just be real. Tell people what the Lord has done for you in your life.

In Acts 1:8, Jesus said, "You shall be witnesses unto me." And a witness simply shares what they've seen, what they've experienced, and that's something we all really can do. Secondly, look for opportunities. Pray for opportunities to come your way. Colossians chapter four talks about praying that God would open doors for the word.

That's something I pray daily. Lord, open doors so that I can share the gospel. And then thirdly, lead with love. I think people need to know that you actually care about them. There's an old saying: "People don't care how much you know until they know how much you care." And I think sometimes we approach sharing with winning an argument or being the right one.

But it really is not about that. It's about pointing people to the love of Christ. Sometimes the most powerful thing you can do is just simply invite someone, bring them to church, have a loving conversation where they can hear the gospel. You'd be amazed really what just that simple loving gospel of Christ that nobody has to have a scholarly degree to do. It's just something you can share that the Lord's done in your own life personally and that's powerful.

Guest (Male): It really is, Pastor Brett. And sharing your own story and faith journey with someone else is always such a great way to go. Thanks, Brett. Well, I want to mention that if you'd like more information about Pastor Brett Meador or today's word, just go to todayswordradio.com.

Well, next time, Pastor Brett will discover how Stephen's powerful sermon of Acts seven exposed the danger of hardened hearts. Today's word with Pastor Brett Meador is an outreach of Athey Creek Church in West Linn, Oregon.