Stephen's Address: Joseph Sold Into Egypt - Acts 7:9-14

Stephen is defending himself against religious leaders. Instead of defending himself, he preaches a sermon using the history of Israel. He talks about Joseph being sold into slavery but finding favor with God. Joseph eventually becomes a prince and saves Egypt and his own family. The suffering Joseph endured was part of God's plan. God allows suffering to accomplish his purposes, which are higher than ours. We must trust in God's goodness, love, and faithfulness. The story of Joseph is a demonstration of how God turns evil into good, just like he did through Christ's crucifixion. We should repent, humble ourselves, and have faith in Jesus for salvation. Acts chapter 7, and Stephen is giving his defense against the religious leaders. They've arrested him, brought him into court, and they hired people to make false accusations against Stephen. And Stephen is given an opportunity to defend himself, but rather than defend himself he's preaching them a sermon, and he's using the history of Israel as the framework of his sermon. And he's demonstrating by this that he's trying to tell them that he's not their enemy. That he believes the same things that they believe. He's not a blasphemer, but he believes the same things they believe. But he also believes in the promise that God made that there would be a seed of the woman, the Messiah, who would come, and who would, and that was Jesus Christ. And so he is a, he believes in the fulfillment of God's promises. But he's going through and he's talking about the history of Israel in this sermon. And today he's at this part where he gets to Joseph and how Joseph was the twelve patriarchs of the sons of Jacob in Israel. How they took their brother and they sold him into slavery. And yet God was with him, and he found favor with God, and he was in prison. But everywhere he went, in Potiphar's house, in prison, in jail, wherever Joseph went he found favor. And one day God lifted up Joseph from being a prisoner to being the prince of Egypt. And he did this in order to save the nation of Egypt, and to save the world, and also to save his own family. It makes you wonder, what does it take for God to move twelve men and their families from Canaan to Egypt? What does it take? Well, it took a lot of suffering on Joseph's behalf. Years of being a slave and a prisoner, and it also took a seven-year famine where untold multitudes of people in the world suffered through a famine. And all this to accomplish God's plan of bringing Israel down into Egypt where they would live for 400 years and be a stranger in a land that was not their own and be brought into bondage by the Egyptians. So you have to ask yourself the question, why does God sometimes allow suffering in the world? Well, it's to accomplish his purposes. It's because God has a plan, and God is not unjust, but his plans are higher than ours. His thoughts are higher than ours. We cannot understand and we cannot comprehend all the things that God has tried to accomplish in the world. And so when we look around and we see suffering and we see pain, and we ourselves go through suffering and pain, we have to remember to have faith in God, to trust in the goodness of the Lord, to trust in God's love, and to trust in God's faithfulness. Because God is at work and he's going to accomplish his purpose in the world, and if you allow him to and have faith in God, he will accomplish a good plan in your life. All we have to do is believe the gospel, that Christ died for our sins, that he was buried, that he rose again on the third day. That was the greatest demonstration ever of what men attended for evil, God attended for good to bring about a great salvation. And that's basically the story of Joseph, how men tried to do something evil, but God turned it around for good to bring about a great salvation. And the greatest demonstration of that is Calvary and what Christ did for us, that what men attended for evil, God intended for good to bring about a great salvation for us. So we can turn to God in repentance, humble ourselves, and put our faith in the Lord Jesus Christ for salvation today. Amen. The Lord bless you and keep you. The Lord make his face shine upon you.