Salvation Comes Through Sin and Suffering~John Piper

http://174.129.25.97/ResourceLibrary/Sermons/ByDate/2007/2387_The_Sale_of_Joseph_and_the_Son_of_God/

Three Pointers to the Glory of Jesus
Let’s look at three things in this story that prepare us to see the glory of Jesus and who he really is.
1) Salvation Comes Through Sin and Suffering
First, we see the general pattern that turns up over and over in the Bible, namely, that God’s saving victory for his people often comes through sin and suffering. Joseph’s brothers sinned against him, and he suffered for it. And in all this, God is at work to save his people—including the very ones who are trying to destroy the savior. The fact that Jesus came this way should not have been as surprising to as many people as it was. That he was sinned against and suffered on the way to save his people is what we would expect from this pattern that turns up again and again.
So in the story of Joseph and the spectacular sin of his brothers, we are being prepared to see the glory of Christ—his patience and humility and servanthood, all the while saving the very ones who were trying to get rid of him.
Died He for me, who caused His pain—
for me, who Him to death pursued?
Amazing love! how can it be
that Thou, my God, shouldst die for me?
2) The Suffering One Is Righteous
Second, the story of Joseph and the spectacular sin of his brothers prepare us to see Jesus not just because of the general pattern that God’s saving victory for his people often comes through suffering and sin, but more specifically, in this case, because the very one who is suffering and being sinned against is so righteous. Joseph stands out in this story for his amazing constancy and faithfulness to every relationship. Even in undeserved exile, he’s faithful to Potiphar and he is faithful to the jailer. Genesis 39:22: “The keeper of the prison put Joseph in charge of all the prisoners who were in the prison. Whatever was done there, he was the one who did it.”
And what was Joseph’s reward? He was lied about by Potiphar’s wife, and the cupbearer of Pharaoh, whose dream Joseph interpreted, thanklessly forgot about him in prison for two years after the dreams. So the point of all this is not just that there is sin and suffering and that God is at work in it to save his people. More specifically, the point is that the righteous one, even though mistreated for so long, is finally vindicated by God. Even though others have rejected this righteous stone, God makes him the cornerstone (Matthew 21:42). His vindication becomes the very means of the salvation of his persecutors.
Jesus Christ is the final and ultimate and perfect righteous one (Acts 7:52). It looked to others as if his life was going so badly that he must be a sinner. But in the end, all the sin against him, and all the suffering he endured in perfect righteousness, led to his vindication and, because of it, to our salvation. If Joseph is amazing in his steadfastness, Jesus is ten thousand times more amazing, because he experienced ten thousand times more suffering and deserved it ten thousand times less, and was perfectly steadfast, faithful, and righteous through it all.
3) The Scepter Will Not Depart from Judah
There are other parallels in this story between Joseph and Jesus, but we turn now to the most important thing in this story about Jesus and it is not a parallel with Joseph. It’s a prophecy about the coming of Jesus, which could not have happened if these sinful sons of Jacob had starved in the famine. The spectacular sin of these brothers was God’s way of saving the tribe of Judah from extinction so that the Lion of Judah, Jesus Christ, would be born and die and rise and reign over all the peoples of the world.
We see this most clearly in Genesis 49:8-10. Jacob, the father, is about to die, and before he dies, he pronounces a prophetic blessing over all his sons. Here is what he says about his son Judah:
Judah, your brothers shall praise you; your hand shall be on the neck of your enemies; your father’s sons shall bow down before you. Judah is a lion's cub; from the prey, my son, you have gone up. He stooped down; he crouched as a lion and as a lioness; who dares rouse him? The scepter shall not depart from Judah, nor the ruler's staff from between his feet, until tribute comes to him; and to him shall be the obedience of the peoples.
Here is a prophecy of the coming final king of Israel, the Lion of Judah, the Messiah. Notice in verse 10 that the scepter—the ruler’s staff, the sign of the king—will be in the line of Judah until one comes who is no ordinary king, because all the peoples, not just Israel, will obey him. Verse 10b: “To him shall be the obedience of the peoples.”
This is fulfilled in Jesus. Listen to the way John describes Jesus’ role in heaven after his crucifixion and resurrection: “Weep no more; behold, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, has conquered, so that he can open the scroll and its seven seals. . . . And they sang a new song, saying, ‘Worthy are you to take the scroll and to open its seals, for you were slain, and by your blood you ransomed people for God from every tribe and language and people and nation, and you have made them a kingdom and priests to our God, and they shall reign on the earth’” (Revelation 5:5, 9-10).
The Lion of Judah Is the Lamb Who Was Slain
The most magnificent thing about the Lion of the tribe of Judah in his fulfillment of Jacob’s prophecy is that he lays claim on the obedience of all the peoples of the world not by exploiting our guilt and crushing us with it into submission, but by bearing our guilt and freeing us to love him and praise him and obey with joy forever. The Lion of Judah is the Lamb who was slain. He wins our obedience by forgiving our sins and making his own obedience, his own perfection as the righteous one, the basis of our acceptance with God. And in this position of immeasurable safety and joy—all of it owing to his suffering and righteousness and death and resurrection—he wins our free and happy obedience.
The story of Joseph is the story of a righteous one who is sinned against and suffers so that tribe of Judah would be preserved and a Lion would come forth, and would prove to be a Lamb-like Lion, and by his suffering and death, purchase and empower glad obedience from all the nations—even from those who put him to death.
Does he have yours?