LutheranLectionary.org

1 Year Lectionary – Fourth Wednesday in Lent – Wednesday, March 23, 2022 | Pr. Chris Rosebrough

Welcome to the Teaching Ministry of Kongsvinger Lutheran Church. Kongsvinger is a beacon for the Gospel of Jesus Christ and is located on the plains of Northwestern Minnesota. We proclaim Christ and Him crucified for our sins and salvation by grace through faith alone, and now, here’s a message from Pastor Chris Rosebrough:

Time Stamp	Transcript
0:28	a reading from genesis chapters 40 and 41.
0:33	sometime after this the cup bearer of the king of egypt and his baker committed an offense against their lord
0:39	the king of egypt and pharaoh was angry with his two officers the chief cup error and the chief baker and he put
0:46	them in custody in the house of the captain of the guard in the prison where joseph was confined the captain of the
0:53	guard appointed joseph to joseph to be with them and he attended them they continued for some time in custody and
1:00	one night they both dreamed the cupbearer and the baker of the king of egypt who were confined in the prison
1:07	each his own dream and each dream with its own interpretation when joseph came to them in the morning
1:15	he saw that they were troubled so he asked pharaoh’s officers who were with him in custody in his master’s house why
1:22	are your faces downcast today they said to him we have had dreams and there is
1:28	no one to interpret them and joseph said to them do not interpretations belong to
1:34	god please tell them to me so the chief cupbearer told his dream to joseph and said to him in my dream there
1:41	was a vine before me and on the vine there were three branches and as soon as it butted its blossom shot forth the
1:49	clusters ripened into grapes pharaoh’s cup was in my hand and i took the grapes and pressed them into pharaoh’s cup and
1:56	placed the cup in pharaoh’s hand then joseph said to him this is its interpretation the three branches are
2:04	three days in three days pharaoh will lift up your head and restore you to
2:09	your office and you shall place pharaoh’s cup in his hand as formally when you were in his cupbearer only
2:16	remember me when it is well with you and please do me the kindness to mention me to
2:22	pharaoh and so get me out of this house for i was indeed stolen out of the land
2:27	of the hebrews and here also i have done nothing that they should put me into the
2:32	pit when the chief baker saw that the interpretation was favorable he said to
2:38	joseph i also had a dream there were three cake baskets on my head
2:44	and in the uppermo most basket there were all sorts of baked food for pharaoh
2:49	but the birds were eating it out of the basket on my head and joseph answered and said
2:55	this is its interpretation the three baskets are three days in three days pharaoh will lift up your head from you
3:02	and hang you on a tree and the birds will eat the flesh from you
3:08	on the third day which was pharaoh’s birthday he made a feast for all of his servants and lifted up the head of the
3:13	cheap cup bearer and the head of the chief baker among his servants he restored the chief cupbearer to his
3:20	position and he placed the cup in pharaoh’s hand but he hanged the chief baker as joseph
3:27	had interpreted to them yet the chief cupbearer did not remember joseph but forgot him
3:34	after two whole years pharaoh dreamed that he was standing by the nile and
3:40	behold there came up out of the nile seven cows attractive and plump and they
3:46	fed in the reed grass and behold seven other cows ugly and thin came up out of
3:51	the nile after them and stood by the other cows on the bank of the nile
3:57	and the ugly thin cows ate up the seven attractive plum cows and pharaoh awoke
4:03	and he fell asleep and dreamed a second time and behold seven ears of grain plump and good were
4:10	growing on one stalk and behold after them sprouted seven ears thin
4:15	and blighted by the east wind and the thin ears swallowed up the seven plump
4:21	full ears and pharaoh awoke and behold it was a dream so in the morning his spirit was
4:27	troubled and he sent and called for all the magicians of egypt and all of its wise men
4:33	pharaoh told them his dream but there was none who could interpret them to pharaoh
4:38	then the chief cupbearer said to pharaoh i remember my offenses today when
4:43	pharaoh was angry with his servants and put me and the chief baker in custody in the house of the captain of the guard
4:50	we dreamed on the same night he and i each having a dream with its own interpretation and a young hebrew was
4:57	there with us a servant of the captain of the guard when we told him he interpreted our dreams to us giving an
5:04	interpretation to each man according to his dream and as he interpreted to us so
5:09	it came about i was restored to my office and the baker was hanged
5:15	then pharaoh sent and called joseph and they quickly brought him out of the pit and when he had shaved himself and
5:22	changed his clothes he came in before pharaoh and pharaoh said to joseph i
5:27	have had a dream and there is no one who can interpret it i have heard it said of you that when
5:32	you hear a dream you can interpret it joseph answered pharaoh it is not in me
5:39	god will give pharaoh a favorable answer then pharaoh said to joseph behold in my
5:45	dream i was standing on the banks of the nile seven cows plump and attractive came up out of the nile and fed in the
5:52	reed grass seven other cows came up after them poor very ugly and thin
5:58	such as i had never seen in all of the land of egypt and the thin ugly cows ate
6:03	up the first seven plump cows but when they had eaten them no one would have known that they had eaten them for they
6:10	were still as ugly as at the beginning then i awoke i also saw in my dream seven ears
6:17	growing on one stock full and good seven ears withered thin and blighted by the
6:22	east wind sprouted after them and the thin ears swallowed up the seven good ears and i told it to the magicians
6:30	but there was no one who could explain it to me joseph said to pharaoh the dreams of pharaoh are one god has revealed to
6:37	pharaoh what he’s about to do the seven good cows are seven years and seven good
6:43	years are seven years the dreams are one the seven lean and ugly cows that came
6:49	up after them are seven years the seven empty ears blighted by the east wind are
6:55	also seven years of famine it is as i told you god has shown to pharaoh what
7:01	he is about to do and there will come seven years of great plenty throughout
7:06	all the land of egypt but after them there will arise seven years of famine and all the plenty
7:13	will be forgotten in the land of egypt the famine will consume the land and the plenty will be unknown in the land by
7:20	reason of the famine that will follow for it will be very severe and the doubling of pharaoh’s dream
7:26	means that this thing is fixed by god and god will shortly bring it about now
7:32	therefore let pharaoh select a discerning and a wise man set him over the land of egypt let pharaoh proceed to
7:39	appoint overseers over the land and take one-fifth of the produce of the land of egypt during the seven plentiful years
7:46	and let them gather all the food of these good years that are coming and store up grain under the authority of
7:52	pharaoh for food in the cities and let them keep it that food shall be a reserve for the
7:58	land against the seven years of famine that are to occur in the land of egypt
8:03	so that the land may not perish through the famine this proposal pleased pharaoh and all of
8:09	his servants and pharaoh said to his servants can we find a man like this and whom is the spirit of god
8:16	then pharaoh said to joseph since god has shown you all of this there is none so discerning and wise as you are you
8:23	shall be over my house and all my people shall order themselves as you command
8:29	only as regards the throne will i be greater than you and pharaoh said to joseph see i have set you over all of
8:35	the land of egypt then pharaoh took a signet ring from his hand and put it on joseph’s hand and clothed him in
8:41	garments of fine linen and put a gold chain around his neck and he made him ride in his second chariot and they
8:48	called out before him bow the knee thus he set him over all of the land of egypt
8:54	moreover pharaoh said to joseph i am pharaoh and without your consent no one
8:59	shall lift up hand or foot in all of the land of egypt and pharaoh called joseph’s name zaphanath panea and he
9:07	gave him in marriage to asanath the daughter of potiphara the priest of own
9:12	so joseph went out over the land of egypt joseph was 30 years old when he
9:17	entered the service of pharaoh the king of egypt and joseph went out from the presence of pharaoh and went through all
9:24	the land of egypt during the seven plentiful years the earth produced abundantly and he gathered up all the
9:30	food of these seven years which occurred in the land of egypt and he put the food in the cities he put in every city the
9:37	food from the fields around it and joseph stored up grain in great abundance like the sand of the sea
9:44	until he ceased to measure it for it could not be measured before the year of the famine came two
9:49	sons were born to joseph assinath the daughter of potiphara the priest of own bore them to him joseph called the name
9:57	of the firstborn manasseh for he said god has made me forget all my hardship in all my father’s house and the name of
10:04	the second he called ephraim for god had made me fruitful in the land of my affliction the seven years of plenty
10:11	that occurred in the land of egypt came to an end and the seven years of famine began to come as joseph had said there
10:18	was famine in all the lands but in all the lands of egypt there was bread when all the land of egypt was famished the
10:24	lord cried to pharaoh for bread pharaoh said to all the egyptians go to joseph what he says to you do
10:31	so when the famine had spread over all the land joseph opened all the storehouses and sold the egyptians sold
10:38	to the egyptians for the famine was severe in the land of egypt moreover all the earth came to egypt to joseph to buy
10:45	grain because the famine was severe over all the earth oh lord have mercy on us
10:52	in the name of Jesus 13 years
10:58	so joseph god had given him prophetic dreams told him what was coming down the pike uh
11:04	well he kind of skipped a whole lot of details if you think about it god kind of told him what was happening at the end of all of this and then no sooner
11:11	does god tell him this his brothers who hate him they sell them into slavery
11:16	which is loads of fun talk you know talk about people who’ve been abused by those who believe in god
11:22	this is an example of that i would say that selling somebody into slavery kind of ranks up there as far as abuse is
11:27	concerned i mean he well he was this close to being murdered you know because those yahweh believing
11:36	sons of jacob were so loving and kind and full of the fruit of the spirit right you get kind of the
11:41	point and you’re going to note something it’s really easy for us when we suffer especially when we suffer at the hands
11:47	of those who claim to be Christians to say that’s it i’m chucking god out the window putting it all in the past and
11:54	moving on with my life atheism is looking pretty good but you know joseph doesn’t do that so he sold into slavery
12:01	we don’t know how many years he served potiphar was it one was it two
12:07	was it less than a year i we don’t know but we do know that when he comes out of
12:13	the prison which is kind of like his resurrection if you would because you’re going to note joseph’s life
12:18	really parallels a lot of the details of Christ that’s his resurrection but before his resurrection 13 years and i
12:26	would argue that prisons nowadays are still not good places but the sanitary conditions in
12:33	today’s modern prisons are going to be a wee bit better than the sanitary conditions of an well
12:40	an ancient egyptian prison and you can already kind of tell
12:45	what joseph’s jobs are going to be right he’s not going to be high up on the he’s not doing the books
12:51	he’s doing he’s doing the slopping that’s what he’s doing and in fact the psalms tell us that joseph when he was
12:57	in prison his neck was put in iron fetters and it hurt him terribly so he
13:02	suffered for 13 years and here’s the weird bit
13:09	his faith is as strong as ever you can see it in this text so our text
13:16	begins the long text i can only hit the highlights but our text begins with two officers of pharaoh
13:23	a cup bearer and a baker you know bread
13:29	wine no really yeah it’s kind of cool how it works if you think about it even in the
13:36	types and shadows you get an illusion to the lord’s supper and in fact here’s the other bit well
13:43	i’m getting ahead of myself but think about how that baker dies how does he die he’s hung on a tree
13:50	hmm cursed is everyone who was hung on a tree the scripture says indeed the sky is for indeed cursed but that’s kind of
13:58	the point this is brimming teeming with types and shadows that point us to Jesus
14:03	and when the when joseph is doing his work as a prisoner you know it’s at this point
14:10	that i think about one of my favorite far side cartoons you guys remember the far side calvin and hob’s far side grew
14:17	up on these things but there was this one far side in particular that i thought was just a scream it depicted
14:24	hell and so there you had fire and brimstone and you had demons and people
14:29	who are being lashed with a whip and stuff like that and there was some poor guy named frank and frank was pushing a
14:36	wheelbarrow and he was whistling okay in hell and one demon says to the
14:42	other demon i don’t think we’re getting through to frank right it’s a great thing
14:47	it’s great when you think about it same thing with joseph here he’s been put through the ringer he’s been made to
14:54	suffer horribly and now god is deciding he’s going to talk
15:00	and joseph knows immediately that god is talking god hasn’t said a word for 11 years he’s let him suffer alone and yet
15:09	he has had faith how is this possible it’s real simple he’s no different than us and we’re no
15:15	different than him we have promises from god and guess what in the promises that we have are we not also made to suffer
15:23	yeah we are think of the apostle paul you know who brags about all the different things he went through all the beatings he went
15:29	through the lashings the treachery he faced as a result of false brothers and those who wanted to kill him and all the
15:35	times he was stoned or shipwrecked and stuff like this and never once did his faith
15:40	wane or flag same with joseph so he walks in doing his work whistle while
15:46	you work hey guys why are you looking so down well we’ve had dreams and nobody can
15:53	interpret them you can just hear them mopey right well do not interpretations belong to god
15:59	who is this guy right and that’s the thing he’s waited and waited
16:05	and waited what did our psalm day psalm say i waited patiently for the lord he inclined his ear and he heard my cry he
16:12	lifted me up out of the pit sounds like a song
16:19	i will sing sing a new song so as the story goes joseph gives the
16:24	interpretation and note the confidence he has when he gives the interpretation to the chief cup bearer he says when
16:32	these things come true because he knows that god doesn’t lie when these things come true
16:38	tell pharaoh about me i’ve been stolen i’m here unjustly i don’t deserve to be here
16:44	help rescue me the only way he could say something like that as if he had absolute confidence
16:51	that what was he was saying would happen and guess what it happened and then you think of that poor baker
16:57	man but see there’s the thing it’s in the types and shadows that’s a picture of the crucifixion of Christ bread wine
17:04	body blood given shed for the forgiveness of our sins it’s all hinted at here and then
17:11	just when you think everything’s going to be fine he’s going to be rescued he’s going to be lifted up out of the pit the
17:18	chief cup bearer forgets poor joseph man could you imagine going
17:24	to work the next day going this is it i’m going to get out i’m going to finally be able to have a shave and a
17:30	shower and i will have to smell all the smells of this prison anymore i can take these iron feathers off i’m going to be
17:36	free and then that day turns into another day
17:43	and the next day turns into another and that turns into a week and that week turns into another week and
17:49	the weeks stretch out into a month and another month and more months and then a whole year
17:57	and then a whole another year after that two full years
18:02	of forgetfulness but then god speaks again this time to
18:08	pharaoh and nobody can interpret what god has
18:13	spoken and all of a sudden the chief cupbearer goes oy they
18:19	i remember my sin i remember my shortcomings there is a fellow and he can interpret dreams he interpreted my
18:25	dreams and so what happens he then gets the call come talk to pharaoh and in a moment
18:34	in the twinkling of an eye he goes from being dead to being alive
18:39	it’s kind of the point you know all of that is there the twinkling of the eye the changing of fortunes in a second
18:48	and when joseph stands before pharaoh his faith is fully intact
18:54	how he’s waited he trusts the circumstances that we go through do
19:02	not determine our faith is the love of god determined by what you are made to
19:08	suffer in this lifetime of course not if that were the case then we must come
19:14	to the conclusion that god hated Jesus because he died a cursed death
19:19	but Christ did nothing wrong instead he died in your place so that you can be
19:25	forgiven and so there’s joseph now and pharaoh says i’ve heard it said of you that you
19:30	can interpret dreams and he says it’s not in me but god will give pharaoh
19:37	a favorable answer and you know the how the details go and literally it’s it’s absolutely stunning
19:44	it’s miraculous but in the midst of all of this is a man who held on to the promises of god the
19:52	promises that god had given him before he was sold into slavery and god who makes a promise never
19:58	reneges god when he says he’s going to do something he’s going to do it
20:04	and joseph emerges from prison with his faith intact and now he’s setting about
20:10	to save the world who sounds like another fellow i know that died rose
20:15	again who saves the world that’s kind of the point but lenten tide is a time for us to
20:21	consider our own sin and our own shortcoming and it’s in this regard that i would consider as i work this theme a
20:28	little bit more psalm 25 in psalm 25 this is the psalm
20:34	of david and this is a psalm that is teeming with well that theme of i’m in a
20:41	lot of danger my enemies are pursuing me and yet i will
20:47	wait wait i will continue to trust in you so
20:52	consider david’s waiting you’ll note that he is the anointed but not yet coronated king of israel which is kind
20:58	of awkward if you think about it because the anointed and coordinated king of israel seemed to have it out for him
21:03	wanted to pin him to the wall with a javelin on a couple of occasions and then hunted him down like he was a dog
21:10	in the judean wilderness after spinning some false narrative about him wanting to overthrow the kingdom in order to get
21:17	the his army on board with the task but on two occasions david had the
21:22	opportunity to do in the king of israel saul and yet he wouldn’t raise a hand against
21:29	him he trusted god and in the midst of it he also like joseph like all of us
21:35	he had to wait so listen to the psalm of david psalm 25 to you o lord i lift up my soul
21:44	oh my god in you i trust let me not be put to shame let not my enemies exalt
21:51	over me that is quite the plea if you think about it and you know the circumstances that
21:56	david went through let not my enemies exult over me is basically don’t let them catch me and kill me
22:03	indeed none who wait for you shall be put to shame listen to those words again
22:09	none who wait for you lord shall be put to shame they shall be ashamed who are
22:14	wantonly treacherous when we consider the major theme of the book of revelation a book that tells us of the
22:21	ever increasing insanity on planet earth as god pours out judgment after judgment
22:28	upon humanity for their impenitence for their unbelief for their breaking of all of god’s commands for their idolatry for
22:34	their acting like they are their own gods and god pouring out further and more intense
22:42	judgments we also learn that persecution of the saints goes hand in hand with
22:48	that and what does the scripture say this calls for patient
22:53	endurance wait none who wait for you will be put to
22:59	shame they shall be ashamed who are wantingly treacherous so make me to know your ways o lord
23:07	and teach me your paths lead me in your truth and teach me you
23:12	are the god of my salvation and for you i i wait
23:19	all the day long remember your mercy o lord and your
23:24	steadfast love they are have been from of old remember not the sins of my youth
23:29	or my transgressions according to your steadfast love remember me for the sake of your goodness o lord and note here in
23:37	the midst of this waiting theme of please rescue me from my enemies do not let them exalt over me you know what
23:43	he’s not doing go get him lord hope you strike him down with lightning and let
23:48	the brimstone burn him to a fiery crisp doesn’t need not know that while he’s waiting for the lord to
23:54	deliver him he’s considering his own sin confessing his own transgression
24:00	noting that he is not worthy of the very things that he is asking for and so he
24:05	cries out to god to remember not the sins of my youth or my transgressions
24:11	but to blot them out according to your steadfast love good and upright is yahweh therefore he
24:17	instructs sinners in the way he leads the humble in what is right and he
24:23	teaches the humble his way those who are arrogant those who exalt themselves god will not instruct them
24:30	because they will not be instructed they are just like the devil
24:35	humility says i have sinned lord have mercy on me arrogance says oh i’m so thankful that
24:42	i’m such a good boy when you’re not the psalm continues
24:48	all the paths of yahweh they are steadfast love and faithfulness
24:55	for those who keep his covenant and keep his testimonies for your name’s sake o yahweh please
25:02	pardon my guilt for it is great i love this in the midst of being
25:08	unjustly pursued he continues to confess his sin
25:14	we would be wise to do the same who is the man who fears yahweh
25:20	him will he instruct in the way that he should go his soul shall abide in well-being and
25:26	his offspring shall inherit the land the friendship of yahweh is for those who fear him and he makes known to them
25:32	his covenant and my eyes are ever towards yahweh for he will pluck my feet out of the net
25:38	so turn to me and be gracious to me i am lonely and i am afflicted the troubles of my heart are enlarged bring me out of
25:46	my distresses consider my affliction and my trouble and forgive all of my sins
25:53	consider how many are my foes and with what violent hatred they hate me oh
25:59	guard my soul and deliver me let me not be put to shame for i take refuge in you
26:05	and may integrity and uprightness preserve me for i wait
26:11	for you and i would note something this is one of the major themes of
26:16	scripture abraham waited david waited joseph waited and you know
26:24	who else waited god let me explain what i mean here all the way back in the garden of eden when god
26:30	was handing out punishments curses for the disobedience
26:36	of adam and eve but namely adam god cursed the serpent and said
26:42	that he would raise up a seed of the woman who would crush the head of the serpent and humanity waited
26:49	for thousands and thousands of years for that seed of the woman to come onto
26:56	the scene waited and waited waited through the generations preceding noah waited for
27:04	the thousands of years and generations from noah all the way to Christ in fact
27:12	jewish women in the old testament period when they would get married
27:17	there was a little blessing that the women kind of gave to the newly married women and it basically went along the lines of
27:24	may you be the one may you be the one to bear the messiah
27:31	the one who rescue us the one who will redeem us and the children of israel coming out of
27:38	slavery back into captivity in babylon then under the boot
27:44	of alexander the great who was then his kingdom conquered by the romans
27:51	they waited and waited and waited
27:58	the scripture says in galatians 4 but when the fullness of time had come
28:05	god sent forth his son born of a woman born under the law to redeem those who
28:11	were under the law so that we might receive the adoption as sons god kept
28:16	his promise he sent us the seed of the woman who bore our sin on the cross so that we can be forgiven pardoned
28:23	redeemed reconciled to god and have hope hope in the world to come and now we are
28:31	back to the waiting game we wait we wait patiently for the arrival of our
28:37	great god and savior we wait patiently for Christ to come to rescue us to raise
28:43	our bodies from the grave to give us resurrection and lead us into the new world and in the moment have you guys
28:51	noticed that right now the new normal is that everything is getting worse by
28:57	the day i don’t want to date this sermon but i’m
29:02	going to end up dating it anyway right now we have
29:07	kyle mann in the babylon b banned from twitter for daring to say
29:13	that michael levine is a man and yet he is they’ve spoke the truth
29:18	and they had their account locked so they cannot continue to speak
29:23	and others who have followed suit have had the similar fate it’s as if well twitter has decided to pull putin
29:30	and you know what it’s only going to get worse
29:37	what is called for right now is that we wait we wait patiently
29:43	while the world goes crazy and rages against god while the church apostasizes
29:49	and continues to head into oblivion we wait we continue to hang on to these
29:55	promises the promises of being reconciled to god adopted as his children we no longer being slave but
30:02	children now we can cry out to god abba father that’s the point here we wait
30:10	and someday Christ will make good his promise he will return in glory
30:17	he will judge the living and the dead and the scriptures are so clear read daniel 7 god
30:24	will vindicate his saints those who keep the testimony of Jesus trust in Christ and
30:31	obey his commands he will give them the new earth
30:37	the present regimes of the world that are waging war against the sun
30:42	they are doing it futilely and in the midst of it we will be made
30:48	to suffer if not directly then maybe our bodies might fail
30:54	maybe we might have an accident or get a chronic disease and then what do we do
31:01	we wait we wait i think of bernie setter pastor setter
31:07	of lutheran church in grafton a man who’s played an instrumental role here at
31:12	kungsfinger he was a man who helped us tremendously great patience great skill
31:19	who trusted in Christ and today he’s no longer waiting
31:26	he’s with Jesus he died in the faith a couple of days ago and his waiting is over
31:34	and so whether Christ shows up today or next thursday or whether we expire and are with him
31:43	sooner than that the time will come when we no longer need to wait
31:50	but like joseph like david like god like the patriarchs
31:56	today we wait faith hangs on to those promises and knows that the changing shifting sands
32:02	of time cannot undo or erode the promises of god we are forgiven in him there’s a new earth
32:09	coming so let us wait in the name of Jesus amen

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