ACTS "Old Testament Picture - New Testament Truth"- Acts 15:1-11 - Part 2

Brett Meador: The Old Testament is a giant picture book. And it tells us of New Testament truths but foretold in the Old Testament. You and I have a beautiful advantage of the beautiful pictures and understanding the Old Testament. It's easier, I'll admit, in retrospect to look back into the Old Testament and see these beautiful pictures, the stories of the Bible that point to truths that the New Testament people were going to need to know.
Guest (Male): There's an old saying: "The Old Testament is the New Testament concealed, and the New Testament is the Old Testament revealed." This view of scripture conveys how the Old Testament includes symbols and prophecies that were fulfilled by Jesus. In a fascinating study in today's word, Pastor Brett Meador presents several examples of scripture's remarkable foreshadowing of Jesus.
Brett Meador: We're in Acts chapter 15. Why don't you turn there? Paul and Barnabas had been preaching, and the Jews had been starting to follow them around and throwing rocks at them and trying to kill them. But the Gentiles were coming to Christ in droves. Paul and Barnabas were blown away, and they're making their way back from their first missionary journey, and they're talking to some of the Jews that are believers, and a contention arises. It really comes to a pinnacle at Acts chapter 15 where they have to call together a council to come up with what's our doctrine on this. Like, what do we believe about this problem? And it had to do with, do we make these new Gentile Christians, should they be Jewish? You've got to be circumcised. Well, Paul and Barnabas said, "No, you don't." Well, they said, "No, you'd better go to the council in Jerusalem and figure it out because you're wrong about this, Paul and Barnabas." And so they sent them to Jerusalem. That's where we pick it up in our story. Let's look at Acts chapter 15, verse six: "And the apostles and the elders came together for to consider this matter. And when there had been much disputing, Peter rose up and said unto them, 'Men and brethren, you know how that a good while ago God made choice among us, that the Gentiles by my mouth should hear the word of the gospel and believe. And God, which knows the hearts, bore them witness, giving them the Holy Ghost even as He did to us, and put no difference between us—us the Jews and them the Gentiles—purifying their hearts by faith.'" See, the Jews were saying it's not that easy. You can't just be saved by faith through Jesus. Yeah, yeah, yeah, you can be saved by faith and all that, but you've also got to keep the law. You've got to kind of understand, the Jews, they've been living with this for millennia now. This is a giant doctrinal statement that Peter makes, and he's 100% correct about this. But one of the things I want to tell you about this is you and I have a beautiful advantage of the beautiful pictures and understanding the Old Testament. It's easier, I'll admit, in retrospect to look back into the Old Testament and see these beautiful pictures, the stories of the Bible that point to truths that the New Testament people were going to need to know. You see, if they had read the Bible, maybe their Hebrew Bible, the Old Testament, if they'd read it perhaps more carefully and with careful inspiration, they would understand, "Oh, okay, this is all exactly what Peter said. This is what was really foretold." In fact, I want to show you today because I think this is a powerful picture that will help us understand what's going on in the New Testament here. And if they put the pieces together themselves, which they ultimately will, especially with Paul's help, they're going to understand this stuff. But there's a powerful picture in the Old Testament. The Old Testament is a giant picture book. And it tells us of New Testament truths but foretold in the Old Testament. So this idea of the Gentiles and the keeping of the law and how the Lord's made the church and all this, it's pictured in kind of an amazing and maybe unprecedented kind of way. And I want to show you this powerful picture. And what I want to do is I want to show you, and you can confirm this, and I'm going to give you the scriptures in case you want to go look all this stuff up, but I'm going to give you 20 things that show us that Joseph is this amazing Old Testament picture of the coming Messiah of the Jews, Jesus Christ himself. And we'll start with point number one. Notice both Jesus and Joseph were brought down to Egypt. Genesis 37:28, Matthew 2:14 and 15. What does Genesis 37 say? Well, we read this earlier. "Then they passed them by the Midianites merchantmen. They drew and lifted up their Joseph out of the pit and sold Joseph to the Ishmaelites for 20 pieces of silver, and they brought Joseph into Egypt." Now, if you recall one of the great prophecies from the prophets of old was that the Messiah would come out of Egypt. Do you remember that prophecy? Well, Jesus came out of Egypt. If you remember there in Matthew chapter 2, verses 14 and 15, when he arose, he took the young child, his mother by night, departed into Egypt. He was there until the death of Herod that it might be fulfilled which was spoken of the Lord by the prophet saying, "Out of Egypt have I called my son." So the fact that Jesus came out of Egypt was a fulfillment of prophecy of what the Messiah would be right out of the gate. But to the Jews, a Messiah coming out of Egypt, that's like the last thing they'd ever want to believe even though the prophet said it. But that's the first thing we see, a picture of Jesus. We see Joseph being brought down to Egypt, Jesus brought down to Egypt. That's number one. Number two, we see that both Jesus and Joseph went through a time of great temptation. We didn't read this one, but it's in Genesis 39, verse 10 where it says, "It came to pass as she spoke to Joseph day by day and he listened not unto her to lie by her nor to be with her." But what happened to Jesus? Jesus was led up of the spirit to the wilderness to be tempted of the devil. And just like Jesus, Joseph is sinless. He doesn't go with sin. In fact, interesting part of Joseph's story. All the Bible characters that are big-name people like Joseph, Abraham, David, Elijah, they all have sins recorded about them. But interestingly Joseph, there's no sin recorded in Joseph's life. I think that keeps the picture of Jesus quite maintained perfectly. But both of them, even though they were tempted greatly, did not sin. No record of sin in Joseph's story. I find that interesting. Both were, number three, falsely accused. Joseph in Genesis 39:14, "She called the men of her house unto them and said, 'See, he hath brought in a Hebrew to mock us.'" That's Genesis 39:14. "He came unto me to lie with me and I cried out with a loud voice." That's where Joseph was falsely accused. When was Jesus falsely accused? "Now the chief priests and the elders," Matthew 26:59, "and all the council sought false witness against Jesus to put him to death." And they did. They lied about him right through their teeth. Jesus did no wrong, but they declared false lies against him. Number four on the list: rejected by brothers who plotted to kill him. This is almost like two for one in this one. Both rejected and then plotting to kill. Of course, Joseph, they rejected him, and four times in our text that I read this morning, it says they hated Joseph. They really hated him, and they really, really hated him, and they really, really, really hated him. That's how bad it was. And they rejected him. We saw that in Genesis 37:18 where it said, "And when they saw him afar off, even before he came near unto them, they conspired against him to slay him." Why? Because they rejected him and hated him. Jesus, on the other hand, was despised and rejected. Now, when I say brothers by the way, did you know the brothers of Joseph and the brothers of Jesus are one and the same? You say, "Brett, why are you calling them brothers?" Because they are. The brothers of Joseph were the 12 tribes of Israel, literally the fathers of the 12 tribes. So they were the literal brothers. When I say brothers with Jesus, we're talking about the Jews. Jesus was a Jew, and his brothers were the 12 tribes of Israel, the Jews. And in the same way that they rejected Joseph, they rejected Jesus. Matthew 26, 3 through 4, "Then assembled together the chief priests, the scribes, the elders of the people to the palace of the high priest who was called Caiaphas and consulted that they might take Jesus by subtlety and kill him." They said, "We will not have this man rule over us. Crucify him." He was the stone that was rejected by the builder. Like, the Bible's so full of this rejection-type language. Ultimately where they would kill Jesus. So, rejected by brothers who plotted to kill Jesus. Number five: the brothers were jealous. Both the Jews were jealous of Jesus, and the brothers were jealous of Joseph. We see that in these two scriptures. Genesis 37:4, it says, "And when his brothers saw that their father loved him more than all his brothers, they hated him and could not speak peaceably unto him." Same thing with Jesus. Jesus was loved by the Father, and it says when they delivered Jesus to Caiaphas to be tried and killed, it says there in Matthew 27, "For he Jesus knew that for envy they had delivered him." Why were the scribes and Pharisees and Herodians and all these people jealous or envious of Jesus? It's because of a couple things. God the Father boomed from heaven when Jesus got baptized, "This is my beloved son whom I am well pleased." That's a pretty good signing off, wouldn't you say? But not only that, the people. The people marveled at Jesus. Oh, he speaks as one having authority, not like the scribes and the Pharisees. But he speaks as one with gracious words, and the people liked Jesus, and they said of Jesus, "He doeth all things well." The scribes and Pharisees said, "I've got to get rid of this guy. People love him." And they were envious of him. That's why they took him out. Same thing with the brothers in both stories. They were jealous and envious of him. So, number six: both were deeply loved by the Father. We read that in 37:3 there with Joseph. "Now Israel loved Joseph more than all his children." And I'm going to say that's probably not a healthy thing if you're a parent. You should love all your kids all the same. But it is interesting that Jacob, named Israel here, loved Joseph more. In the same way, we see there in Matthew 3:17, and a voice came from heaven saying, "This is my beloved son in whom I am well pleased." By the way, for you Bible students that know hermeneutics, which is just a way to rightly divide the word of truth, rules of interpretation. But one of the rules is the first mention principle, which is whenever something's first mentioned in the Bible, it always has an extreme important mention. And if you ever look up the word love, what's the first mention of love in the Bible? Well, it's in Genesis 21 where Abraham loved his only begotten son Isaac, which is interesting because Isaac wasn't his only begotten. But in God's eyes, he was. There's a whole another teaching there. But it says Abraham loved his only begotten son. That's first mention of love in the Bible. A father's love for his son. First mention in the Gospels—Matthew, Mark, Luke—all three of those Gospels, the first mention of love is this verse here in all three of those Gospels when Jesus got baptized and the Lord opens up from heaven saying, "This is my beloved son in whom I am well pleased." Interesting, in the Gospel of John, though, it's different. It says in the Gospel of John, the first mention of love there is "For God so loved the world," John 3:16, "that he gave his only begotten son." Do you realize how humbling and how serious and how... that just makes me want to pause and think about, wow, God loved his only begotten son, and yet he gave his beloved son because he loved the world so much that he gave his son. That's sobering stuff right there. Number six is loved of the Father. Number seven: stripped of their garments, both Joseph and Jesus, and blood was involved. Both had been beaten, if you would, and bloodied. Jesus was, and his garments were bloodied. But both had blood on it, which is interesting. Joseph was stripped of his garments, we read that, "And it came to pass when Joseph was come to his brothers that they stripped Joseph out of his coat, his coat of many colors that was on him." In Jesus's case, they stripped him and put on a scarlet robe and then punched him and said, "Hail, King of the Jews." This is a very similar thing, stripped of his garments. And there's a lot of deeper spiritual meaning to that as well if you know your Bible. Number eight: they both had predictions that they made that were mocked. Joseph had the dreams. Jesus made many predictions about himself that people mocked, made fun of. In Joseph's case, it was his dreams that he shared. His brothers said, "Shall you indeed reign over us, and shall you have indeed dominion over?" They hated him the more because of his dreams. In the same way, Jesus made predictions about himself that people would understand that he is the Messiah, that he is the Son of God, that he... if you kill this body, in three days... he said, "If you destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up." But did the people receive that? No. The same response: they mocked Jesus. In fact, when Jesus was hanging on the cross, Matthew 27:39, it says, "And they that passed by reviled him, wagging their heads and saying, 'You that destroys the temple and builds it in three days, save yourself if you be the Son of God. Come down from the cross.'" They mocked his predictions just like they did with Joseph. Man, big one. Well, that's number eight. Number nine on our list: both were betrayed and both were sold. Joseph was betrayed of course by his brothers and sold for 20 pieces of silver. We saw that in Genesis 37:28 that he'd be sold to the Ishmaelites for 20 pieces of silver and brought Joseph into Egypt. Jesus, on the other hand, was betrayed by Judas Iscariot. Matthew 26, "Then one of the twelve called Judas Iscariot went to the chief priests and said unto them, 'What will you give me and I will deliver him unto you?' And they covenanted with him for 30 pieces of silver." Both were betrayed and sold. One for 20 pieces, one for 30 pieces. Now, some of you might say, "Why there's a difference in dollar amount?" The answer: inflation. No, that's not actually true. There's actually a theological reason that people debate. There's several reasons. Some talk about how of course Jesus has preeminence over Joseph, so there was a higher amount, which of course that's true. There's other numerology theomatics some people call it where numbers in the Bible have great meaning. I don't have time to go over all that today. But both of them were both betrayed and sold for pieces of silver. Number 10 on our list: both were looked for in the pit but not found. Both were looked for in the pit but not found. Genesis 37, when Reuben went to the pit and tried to find him there, in 37:29, Reuben returned unto the pit and behold Joseph was not in the pit, and so Reuben then rent his clothes. In Jesus's case, it says that then she ran from the tomb and came to Simon Peter and to the other disciple whom Jesus loved, John, and said unto them, "They have taken away the Lord out of the sepulcher and we know not where they have laid him." Interesting parallel there. Both were looked for, one in a pit, one in a tomb, but when they were looked for they were not found. Same thing in the story. Number 11: both were placed alongside or I should say between two criminals. When Joseph was in prison, he sat between the butler and the baker, the two criminals that were put in prison. Genesis 40, verses 2 and 3, Pharaoh was wroth against two of his officers, against the chief of the butlers and the chief of the bakers, and he put them in ward to the house of the captain of the guard and in the prison and place where Joseph was bound. Just like Jesus. When Jesus was crucified, he was between two thieves. It says, "When they were come to the place which was called Calvary, they crucified him and the malefactors, the criminals, one on the right hand and one on the left hand." So it's interesting that there's kind of a parallel. But not only that, do you remember what happened to the two criminals? One criminal was sort of exonerated, and the other criminal was condemned. Do you remember that? That's our point number 12: the redeemed counterpart. In Genesis 40 we find out that he restored the chief butler to his butlership again, and he gave his cup of Pharaoh into his hand. But he hanged the chief baker as Joseph had interpreted to them. So one was doomed and one was saved. In the same thing with the two malefactors hung next to Jesus. One declared his faith in Christ, the other didn't and continued to mock Christ. So Jesus said unto that one that repented, "Verily I say unto you, today you shall be with me in paradise." Are you guys seeing the parallels here? Number 13: notice that both interceded on behalf of their brothers. Joseph, I mentioned when Joseph went in to Pharaoh and revealed his family, and Jesus is also one who intercedes for his brothers. Let me show you Joseph in Genesis 47:1. "Then Joseph came and told Pharaoh and said, 'My father, my brothers and their flocks and their herds and all that they have are come out of the land of Canaan, and behold they're in the land of Goshen.'" And this was Joseph getting permission from the king to let his family come on into Goshen, the land of Egypt. That's where he interceded on behalf of them. Same thing with Jesus in Hebrews chapter 7. Not only did Jesus intercede for his brothers, but for really all of us. Hebrews 7:25, "Wherefore he Jesus is able to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by him seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for them." Even as we come to the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords and we say we want to be accepted, Jesus is the one who brings us to the Father in heaven and lets us in, which is so cool. He intercedes on our behalf. And because of that, obviously he's a savior. Both Joseph is a savior in some ways, and Jesus is the savior in every way. Joseph is pronounced savior of the world at that time because, remember, the known world was starving, dying. Listen to this: Genesis 41:57, "And all the countries came to Egypt to Joseph for to buy corn because the famine was so sore in all lands." If you were living in the world that day, the known world, you knew where to go. You had to go to one place. One guy had bread enough to save you and to have you be saved from the famine, the death. In the same way, Jesus said in John 6:35, Jesus said unto them, "I am the bread of life. He that cometh to me shall never hunger, he that believeth on me shall never thirst." And Jesus alone is the one who has the food of life. You can try to find it elsewhere, but you'll die of famine apart from Christ. Number 15: and now's where I'm going to intentionally go to some of my favorite points that have to do with Acts chapter 15. You'll start to see it, hopefully. Check it out. Number 15: did you remember when Joseph was given a Gentile bride before the seven years of famine? Well, that happened in Genesis 41. And both were given a Gentile bride as it turns out. Does anybody know who's the bride of Jesus? The church. The Gentile church is the bride of Christ. What were the Jews called in their relationship to God in the Old Testament? They were called the wife of God. So the Jews of the Old Testament were called the wife of God. Christian Gentiles in the New Testament are called the bride of Christ. Joseph, when did he get the Gentile bride? Genesis 41:45. "And Pharaoh called Joseph's name Zaphnath-Paaneah and gave him to wife Asenath, the daughter of Potipherah the priest of On," which was right next to the little town of Off. No, I just made that up. "And Joseph went out over all the land of Egypt." Now he's a married guy. And what is he doing? He's preparing for the famine, for the seven years of famine. And right before that happens, Pharaoh's so thrilled with the way Joseph has gotten the food together for the seven years, he gives Joseph a bride, and then suddenly you have this seven years of famine. Do you remember what's going to happen with Jesus? Well, how do we know Jesus is the bridegroom, we're the bride of Christ? Well, there's implications. Like here: "Husbands love your wives even as Christ loved the church and gave himself for it." Like, the relationship that the church has with Christ is a marriage-kind of relationship. Listen to what Paul said there in 2 Corinthians 11:2. He said, "For I, God says, am a jealous God over you with godly jealousy. For I have espoused you to one husband that I might present you as a chaste virgin to Christ." God is going to present his church who's been made righteous by the blood of Christ to be the bride of Christ. Now, for you eschatology people, study of end times and the last days. When was Joseph married to his bride? When did the marriage of Joseph happen? Right before the seven years of tribulation. Seven years of tribulation, the seven years of famine. That's when he got his bride, and they had a big marriage feast there of Joseph and his new wife. When will the church finally be at the wedding feast and the bride of Christ? Well, this is where I believe right before the seven years of tribulation. There's seven years coming in the future called the tribulation period. When will the church finally be with his bride? When will Jesus be with his bride? Right with the rapture of the church. And we get to be in the marriage feast of the lamb. Meanwhile, back on earth, seven years of tribulation are going to be happening on the world. And guess what? This brings another interesting thing. When will the Jews actually realize that Jesus is the Messiah? Because like in our text, not only the Jews are they rejecting the Gentiles, but they're also saying we reject Jesus. When will the Jews actually understand that Jesus really was who he was? Three and a half years into the tribulation. It's called an event Daniel talked about, Jesus talked about in Matthew 24, the abomination of desolation. Right in the middle of the seven years, the Jews are going to realize, "Oh, he really is the Messiah." And they're going to say, "Where did you get those wounds?" Zechariah the prophet says, and he'll say, "I received these wounds in the house of my friends." And the Jews will be blown away that Jesus really is the Messiah that they'd missed for several thousand years, 2,000 years. When's that going to happen? That's still in the future called tribulation, seven-year period.
Guest (Male): Pastor Brett Meador pausing in a fascinating list of the foreshadowing of Jesus in the life story of Joseph. And we'll be continuing this study of an Old Testament picture of the New Testament truth next time on Today's Word. And I invite you to stay right there as Pastor Brett will join me here in a moment. But first, Today's Word is the radio ministry of Athey Creek Church, just south of Portland, Oregon, where Pastor Brett Meador's the senior pastor. We invite you to find out more by going to todayswordradio.com. If you've missed any portion of this study, you'll find all of Pastor Brett's messages online at todayswordradio.com. All right, Pastor Brett is joining me now. Brett, I know you've been the pastor at Athey Creek Church since 1996, so this is making 30 years for you. And this church has grown from a small group meeting at a middle school to now being one of the largest churches in the Pacific Northwest. What do you attribute that growth to?
Brett Meador: Well, Kurt, I really think that it's because the pastor is so handsome. No, no. Actually, quite the opposite. No, I really believe that it's attributed to people are hungry for the word of God. People have told me, Kurt, that I have a radio face. You'll appreciate that. But actually, as it turns out, people are hungry for the word of God, and I think that's what's drawing people is they're not as interested in my opinions or me trying to talk about even wonderful topical-type things, but what does the Bible really say? And we've just found people are really spiritually starving for that.
Kurt: Oh, that is true. The Bible is so powerful. Thank you, Pastor Brett. Well, if you'd like more information about Athey Creek Church, Today's Word, or Pastor Brett Meador, just go to todayswordradio.com. On our site, you'll also find more information about our main Athey Creek campus in West Linn, Oregon, or our other campuses around the Portland area. For more information, go to todayswordradio.com and click on the link "Locations." Again, todayswordradio.com and click the link "Locations." Well, that's all the time we have. Next time, Pastor Brett will clarify that salvation has never been earned by religious works but received by faith in Christ alone. Today's Word with Pastor Brett Meador is an outreach of Athey Creek Church in West Linn, Oregon.