diff --git a/lib/plugins/aws/invokeLocal/index.js b/lib/plugins/aws/invokeLocal/index.js
index cf6e362b268..ecc355cf91d 100644
--- a/lib/plugins/aws/invokeLocal/index.js
+++ b/lib/plugins/aws/invokeLocal/index.js
@@ -118,10 +118,10 @@ class AwsInvokeLocal {
       || this.serverless.service.provider.runtime
       || 'nodejs4.3';
     const handler = this.options.functionObj.handler;
-    const handlerPath = handler.split('.')[0];
-    const handlerName = handler.split('.')[1];
 
     if (runtime.startsWith('nodejs')) {
+      const handlerPath = handler.split('.')[0];
+      const handlerName = handler.split('.')[1];
       return this.invokeLocalNodeJs(
         handlerPath,
         handlerName,
@@ -130,6 +130,8 @@ class AwsInvokeLocal {
     }
 
     if (runtime === 'python2.7' || runtime === 'python3.6') {
+      const handlerPath = handler.split('.')[0];
+      const handlerName = handler.split('.')[1];
       return this.invokeLocalPython(
         process.platform === 'win32' ? 'python.exe' : runtime,
         handlerPath,
@@ -139,9 +141,12 @@ class AwsInvokeLocal {
     }
 
     if (runtime === 'java8') {
+      const className = handler.split('::')[0];
+      const handlerName = handler.split('::')[1] || 'handleRequest';
       return this.invokeLocalJava(
         'java',
-        handler,
+        className,
+        handlerName,
         this.serverless.service.package.artifact,
         this.options.data,
         this.options.context);
@@ -177,11 +182,12 @@ class AwsInvokeLocal {
     });
   }
 
-  callJavaBridge(artifactPath, className, input) {
+  callJavaBridge(artifactPath, className, handlerName, input) {
     return new BbPromise((resolve) => fs.statAsync(artifactPath).then(() => {
       const java = spawn('java', [
         `-DartifactPath=${artifactPath}`,
         `-DclassName=${className}`,
+        `-DhandlerName=${handlerName}`,
         '-jar',
         path.join(__dirname, 'java', 'target', 'invoke-bridge-1.0.jar'),
       ]);
@@ -201,7 +207,7 @@ class AwsInvokeLocal {
     }));
   }
 
-  invokeLocalJava(runtime, className, artifactPath, event, customContext) {
+  invokeLocalJava(runtime, className, handlerName, artifactPath, event, customContext) {
     const timeout = Number(this.options.functionObj.timeout)
       || Number(this.serverless.service.provider.timeout)
       || 6;
@@ -220,7 +226,7 @@ class AwsInvokeLocal {
     const executablePath = path.join(javaBridgePath, 'target');
 
     return new BbPromise(resolve => fs.statAsync(executablePath)
-      .then(() => this.callJavaBridge(artifactPath, className, input))
+      .then(() => this.callJavaBridge(artifactPath, className, handlerName, input))
       .then(resolve)
       .catch(() => {
         const mvn = spawn('mvn', [
@@ -235,7 +241,8 @@ class AwsInvokeLocal {
         mvn.stderr.on('data', (buf) => this.serverless.cli.consoleLog(`mvn - ${buf.toString()}`));
         mvn.stdin.end();
 
-        mvn.on('close', () => this.callJavaBridge(artifactPath, className, input).then(resolve));
+        mvn.on('close', () => this.callJavaBridge(artifactPath, className, handlerName, input)
+          .then(resolve));
       }));
   }
 
diff --git a/lib/plugins/aws/invokeLocal/index.test.js b/lib/plugins/aws/invokeLocal/index.test.js
index d2542acaeb6..c2e83743507 100644
--- a/lib/plugins/aws/invokeLocal/index.test.js
+++ b/lib/plugins/aws/invokeLocal/index.test.js
@@ -379,6 +379,7 @@ describe('AwsInvokeLocal', () => {
           expect(invokeLocalJavaStub.calledWithExactly(
             'java',
             'handler.hello',
+            'handleRequest',
             undefined,
             {},
             undefined
@@ -588,6 +589,7 @@ describe('AwsInvokeLocal', () => {
       awsInvokeLocalMocked.callJavaBridge(
         __dirname,
         'com.serverless.Handler',
+        'handleRequest',
         '{}'
       ).then(() => {
         expect(writeChildStub.calledOnce).to.be.equal(true);
@@ -625,6 +627,7 @@ describe('AwsInvokeLocal', () => {
       awsInvokeLocal.invokeLocalJava(
         'java',
         'com.serverless.Handler',
+        'handleRequest',
         __dirname,
         {}
       ).then(() => {
@@ -632,6 +635,7 @@ describe('AwsInvokeLocal', () => {
         expect(callJavaBridgeStub.calledWithExactly(
           __dirname,
           'com.serverless.Handler',
+          'handleRequest',
           JSON.stringify({
             event: {},
             context: {
@@ -694,6 +698,7 @@ describe('AwsInvokeLocal', () => {
         awsInvokeLocalMocked.invokeLocalJava(
           'java',
           'com.serverless.Handler',
+          'handleRequest',
           __dirname,
           {}
         ).then(() => {
@@ -701,6 +706,7 @@ describe('AwsInvokeLocal', () => {
           expect(callJavaBridgeMockedStub.calledWithExactly(
             __dirname,
             'com.serverless.Handler',
+            'handleRequest',
             JSON.stringify({
               event: {},
               context: {
diff --git a/lib/plugins/aws/invokeLocal/java/src/main/java/com/serverless/InvokeBridge.java b/lib/plugins/aws/invokeLocal/java/src/main/java/com/serverless/InvokeBridge.java
index ab962942669..879c52f2fc5 100644
--- a/lib/plugins/aws/invokeLocal/java/src/main/java/com/serverless/InvokeBridge.java
+++ b/lib/plugins/aws/invokeLocal/java/src/main/java/com/serverless/InvokeBridge.java
@@ -4,6 +4,8 @@
 import com.fasterxml.jackson.databind.JsonNode;
 import com.fasterxml.jackson.databind.ObjectMapper;
 
+import java.beans.Introspector;
+import java.beans.PropertyDescriptor;
 import java.io.BufferedReader;
 import java.io.File;
 import java.io.IOException;
@@ -16,12 +18,14 @@
 public class InvokeBridge {
   private File artifact;
   private String className;
+  private String handlerName;
   private Object instance;
   private Class clazz;
 
   private InvokeBridge() {
     this.artifact = new File(new File("."), System.getProperty("artifactPath"));
     this.className = System.getProperty("className");
+    this.handlerName = System.getProperty("handlerName");
 
     try {
       HashMap<String, Object> parsedInput = parseInput(getInput());
@@ -56,9 +60,52 @@ private Object getInstance() throws Exception {
   }
 
   private Object invoke(HashMap<String, Object> event, Context context) throws Exception {
-    Method[] methods = this.clazz.getDeclaredMethods();
+    Method method = findHandlerMethod(this.clazz, this.handlerName);
+    Class requestClass = method.getParameterTypes()[0];
+
+    Object request = event;
+    if (!requestClass.isAssignableFrom(event.getClass())) {
+      request = requestClass.newInstance();
+      PropertyDescriptor[] properties = Introspector.getBeanInfo(requestClass).getPropertyDescriptors();
+      for(int i=0; i < properties.length; i++) {
+        if (properties[i].getWriteMethod() == null) continue;
+        String propertyName = properties[i].getName();
+        if (event.containsKey(propertyName)) {
+          properties[i].getWriteMethod().invoke(request, event.get(propertyName));
+        }
+      }
+    }
+
+    if (method.getParameterCount() == 1) {
+      return method.invoke(this.instance, request);
+    } else if (method.getParameterCount() == 2) {
+      return method.invoke(this.instance, request, context);
+    } else {
+      throw new NoSuchMethodException("Handler should take 1 or 2 arguments: " + method);
+    }
+  }
+
+  private Method findHandlerMethod(Class clazz, String handlerName) throws Exception {
+    Method candidateMethod = null;
+    for(Method method: clazz.getDeclaredMethods()) {
+      if (method.getName().equals(handlerName) && !method.isBridge()) {
+        // Select the method with the largest number of parameters
+        // If two or more methods have the same number of parameters, AWS Lambda selects the method that has
+        // the Context as the last parameter.
+        // If none or all of these methods have the Context parameter, then the behavior is undefined.
+        int paramCount = method.getParameterCount();
+        boolean lastParamIsContext = paramCount >= 1 && method.getParameterTypes()[paramCount-1].getName().equals("com.amazonaws.services.lambda.runtime.Context");
+        if (candidateMethod == null || paramCount > candidateMethod.getParameterCount() || (paramCount == candidateMethod.getParameterCount() && lastParamIsContext)) {
+          candidateMethod = method;
+        }
+      }
+    }
+
+    if (candidateMethod == null) {
+      throw new NoSuchMethodException("Could not find handler for " + handlerName + " in " + clazz.getName());
+    }
 
-    return methods[1].invoke(this.instance, event, context);
+    return candidateMethod;
   }
 
   private HashMap<String, Object> parseInput(String input) throws IOException {