007 Matthew in Seven Movements: Messiah the Way - Help in the Wilderness

That was a very important lesson learned.  A mistake that was not repeated, ever again.  To keep a fire going you had to have real wood.  You can get it started with twigs, but twigs are not going to keep a lasting fire. By the time we depart from this place I want this image to be engraved on your mind.  How do you keep the fire of your faith strong and burning for the Lord?  It is not with twigs.   We find that in our passage today in which Jesus finds himself driven to face a temptation. What does He use to sustain himself?  As we have read in our text Matthew 4:1-11 Jesus is going to face a temptation directly from the devil himself.  Before we dive into this text let us ask the Lord to bless our time together in His word. Prayer: We come to you in this moment, Lord, asking that you guide us through this text.  We are so grateful for the word that you have left for us.  It is the very word that Jesus, our Savior, relied on fully to sustain him in temptation.  Bless us in this moment.  Guide my thoughts as I present this text.  By Your Spirit, open our hearts to hear it and receive it.  It is in Jesus name we pray, Amen. The Testing of the Second Adam This text directly proceeds the baptism of Jesus.  It was at this scene that Jesus submits to the washing of John the Baptizer.  As he comes out of the water the heavens open and we see The Father, saying, this is my son in whom I am well pleased.  At the same time, the Spirit is descending upon Jesus. It is this same Spirit that we see in (4:1) led Jesus to the wilderness.  The language of Mark (1:12) says that the Spirit DROVE (ESV, LSB), IMPELLED, SENT (NIV), FORCED (AMP) him to the wilderness.  This is not to say that Jesus was resistant for Jesus was obedient in every way.  We should not get that implication.  There was an urgency here on the part of the Spirit.  There was no resistance on the part of Jesus.  Where God wanted the Son to be, the Son was happy to dwell.  “Delight yourselves in the Lord and He will give you the desires of your heart.” (Ps. 37:4) The purpose for this trip to the wilderness is to be tempted by the devil.  Jesus fasted 40 days and 40 nights.  This meant that he went without food for 40 straight days and nights.  A couple of things to observe here: Moses and Elijah did the same thing. Moses fasted (Ex 24:28) before the law was given.  Elijah fasted (1 Kings 19:8) while under the law.  Jesus is fasting here at the beginning of the gospel of grace. It states that at the end of the 40 days, Jesus was hungry (no duh!). For the first time God is experiencing hunger.  Do not forget that Jesus is fully God and fully man.  This was one of the lessons in our study of Colossians.  This can be a difficult thing to wrap our mind to understand but it is no less true.  God had not been hungry. It is important to understand what Scripture teaches regarding one of the roles of Christ.  He came as the second Adam. Turn with me if you will to Romans 5:12. We will be only touching on this briefly because someday, we will journey through the book of Romans.  But I have said this a few times and I have not specifically shown where this idea of Jesus as the second Adam is found. Federal Headship of Adam 12 Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men[e] because all sinned— 13 for sin indeed was in the world before the law was given, but sin is not counted where there is no law. 14 Yet death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over those whose sinning was not like the transgression of Adam, who was a type of the one who was to come. 15 But the free gift is not like the trespass. For if many died through one man's trespass, much more have the grace of God and the free gift by the grace of that one man Jesus Christ abounded for many. 16 And the free gift is not like the result of that one man's sin. For the judgment following one trespass brought condemnation, but the free gift following many trespasses brought justification. 17 For if, because of one man's trespass, death reigned through that one man, much more will those who receive the abundance of grace and the free gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man Jesus Christ. 18 Therefore, as one trespass[f] led to condemnation for all men, so one act of righteousness[g] leads to justification and life for all men. 19 For as by the one man's disobedience the many were made sinners, so by the one man's obedience the many will be made righteous. 20 Now the law came in to increase the trespass, but where sin increased, grace abounded all the more, 21 so that, as sin reigned in death, grace also might reign through righteousness leading to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. Scripture gives us insight on the mission of Jesus as the second Adam (Romans 5:12-21; 1 Corinthians 15:21-22). The disobedience of the first Adam was superseded by the obedience of the second Adam, Christ. As we go into these few passages it is important that we are reminded of something we have already considered before.  What Jesus is entering here is a period of testing.  The same type of testing Adam and Eve faced. Briefly, let me remind you the definition of sin is found in 1 John 2:16.  Sin is loving the world.  Loving the world more than loving our Lord. “For all that is in the world the desires of the flesh, and the desires of the eyes and the pride of life – is NOT from the Father by is from the world.” 1 John 2:16 This is ultimately the description of the fall of Adam and Eve.  This is exactly what happens in the Garden. Eve saw that the “Fruit would be good to eat” Lust of the Flesh “Gain wisdom so as to be like God.” Pride of Life Looked at the fruit and saw that it was pleasant to the eyes.” Lust of the Eyes   We have noted before how in the temptations Jesus faced the exact same temptations which resulted in the fall of first Adam.  “Turn these stones to bread” Lust of the Flesh “Prove that you are the Son of God” Pride of Life “Bow down and obtain all these things.” Lust of the Eyes   This much is true that Jesus is able “to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin.” (Hebrews 4:15) Please take note of the significant differences between the temptation of the first Adam and the temptation of the second Adam. First Adam Second Adam Plush garden with much food – excess food and luxury Judean wilderness that is one of the most desolate places on earth. Scorpions, spiders (Mark says he was there with wild beasts 1:13) Full and satisfied Empty stomach having fasted 40 days Enjoying companionship and not alone – could encourage each other Jesus fully alone and secluded with no encouragement   There is a stark difference here.  Exegesis 4:3 “If you are the Son of God, command these stones to become loaves of bread.” Is this not an interesting statement?  Think for a moment, what was the last thing, according to our text, that Jesus hears before going to the wilderness?  “This is my son, in whom I am well pleased.” The first thing that the enemy did here, the deceiver, was to twist and cause doubt.  He will twist scripture here in a moment and he is causing doubt here. He did the same thing to Eve.  Did God really say you shall not eat of any tree?  His efforts here are to raise doubt.  Why would this raise a doubt? This is God and he is hungry.  Would it have been such a horrible thing for Jesus to turns stones into bread?  Have you asked yourself that question?  Why is this such a big deal?  Does not the Lord’s prayer (Matthew 6) teach, “give us this day our daily bread?” Who was it that brought Jesus to this place?  To whom was Jesus being obedient? There is nothing wrong with eating.  I would be in a LOT of trouble if there was something wrong with eating.  But in this moment, for Jesus, this is not the time for eating.  The Spirit had driven him here and the Spirit would sustain him. I can sum this entire sermon up here in Matthew 4:3 and 4.  This is profound.  As I was preparing for this, it moved me.  Chapter 4 verse 3 and 4 is the Cliff Notes to this whole section. RIGHT HERE - Jesus was fully OBEDIENT to the Lord and DEPENDANT upon the Lord. Jesus hears the request of the devil, “IF YOU ARE THE SON OF GOD. . . “and in return QUOTES GOD.  “Man shall not live by bread alone but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.” APPLICATION How do you live Christian?  HOW DO YOU LIVE? Is it the bread?  Is it the casseroles? If that were the case, let’s have potluck EVERY week.  Let’s overload Ms. Jane and Ms. Linda and Ms. Iris and whoever else is involved.  That is not the answer though is it?   “In Him we live and move and have our being.” (Acts 17:28). How do you live?  How is Jesus living here? Do you think Jesus is doing this on His own?  Do you think Moses and Elijah were sustained because they had will power?  How did they make it 40 days without food?  It was God, period.  That is it. Jesus was brought there by God.  The Spirit drove Jesus there – this is not a throw away statement.  He was brought there to this moment and in this activity.  Was it comfortable?  NO.  Was it pleasurable? No.  Did God sustain Jesus? YES. Satan’s desire here was for Jesus to take over and sustain himself and reject being obedient.  REJECT OBEDIENCE.  He was trying to get Jesus to resist the Father’s will.  Our flesh can justify so many things.  Our flesh can really justify stuff.  I will tell you what my flesh would be saying here, well yeah, this is no big deal.  I will turn these stones to bread. I know this because the first reaction to reading this the first, second, 8th, 25th time is: why is this a temptation?  What is the big deal? I would have been questioning: Why am I going through this?  Why are you doing this to me Lord?  I do not understand? You prayed that?  Have you uttered those words?  If Jesus were to utter those words before long it sounds like the Children crying in the desert, Lord Give us food!  Have you brought us out here to kill us?  We were better off in Egypt!  You brought us out here to starve us to death.  Oh, how many times I have said that, just in different ways.  And I hate it.  I hate it that I don’t depend on God’s word! How often am “I NOT TRUSTING IN THE LORD, DWELLING IN THE LAND AND BEFRIENDING FAITHFULNESS” as our Psalm says today. Not Jesus.  There is nothing wrong with eating.  There is nothing wrong with a lot of things but often, it is just the wrong time to do them.  <let this sink in dude> Jesus resists the devil by standing firm on the truth of God’s word.  He withstands spiritual warfare by knowing Scripture.  We need to know Scripture.  We do not know Scripture. (general terms).   The issue of facing trials and strife in life.  The issue in facing the arrogance of our flesh and how it is distracted from righteousness can be traced to twigs.    We keep our fires going with twigs.  We are not using real wood.    We have 900 current and historical ENGLISH bible translations.  Bible Gateway (online) has more than 50 of the most prominent English renderings of Scripture.  You can read it, have it read to you, you can have celebrities read it to you dramatically, you can have it read to you with soft-playing classical music.  (THINK PS 1 HERE)   “Blessed is the one who does not walk in the counsel of the in the counsel of the wicked nor stand in the way of sinners nor sit in the seat of scoffers but his delight is in the law of the Lord and on his law he meditates day and night.”   Day and Night, meditating on this word.  Why?  Because it is wood.  This word is wood to keep the fires of your faith burning.    Too many smoke out and die.    It is not that one meditates on this day and night it is his delight!  Delight!    I can think of a WHOLE lot of things that I delight in!  Can you?  Is one of them His word?   The first thing Satan did was try to stir doubt in God’s word.  One of the last things Jesus heard was, “This is my Son in whom I am well pleased.” Then the first thing from the enemy’s mouth? “If you are the Son of God. . . turn these stones to bread.”   Jesus knew the word of God.  He had to learn that!  He was human.  He had to learn to read.  He had to learn an alphabet.  He had to memorize.    “Some of you are going to get to heaven and a guy name Obediah is going to come up and ask you how you liked the book he wrote . . .you will be clueless.  “   Memorize God’s word: “write it on the tablet of your heart.” Proverbs 3:3   Oh, pastor you are asking too much.  I can’t memorize.   I will prove you wrong.  Right here.  I will prove you can memorize.   John 11:35 “Jesus wept.”   Without the aid of your Bible, let us all say together what we just memorized: What is John 11:35 say? Jesus Wept.  You did it!   Don’t be silly right?  No.  I am not being silly.   How did you start to read?  There was a time when you could not read, how did you learn?  Did you start on day one reading Dostoevsky?  Did you start by reading Shakespeare? You started with Aa, Bb, Cc, Dd, Ee . . . See Stan run.  See Stan Jump.  Silly Stan! You want to keep the fire burning?  When you are in real need it is God’s word that will sustain you.  Jesus gives us the example right here.  He does not seek counsel with friends, he does not journal about it, he does not see what other rabi’s have done (theologians): Jesus is obedient to the word.  Nothing wrong with friendly counsel, we need it often.  Journaling is GREAT!  Seeing what other theologians have to say about certain Scripture is great. But first, foundational we need to know God’s word.  My experience is we do not spend enough time in it.  Me included.  Oh, what a beautiful example Jesus gives here!