Tempted and True

Good morning. My name is Matthew Capone, and I'm the pastor here at Cheyenne Mountain Presbyterian Church,

and it's my joy to bring God's Word to you today. A special welcome if you're new or visiting with us.

We're glad that you're here, and we're glad that you're here not because we're trying to fill seats,

but because we're following Jesus together as one community, and as we follow Jesus together,

we become convinced that there's no one so good, they don't need God's grace, and no one so bad they can't have it,

which is why we come back week after week to hear what God has to say to us in His Word.

We're continuing this morning our study in the Gospel of Mark.

You'll remember that the Gospel of Mark tells the story of Jesus in His life and His death and His resurrection,

and as I've been telling you, when we look at Jesus, when we talk about Him,

we're not talking about an abstraction or an idea or a theory.

We're not talking about a mythical figure.

In fact, we're talking about a real man who lived in real time and real space,

and so I've been giving you these facts about Jesus to help us remember just the earthiness and the reality of Him.

I've told you a couple times, two weeks ago, that He was born in Bethlehem, five to six miles south of Jerusalem.

He grew up in Nazareth, 64 to 65 miles north of Jerusalem, and Jesus had brothers and sisters.

I told you last week, He had at least seven.

Now, why do I say at least seven?

Why did I not give you an exact number?

Well, it's because the Bible does not give us an exact number.

In Mark 6, verse 3, which we'll come to eventually,

Mark 6:3

and also in Matthew 13, verse 55, we're told that Jesus has four brothers.

Matthew 13:55

Their names are James and Joseph and Judas and Simon, so four brothers, and then He has sisters.

So we're not told how many sisters He has.

We just know that He has two or more.

Now, why the Bible doesn't tell us?

My personal theory, which I can't prove, is that He had so many sisters that they couldn't name them all.

We actually don't know exactly why it doesn't tell us.

But just do the math with me.

So you've got four brothers.

Jesus is number five.

Then you've got two sisters, six and seven.

So that's how we have at least Jesus being one of at least seven brothers and sisters.

So as I said last week, if you have a lot of brothers and sisters, Jesus feels your pain.

Okay, this morning we are coming.

We're continuing going slowly through Mark chapter 1.

Mark 1 · chapter mention

We're coming now to verses 12 and 13.

And we're asking our two questions for the gospel of Mark.

Our first question is, who is Jesus?

And our second question is, how do we respond to Him?

Who is Jesus?

How do we respond to Him?

And we saw at the very beginning, chapter 1, verses 1 through 8, that Jesus is the one who comes looking for our repentance.

So He comes as the physician.

Remember, Jesus tells us in Mark chapter 2, verse 17,

Mark 2:17

those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick.

I've come to call the righteous, but sinners.

So He comes as the physician.

We have to respond to Him by admitting our need.

Remember, need is the price of admission for Jesus.

Then last week we looked at Jesus' baptism, and we saw that Jesus is not just the physician.

He's also the king that we see from Psalm 2, the king who rules over the nations.

And He's also the suffering servant from Isaiah.

So He's so great on the one hand that the heavens are torn open for God to speak about Him.

He's so humble on the other hand that He receives baptism from John the Baptist,

who's unworthy even to untie His sandals.

And so He stands in the place of sinners.

This morning as we come to verses 12 and 13, we're going to see, again in our question about Jesus,

we're going to see Jesus' perfection, and we're also going to look at Jesus' power.

We're going to look at His perfection and His power.

And with that, I invite you to turn with me to the Gospel of Mark chapter 1, verse 12.

Mark 1:12

You can turn there in your worship guide.

You can turn there in your Bible.

You can turn there in your phone.

Regardless of where you turn, remember that this is God's Word.

And God tells us that His Word is more precious than gold, even the finest gold,

and it's sweeter than honey, even honey that comes straight from the honeycomb.

And so that's why we read now Mark chapter 1, starting at verse 12.

Mark 1 · chapter mention

I invite you to pray with me as we come to this portion of God's Word.

Our Father in heaven, we thank you again that you have spoken to us,

and we ask that you would speak to us clearly this morning by your Word,

that you would show us Jesus, that we would understand more who He is,

and that you'd encourage us and you'd challenge us to follow Him.

We ask that you do these things by your Spirit,

that you would help us do what we cannot do alone,

which is to hear from you and to respond.

We ask these things in the mighty name of Jesus Christ. Amen.

If you are familiar at all with rock climbing,

you know that there's at least two types of climbing you can do.

You can do what's called free climbing,

or you can do what's called free solo.

And if you're free climbing, it means that you use ropes

and you use safety equipment not to help you, but just to protect you.

So you're using all your own strength to move up the rock.

The good thing is if you fall, you have a rope to catch you.

If you hit the ground, you have a helmet to protect you.

Now, free solo, however, is a step beyond that.

You have to use all your own strength to push yourself up the rock,

just like in free climbing.

But in free solo, you have no safety equipment.

So you don't have any ropes to back you up.

Often, if you see pictures or video of people free soloing,

they have no helmet either.

And so it is just you and the rock.

And you can imagine, obviously, this is extremely dangerous.

Less than 1% of people who rock climb will do free soloing

because it's basically you have to be crazy to do it.

Now, if you have Disney Plus or Netflix,

you probably know where I'm going here.

The movie Free Solo came out in 2018,

and it tells the story of this man named Alex Honnold

whose free solo's El Capitan,

which is this 3,200 feet flat, just straight up rock face

on Yosemite National Park in California.

And so he does what no one has done before,

what is literally crazy.

In fact, at some point in the movie,

they find out his amygdala doesn't really work.

So he doesn't have an appropriate measure of fear

like a normal person would.

And we track his time as he's training

and preparing to climb up this flat rock face.

Now, his friend, Tommy Caldwell,

who has his own movie called The Dawn Wall,

shows up at various points throughout Free Solo

and he tells us this to explain what it is

that this man's up against.

Imagine an Olympic gold medal level achievement

that if you don't get that gold medal,

you're going to die.

That's pretty much what free soloing El Cap is like.

You have to do it perfectly.

And then later he tells us,

I think everybody who has made free soloing

a big part of their life is dead now.

And so he lays out the stakes for us.

It is either perfection on the one hand

or death on the other.

That's what this man is up against.

It's a binary choice.

He's either going to succeed or he's going to die.

And so as it comes to the point in the film

where he's actually going to do the climb,

his girlfriend, Sunny, leaves town

because she can't stand to be there

where he's doing the climb.

She just waits with a cell phone

so that she can receive news

about whether he's been successful or not.

Of course, if you've watched it,

you know how it ends.

He makes it to the top in just under four hours.

And so we see at the very end of the movie this text.

On June 3rd, 2017,

Alex Honnold becomes the first person

to free solo El Capitan.

It took him three hours and 56 minutes.

Now I tell you all this

as we come to Jesus' time in the wilderness

because Alex does two things here.

First of all,

he does something that's absolutely perfect.

He is able to climb up

at a completely 90 degree straight up rock face

for 3,200 feet with no helmet and no ropes.

Not only does he do something

that's completely perfect,

he also is able to succeed

where no one else has been able to.

He succeeds where others have failed.

And as we come to this passage this morning

in Mark chapter one,

we are looking at something very similar.

When we talk about Jesus,

as I mentioned during our confession of faith this morning,

we often talk about the fact that Jesus dies for our sins.

He paid the penalty for our sins.

And amen, we believe that's true.

That is our hope.

What we also need to remember

is that Jesus did not just take the punishment we deserve.

He also lived the perfect life

that we should have lived but did not.

And we see that perfection,

that sinlessness of Jesus throughout his life.

We're gonna see it throughout the gospel of Mark.

We see it in a special way here in this passage

because Mark is highlighting for us

that Jesus does what is perfect.

He succeeds where others have failed.

And specifically, he succeeds here

where the nation of Israel failed.

And I'll explain.

Remember last week, I talked about the fact

that we can hear just a few notes sometimes

in the New Testament,

and it will pull up for us this whole story

from the Old Testament.

Just like Mark did that last week,

he's doing it this week as well.

And so I invite you to turn back in your worship guide

and look at our reading from Deuteronomy chapter eight.

And I'm gonna show you this echo here that's happening.

There's this echo that happens

between the New Testament and the Old Testament.

First of all, Jesus is out in the wilderness for 40 days.

You'll see in Deuteronomy chapter eight in verse four,

God tells them you were in the wilderness for 40 years.

So Jesus, 40 days being tempted.

He's tempted Israel in the wilderness for 40 years.

We're told, again, wilderness, by the way,

appears in the book of that chapter,

that reading three times.

We see it in verse two.

We see it in verse 15.

We see it in verse 16.

If you've been with us for a while,

you know that repetition in the Bible really matters.

So wilderness here is an idea showing up over and over.

Same thing in this reading from Mark.

We see the word wilderness show up in verse 12 and verse 13.

We saw it earlier, by the way.

John the Baptist is out baptizing in the wilderness.

So there's this echo of 40 days, 40 years.

There's the echo of the wilderness.

There's even an echo of wild animals.

If you look in verse 15 of Deuteronomy chapter eight,

God tells them about the scorpions and the serpents

that he saved them from.

Why is Jesus faced with wild animals as well?

Look at verse 13.

Because he is in the wild and dangerous wilderness,

just like Israel.

And if that were not enough,

we can also see here,

angels were ministering to him.

Deuteronomy chapter 16,

Deuteronomy 16 · chapter mention

God talks about how he cared for Israel in the wilderness.

Now, if you think that I'm just making this up

and I just happened to find some words that correspond,

I'll tell you in Matthew chapter four

and Luke chapter four,

which are the other passages

that talk about Jesus' temptation,

Jesus actually quotes directly from Deuteronomy chapter eight.

And so we're meant to see here this pattern,

this incident here that helps us understand

what Jesus' ministry will look like.

He is going to do perfectly

where in the past everyone else has failed.

Jesus is going to do what was previously impossible.

Because of course,

if you know the story of Israel in the wilderness,

you know part of the reason they were wandering for 40 years

is because of their lack of faith.

They rebelled against God.

As they wandered in the wilderness,

they grumbled against God.

There were people there who were not allowed

to enter the promised land.

They weren't able to go in

because of their lack of faith.

And so we need to have that background,

that understanding as we come to this passage.

If you've watched Free Solo,

you know there's something strange and foreign

and exhilarating about watching this man.

He's literally climbing up a crack.

Like you think maybe he's going to have all these holes,

but he's not.

There's this crack in the wall

and he's just wedging his fingers between it

to go up 3,200 feet.

So there's something that's not real about it.

In the same way,

there's something not real

about what's happening with Jesus here.

He is doing what for anyone else would be impossible.

He is able in the wilderness for 40 days

to withstand this temptation,

this opposition.

He's surrounded by animals

and he's tempted by Satan here.

Oh, I didn't point out another echo.

By the way, Deuteronomy 8, verse 2,

Deuteronomy 8:2

Jesus talks about testing Israel.

Here we see Jesus is tempted.

And so there's an echo there as well.

And so that's the point for us first

as we look at who Jesus is.

Jesus is the perfect one.

Jesus succeeds where Israel failed.

Jesus succeeds where we fail as well.

Jesus is the one we look to for our perfection.

He is the one we look to for our righteousness.

And so that's our first question, right?

We're asking who is Jesus?

We're also asking how do we respond?

By the way, these are not questions

that I just came up with.

These are the questions

that the Gospel of Mark actually asks itself.

In Mark chapter 8,

Mark 8 · chapter mention

Jesus is going to ask his disciples,

who do people say that I am?

They're going to tell him

and then he's going to say,

okay, who do you say that I am?

So we're looking forward to that chapter

as we ask this question.

The question of how we respond

is also a question from the Gospel of Mark

and also in chapter 8.

In chapter 8, verse 34,

Jesus says,

if anyone would come after me,

let him deny himself,

take up his cross and follow me.

And so Jesus is saying,

you have to respond to who I am.

I demand a response.

And so that's part of our paradigm

as we come over and over.

It's from Mark chapter 8

Mark 8 · chapter mention

and I want us to think,

I'm introducing this new category of 834.

If anyone would come after me,

let him take up his cross and follow me.

So if Jesus is the perfect one,

how are we meant to follow after him?

Well, one of the ways

that we're going to deny ourselves

is that Jesus has to be our perfection.

In other words,

we have to find our identity in Jesus

more than anything else.

We have to find our righteousness

in Jesus more than anything else.

We have to see him

as the one who's obedient for us.

And if we don't,

we'll fall into one of two traps.

First of all,

if our identity is not in Jesus,

we'll be tempted to find

our perfection in ourselves.

There's this question

of what motivates someone

to be willing to risk their lives

so dramatically

by climbing up with no ropes 3,200 feet.

And Alex gives us an answer

at one point during this documentary.

He gives us a couple answers,

but I'm just going to tell you one.

Now, there's this meditation

throughout the film

on the nature of death

because of course,

it's in his face

every time he does this, right?

And so he says this,

look, I don't want to fall off

and die either,

but there's a satisfaction

to challenging yourself

and doing something well.

That feeling is heightened

when you're for sure facing death.

You can't make a mistake.

If you're seeking perfection,

free soloing is as close

as you can get.

And it does feel good

to feel perfect

for a brief moment.

In other words,

Alex is looking to himself

for perfection.

Now, I would imagine

most of you,

probably none of us,

look for perfection

in doing death-defying feats.

However, there are all sorts of ways

in our lives

we look to ourselves

to justify ourselves.

And it can play out like this.

Maybe you're the trash talker.

You're desperately trying

to convince yourself

that you're okay.

The way you do that

is you need to talk

about other people's failures.

If someone else

fails more spectacularly

than you do,

then everything's going to be fine.

You're all right.

You are justified.

You can find

your satisfaction in that.

Maybe you're someone

who's consumed,

not by trash talking

about individuals,

but about the world.

You're convinced

that the world is terrible

and it's going to hell

in a handbasket.

And so if you can talk

about that all the time,

then obviously you're good

by comparison, right?

You don't do those things

that those people out there do.

You don't believe

those things

that they believe.

You're safe.

You do all the right things.

You are your own justification.

Maybe you're a tribalist.

You just know

you're not like

those terrible conservatives

or those terrible liberals.

As long as you stay away

from them,

you'll be okay.

And so we're taking

God's law, right?

And we're reducing it

to something manageable

and controllable.

We'll get to the Pharisees,

by the way,

before too long.

Maybe you're someone

who's obsessed

with always looking right

and doing right.

Appearances are everything.

Okay, no one can come over

to your house

unless it's absolutely perfect

because they can't see

that you are anything less

than justified.

Maybe you're the performer

and the pretender.

People are only allowed

to get so close to you

before they receive

the stiff arm

because you can't handle

other people

knowing the truth.

And we could go on.

But if Jesus

is not our perfection,

we are tempted

to try to be

or appear

perfect ourselves.

The other ditch

we can fall into,

maybe you know

you're not perfect

and so instead of

asking Jesus

to be perfect for you

and looking to him,

you want,

you demand

other people

be perfect for you.

The closer

you tie

your identity

to someone,

the harder it is

for you to handle

failure in them.

Now you know this

intuitively.

There's things

that people would do,

can do,

that you just laugh at,

right?

You just think that's,

or it's not a big deal

to you.

Maybe that's a little quirky,

maybe that's a little silly,

but you know,

that's just them.

But if someone

who's related to you

does it,

the feeling

is very different,

right?

It's like nails

on a chalkboard.

What's forgivable

in other people

is unforgivable

in this person.

Why?

Because you're so tied up

in your identity

with them,

you can't allow them

to be anything less

than perfect.

It's why there's things

that we find endearing

in people we know,

they're just our friends

that we find excruciating

about our family members.

It's because our identity

is tied up in them.

We need them,

in other words,

to be perfect for us.

So it's hard to show grace

for other people's mistakes,

right?

Because they're making you

look bad.

It's what happens

when parents drive

their kids to success,

not because of their desires

for them,

but because they want

the glory that comes.

They want people to know,

I am the perfect parent.

We are the perfect family.

And so looking to Jesus

as our perfection

allows us

to actually love

the people

who are closest to us.

Jesus frees us

to be close

to imperfect people.

Imperfect people

like you and me.

Of course,

this takes us

back to Mark 1,

Mark 1:1–8

verses 1-8.

Remember we said,

need is the price

of admission.

If we want

to follow Jesus,

we have to admit

our need.

The question is,

how do we do that?

One of the ways

we do it

is we know

it's okay

to admit our need

when we know

that Jesus

is the one

who's perfect for us.

When we know

we can look

to his perfect life

on our behalf.

That's what makes it safe

to live a

verse 1,

1-8 sort of life.

That's what makes it safe

for us

to confess our need

to God

and to others.

And so Jesus,

he's our perfection.

We respond to him

by letting him

be that for us.

We don't demand it

of ourselves.

We don't demand it

of others.

Now we could also talk

about following Jesus

in suffering here.

That's another portion

of this passage.

We're going to save that

for later in the Gospel of Mark

and I'll point you back

to this passage

because we're going to have

plenty of opportunities

to talk about that.

But as we look

at this idea

of following Jesus,

remember I told you

we're going to look

at his perfection

and his power.

The question is

how is it

that we look

to Jesus?

How do we experience

him as the one

who makes things right

rather than everyone else?

And Jesus gives us,

Mark here gives us

a hint.

There's something

I did not talk about

last week

because there's so much

in each of these verses

even as our readings

are so short

that I want to point

your attention to this week

if you have your Bible open.

I want you to look

at verse 11

from last week

that comes

right before

verse 12.

Verse 11 says,

And a voice came

from heaven,

You are my beloved son.

With you

I am well pleased.

Then immediately,

verse 12,

the Spirit drove him

into the wilderness

and he was in the wilderness

40 days being tempted

by Satan.

Now Mark's narrative

is so tight,

it's so concise,

there is no coincidence here.

We are meant

to see the contrast,

the juxtaposition,

the connection

between those two verses.

In other words,

why is Jesus

able to go

out into the wilderness

and withstand temptation?

Jesus goes out

and withstands temptation

out of his identity

and relationship

with the Father.

He hears

God's pleasure in him

and it's out of that

that he's able

to remain faithful.

Some people have put it this way,

even Jesus

needed to know

his Father was proud of him.

Jesus is acting

with the rest of the Trinity.

He's not out of relationship

with him.

We just saw

Father, Son, Holy Spirit

all at once

in verses 8-11.

That's why we did

the confession of faith

last week

about the Trinity.

Jesus does this

in his relationship.

He has a secure

attachment

and identity

with the Father.

And so Jesus

walks in that

as he's faithful

in temptation.

That is the power

that he has.

That he has

perfect communion

with the Father

and the Spirit.

Brothers and sisters,

the same

is true

for us.

Our power

comes,

our ability

to obey

comes,

our ability

to follow

Jesus

comes

as we hear

God's voice

of pleasure

over us.

In other words,

God's grace

always comes

before obedience.

I pointed this out

before in our worship service.

There's a reason

we have the confession

of sin

and the assurance

of pardon

before we have

the offering.

Because we give

as children of God.

We don't give

to become

children of God.

Jesus here

obeys

as a member

of the Trinity.

He doesn't obey

to become

a member

of the Trinity.

It is his

identity

and connection

and love

with the Father

that is his power.

Now I told you

that I was going

to give you

Alex gives us

two reasons

he climbs.

One of them

is because

he wants to be

perfect.

He loves that

feeling

for a moment.

There's a somewhat

darker reason

we get some

glimpses

throughout this

documentary

into what

his life

was like

growing up.

His mom

narrates

that his

father

was distant

and often

the only thing

Alex would

heal from

his parents

was criticism.

And then

he goes on

to talk

about

what his

mom was

like.

He said

my mom's

favorite

sayings

are

almost

doesn't

count

or

good

enough

isn't.

No matter

how well

I ever

do at

anything

it's

not

that

good.

The

bottomless

pit

of

self

loathing.

I mean

that's

definitely

the

motivation

for

some

soloing.

In

other words

Alex's

search

for

perfection

comes

out of

his

disconnection

from

his

parents.

He

looks

to

find

it

in

himself

because

he

does

not

have

the

voice

of

his

father.

Brothers

and

sisters

we

do

not

follow

after

Jesus

to

earn

God's

favor.

We

follow

after

him

because

we

know

that

we

already

have

it.

God

does

not

say

to

us

almost

doesn't

count.

God

does

not

say

to

us

good

enough

isn't.

God

says

to

us

in

Christ

you

are

my

beloved

son.

God

is

not

to

understand

Jesus'

action

in

this

one.

I

know

some

of

you

have

picked

up

this

book

called

A

Theology

of

Mark

by

Hans

Beyer

and

he

says

this

talking

about

God's

affirmation

of

Jesus.

There

is

great

encouragement

for the

disciples

in

this

affirmation

which

is

not

only

the

affirmation

of

Jesus

as

the

eternal

son

of

God

who

is

well

loved

by

his

father.

Nor

is

it

only

the

affirmation

of

the

divine

glory

of

Jesus.

There

is

far

more

to

it

than

for

us

to

simply

understand

that

he

is

the

exalted

son

of

man.

Rather

since

we

are

adopted

sons

and

daughters

believers

benefit

from

and

are

included

in

the

father's

love

for

his

son.

We

indeed

receive

this

profound

affirmation

from

God.

we

have been

brought

into

a

family

in

which

every

natural

and

adopted

member

receives

that

kind

of

love

and

that

inclusion

in

divine

love

is

based

neither

on

where

ask when we come to God is, why did you adopt me? The affirmation of the father's love for the son

is thus extended to his adopted children. Brothers and sisters, if you are in Christ,

the father's affirmation of his love for the son is extended to you. It's when we hear that,

that we're able to put our identity in him rather than anything else. And so who is Jesus?

Jesus is the perfect one. How do we respond to him? We look to him for perfection.

We don't look to ourselves. We don't look to others. Let's pray.

Our father in heaven, we thank you that your word comes and it tells us the truth that if we

belong to you, we have your favor. That we don't work to earn or achieve our adoption,

but it's simply that it's adoption. You have taken us as your sons and your daughters. And so we're

freed from striving and pretending and performing. And instead you offer for us to simply follow

after you in love and obedience, knowing that we're secure and there's nothing in heaven and on earth

that can separate us from the love that you have for us in Christ. We thank you. It's for this reason

we're able to pray these things. And so we ask them in Jesus name. Amen. I invite you to stand for our

closing hymn.