Our Solution Personified: Jesus

Good morning, Watermark.

My name is Alfie, and I help out with the university ministry here.

And this message today is going to be coming as the 11th part, I think,

of a series that we're doing called God's Story, Our Story.

And what we're trying to figure out is, what is God's story?

Because the Bible calls us to live in and be a part of God's story,

but a lot of the time we find ourselves being either drifting into

or being attracted by other stories around us.

If you're like me, your story the past couple of weeks has revolved around ice cream.

You wake up in the morning, you think, after breakfast I will have ice cream.

When you're at work, all you can think about is ice cream.

And at the end of the day, you take all your friends to your favorite ice cream shop,

and you hope that they will like you because you're taking them to ice cream,

and the ice cream shop owner will like you because you're bringing all these customers,

and everything will be great, and everyone will love Alfie.

And I lied. The story isn't about ice cream. It's actually about me.

I want everyone to like me and to love me.

But there are many other stories.

There's a story of your typical expat.

You've come to Hong Kong, and Hong Kong isn't your home.

You don't really want it to be your home.

But while you're here, you think you're going to make the best of it.

You're going to seek out all the entertainment and the pleasure that you can get.

And so your schedule is run by which happy hour is happening at which bar,

and when ladies' night is, and you're going to go and forget the world you've come from,

enjoy some drinks, maybe some drugs, and, you know, maybe some casual encounters.

And you know what? It doesn't matter because none of this is going to follow you back home.

Because when you go home, you're going to be rewarded

because you went overseas, and you worked in a tough economic climate.

And, you know, you're going to get a promotion,

or if you're a student, you get special recognition on your degree,

and it's all great.

Or you can be living in the Disney story.

The Disney story that Eric talked about right at the beginning,

that, you know, if you just follow your heart, everything will be okay.

Or, you know, maybe it's the Hong Kong story

where the objective in life is to become as rich and as wealthy as possible.

And when you have children, from the moment you're two years old,

you do everything for them so they can become just as rich,

if not richer, than you have been.

Now, the object of this series isn't to kind of shame you out of these stories,

but we want to show you that God's story is beautiful.

God's story is good.

And we want you to live as a part of this gospel,

to live in God's story.

So what have we talked about so far?

In the beginning, we had creation.

And we see God putting together the heavens and the earth,

and he creates man specifically to be in his image

and to be his representatives,

that these people are going to be there,

and they're going to rule over the earth in God's place.

But then the first man and woman, Adam and Eve,

they do something that we all do.

They reject God's rule over their lives.

And they say that, actually, we're going to do things our way.

And the result of that is a curse,

a curse that brings pain and childbearing,

a curse that means that work becomes unfruitful.

But God doesn't leave us to wallow in our misery and our suffering.

He calls a man called Abraham,

and he tells Abraham,

I'm going to take you to this special place,

and I'm going to give you descendants,

I'm going to give you children,

and they're going to have a land, a country to call their own.

But most importantly, I'm going to give them a blessing.

And this blessing is going to be for you, for your family.

It's going to be for their descendants.

It's going to be for this nation.

This is a blessing that is going to be for the whole world.

Abraham believes God,

and God says that this makes him righteous.

Through Exodus, we saw God rescuing his people,

taking his nation out of slavery in Egypt,

and he puts them into the promised land,

and he gives them a law,

and he says, this law is good.

It shows you about me.

It shows you about what I want you to do,

but it also shows you that you need a savior.

It shows you that you need someone to come and rescue you.

We see God then putting his nation into Israel

and giving them kings.

We see great kings like David.

We see kings like Solomon who went and built God's temple,

and it all looks well for Israel,

but it falls apart.

The kingdom is split in two,

and they each have their bad kings

and their worst kings,

and God sends prophet after prophet

to call his people back to them

to say, stop chasing after the ways of the world.

Come back to me.

Last week, we saw how Hosea was a picture of God

coming back to rescue his people.

We saw Hosea going to the slave market

to rescue his adulterous wife,

and in that, we see this amazing love

that God has for us.

Today, we're going to be looking at Jesus,

and it's not the pictures and the images

and the illustrations of Jesus

that we've had the past couple of weeks,

but we're going to look at who Jesus is.

As much as I would like to look

at the entirety of Jesus' life,

I'm sure you guys don't want to be here for five hours.

So we're going to look at one part,

and in this one part,

I'm going to try and answer three questions.

Let me know how I do on that.

The first one is, who is Jesus?

Second, what does he do?

And lastly, why is it important?

What does it mean for us?

Who Jesus is matters,

because the way we view someone

shapes the way that we respond to them.

When I was about seven or eight years old,

my family, money was a little bit tight,

so we didn't go away for the summer holidays.

We got on a bus towards Tun Mun,

and we got off the Gold Coast,

and we stayed at the hotel there for a week.

It was great because we had the beach and the sun,

and there was like a games room,

and my dad could take the bus to work and come back,

and as a family, we spent about a week there.

Now, on one of these days,

I was out at the back of the hotel with my mother,

and we were playing chess.

They had this giant chess set,

about 10 meters by 10 meters.

It was huge.

I loved it.

But at some point in this game,

I realized something was going wrong.

I was losing.

And I was convinced that my mom was cheating.

And I got very angry.

I was really frustrated.

I said, Mom, that's not how you move the night.

That's not how it works.

And I got really frustrated.

I didn't know what to do

because Mom kept insisting she was right.

And I reached up,

and I slapped my mother.

Now, in that moment,

when I looked at my mother,

I didn't see the mother who carried me for nine months

and cared for me all these years.

I saw a traitor

who was cheating me out of my victory in this chess game.

And so I went away,

and my dad came home from work that evening,

and he pulled me aside,

and he looked at me.

Now, when I used to get in trouble as a kid,

my dad would always say,

you know, you have to love your mother.

Your mother is very nice.

She cares for you.

She cooks for you.

But he didn't say that today.

He said, my wife.

You did what to my wife?

I knew I was in trouble.

I was more trouble than I've ever been in my life.

But I knew in that moment

that the way I looked at my mother changed drastically.

You know, when I think that my mother is cheating me

out of a victory in chess,

I remember that it's not just my mother,

but it's my dad's wife,

and that changes the way that I respond and react and treat my mother.

But it's the same thing with Jesus.

I think sometimes we like to put different names on Jesus.

We tell him,

we say that, you know,

he's a good teacher,

that he's a social justice pioneer,

that he is,

somebody once said a couple of weeks ago,

I heard,

that he was an alien who came.

Right?

And all these different things,

they change the way that we look at who Jesus is

and what he does.

But who Jesus is is important

because that changes the way that we look at

the story of the Bible.

It changes the way that we look at

what the people 2,000 years ago thought of

when they saw Jesus.

And it changes what our life means

as Jesus' people,

as Jesus' followers.

So how do we figure out who Jesus is?

Well, we look at his life.

Now, it's not been too long since Christmas.

I'm sure you remember the Christmas story.

Virgin Mary, Holy Spirit comes,

conceives a son inside her.

The angels come and they sing,

Hallelujah, there's a son.

The shepherds go and visit him.

The wise men go.

And, you know, all these different things,

they show different things about who Jesus was,

who he was going to be.

But what I want to look at today

is the beginning of Jesus' ministry.

The passage we read was about his baptism

and about his temptation in the desert.

So picture this.

Jesus is about 30 years old.

And he's done all the things

that good Jewish boys do.

So he probably would have had a bar mitzvah

or something,

you know, celebrate becoming a man.

There's that episode where

he was in the temple about 12 years old

and he, you know, abandoned his parents,

let them go off home without him,

and he was debating with the temple scholars.

At some point, maybe,

his mother would have asked him,

Jesus, you know,

why aren't you interested

in any of these nice girls?

You know, and he probably

would have been very faithful

in going to the synagogue

and, you know,

being part of that Jewish culture

and doing the things

that good Jewish people do.

And he was probably a carpenter

like his earthly father, Joseph.

But one day, about 30 years old,

he goes down to the Jordan River

and he sees his cousin there,

John the Baptist.

And John the Baptist is there

wearing clothes made from camel's hair.

And he's preaching

and he's telling people

that they need to repent

because the king is coming.

And people are listening

and they're convicted

and John the Baptist is there

and he's baptizing them

and he sees Jesus coming.

He sees Jesus coming

and he realized something

that perhaps he hadn't thought about before

and he looks at Jesus

and he says,

Behold, look,

there is a Lamb of God,

the one who takes away

the world's sin.

And Jesus comes up to him.

Presumably, they knew each other,

I think, they're cousins.

And Jesus says,

John, I need you to baptize me.

And John says, no.

You should be the one baptizing me

because you're the one

that God's talked about.

You're the one that God has said

was to come.

You're the one that God said

would baptize people

with the Holy Spirit.

You should baptize me.

Jesus looks back to him and says,

No, you need to baptize me

because I need to be obedient.

I need to fulfill the righteousness

that God has set aside,

has set before me.

So Jesus is baptized.

And in that moment,

the Holy Spirit descends

in the form of a dove from heaven.

The heavens open up.

And everyone here gets to hear

from God

in a very direct

and very audible way.

It's something that hasn't happened

since God gave the law

all the way back in Exodus.

And this voice from heaven,

God says,

This is my son

in whom I am well pleased.

Now, if you're reading the Bible

and you think that it's a metaphor,

then you say,

This is God's son,

then, you know,

this may not mean a lot to you.

But for me,

when I look at the Bible,

I think,

This is God telling me something.

This is God telling me

something important

about who Jesus is.

I think that God

saying that Jesus is his son

is very, very important.

So, this son of God,

this Jesus,

what does he do?

Surely,

if he's going to start his ministry,

he would do something amazing.

Start it out with a bang.

Maybe he'd do a miracle.

You know,

there must have been sick people there.

He could have healed them.

He could have walked in the water.

The river is quite convenient.

You know,

he could have fed everyone there.

Or maybe he would have given a sermon.

He'd have said,

You know,

this is what baptism means,

you know,

just to clear up all the confusion.

You know,

he could have given a sermon

about, you know,

what repentance is.

He could have told them,

you know,

this is what I'll be doing

over the next couple of years.

I'll be in these cities

on these days,

and I'm going to a cross.

And he could have explained

everything to the people there,

or maybe he could have

chosen his disciples.

He could have brought

his disciples together there,

and he said,

All right,

now we're going to go

on a special

disciples training camp.

We're going to go away

for a couple of weeks,

and you're going to come back,

and you're going to go

and spread the gospel.

Instead,

he goes into the wilderness,

and I don't know,

when I looked at it

the first time,

it made me a little bit strange.

It was a bit awkward,

because it says here,

Then Jesus was led up

by the Spirit

into the wilderness.

So the Holy Spirit of God

is taking Jesus

into the wilderness,

but he's taking him

to be tempted by Satan.

That didn't make sense to me.

That doesn't make sense to me.

Why would God take his son,

you know,

who he loves,

who he's well pleased with,

and put him somewhere

where it's not very nice to be.

It's a wilderness.

It's a desert,

and put him there

to be tempted by Satan.

So he goes there,

and he's there for 40 days

and 40 nights

in the wilderness,

under the sun,

in the cold at night,

and Satan comes.

He comes to tempt him,

and he says,

You know, Jesus,

you're hungry,

but you're also

the son of God.

You know,

if you're the son of the king,

why do you have to starve?

Why do you have to,

you know,

to sit around here

preparing for your ministry

in hunger?

Why don't you turn

these stones into bread?

You can do it.

After all,

you are God's son,

aren't you?

And Jesus says,

No.

He quotes scripture

back to Satan

and says,

The Bible says that

I don't live by bread,

but I live by the words

from God's mouth.

You know,

the second temptation

comes along,

and Satan tries another tactic.

He realizes that Jesus

is using the Bible,

so he's going to use

the Bible as well.

Taking him to the top

of the temple,

he says,

If you jump off,

people will see you.

You'll become famous.

That's a good thing, right?

But you'll be totally safe,

because I remember

the psalm that says

that God's going to catch you.

He's going to send

his angels to protect you,

and your feet won't hit a stone.

Jesus returns and says,

That's not how you look

at the Bible.

That's not how you use

God's word.

He says,

Do not put the Lord

your God to the test.

Satan tries again.

He takes Jesus

to the top of a mountain,

and he shows him

all the kingdoms of the earth,

and he says,

These kingdoms are mine.

I get to choose

who rules them.

If you'll bow down to me,

I will make you

the ruler of these things.

And Jesus says,

Be gone, Satan.

I like that word.

Be gone.

Get away from here,

because I am here

to honor my Father,

to love my Father,

and it's only my Father

that I am going

to be worshiping.

And so,

it's a very simple story.

Jesus is good.

Satan is bad.

Satan tempts Jesus.

Jesus knows the Bible,

so he resists temptation.

Yay, Jesus.

So now,

everyone needs to go away

from here,

learn your Bibles,

so that you can be

just like Jesus

and resist temptation.

Except,

it's not really

just about that.

It's more than just

a call for us

to know God's word.

It's more than just

a call for us

to know what God says

and know what's right

and what's wrong.

Jesus' actions

in the wilderness here

have an effect

that ripples out

and it affects the way

that we live our lives.

And it goes back

and it shows the things

about who God is

and the promises

that he made

to his people.

I love the Bible

because it rarely

does anything once.

You know,

God always uses

pictures of small things

to show people

a bigger thing.

You know,

he creates man

in his image

and when we see

other people's creativity,

we can glorify God

who is creative.

You know,

when we see the picture

of marriage,

we can look at that

and we say,

this is a beautiful relationship

that God has brought

two people together

and we can also say

that we're looking forward

to the marriage

of Christ and the church

in eternity.

I like that the Bible

lets us use small things

to get a grasp

of big heavenly things.

For Jesus,

this temptation

was important

because, you know,

this wasn't the first time

that the Son of Man

was tempted by Satan.

This wasn't the first time

that God's chosen one

was wandering

in the wilderness.

I want to show you

and hopefully I can do it,

I want to show you

that Jesus isn't this add-on

to a law that didn't quite work

and prophets

who weren't really listened to.

Hopefully by the end of this,

you know,

you will see that Jesus

is the fulfillment

of everything that we've seen.

That, you know,

when we started in January

looking at creation

and the story of Abraham

and of Exodus

and of David

and of Solomon,

that all these stories

are building up to Jesus.

That it's not plan B.

That Jesus was the plan

from the beginning.

So let's look again

at the scene in the wilderness.

In Deuteronomy 8,

God talks to his people.

He talks to his people

after he's brought them

through the wilderness

and he tells them

several things.

He says that,

you know,

those years in the wilderness,

you were there for 40 years

and I took you there

to test you.

I took you there

to know your hearts,

to know that

if you would follow

my commandments,

you know,

I let you hunger

to see how you would respond

but all this time

I protected you.

I kept you.

I made sure

that your clothes

didn't wear out,

that your shoes

didn't wear out,

that your feet

didn't swell

in all your wandering.

You know,

Jesus and Israel

are very, very similar

because Israel

was led into the wilderness

by God.

The pillar of smoke

and fire

went before them

and they followed,

Israel followed God

in this pillar of smoke

into the wilderness,

into the desert

and Jesus follows

the Holy Spirit

into the desert too.

But it's not

to torture them.

God isn't thinking,

ha ha,

here are my chosen ones,

I'm going to give them

a terrible time.

But it comes out

of the context

of this pre-existing

relationship

because in removing

Israel from Egypt,

God says,

this is my people,

they're mine

and I love them

and I want to give them

freedom,

I want to show them

how to live

and he does the same thing

with Jesus.

He says when he opens

the heavens

that this is my son.

God is taking

his children

out of one place

into the wilderness

because it says

that he wants

to know their hearts.

But I don't think

God has any trouble

knowing our hearts.

I think what might

have been going on

is that God wanted

to show Israel

their own hearts

and by testing Jesus

to show us

Jesus' heart

that we would see

the things

that he did

that we failed to do.

See the ways

that he was obedient

that we would not do.

In the wilderness,

Israel was hungry

and they grumbled

and they said,

you know what,

this whole redemption

thing is useless.

Let's go back to Israel

to Egypt, sorry.

Let's go back to Egypt

and we can become

slaves there again

because there

we still have food.

We still can eat.

We're not hungry.

The first thing they do

when they're hungry

wasn't to turn to God.

It was to turn back

to the slavery

that God had brought them from.

I always wondered,

when they were grumbling,

didn't they see

the pillar of smoke?

Didn't they remember

the Red Sea

pulling apart?

Why did they grumble

like this?

But Jesus does

what Israel could not do

in their testing.

You know,

when Jesus is told

to turn bread,

stones into bread,

he says,

no,

I think that my God

is enough,

that my Father

is enough.

I can trust his word

because his word

isn't just the law,

but his word is love.

His word creates.

His word is the promise

of a Savior,

of a Redeemer.

You know,

where Israel believes

that God's word

and being God's people

means that they're

going to be comfortable

and satisfied

and life is going to be

easy all the time,

Jesus looks and says

that maybe

that isn't so true,

that there will be

discomfort,

but I know

that my safety

is resting

in being under God's word

and being connected

to him.

You know,

in a moment,

Jesus is taken up

to the temple

and, you know,

he points back

to Israel

and he says,

don't put the Lord God

to your test.

He says,

God's faithfulness

is there.

Yes,

God is faithful,

but God isn't faithful

for us to test him.

God is faithful

for us to rely on him.

You know,

God isn't faithful

so that we can

jump off temples

and do amazing things

and get the fame

of the world.

God's faithfulness

is that he's there

with us

when things are going great

and when things

are going badly.

You know,

the last temptation

that Jesus faces

is the temptation

of the world.

He is given

the option

to bow before Satan

and be the king

of all the kingdoms

at a very small cost.

All he had to do

was worship Satan.

You know,

all he had to do

was give his allegiance

to God.

Now,

this seems like

an easy test.

Do you worship God

or do you worship Satan?

Right?

Yeah,

easy answer.

God.

Right?

But,

I think that

while we recognize

this here,

we do this a lot

of the time.

I think I do.

You know,

I think I give up

worshiping God

for far lesser treasures

than the whole world.

You know,

I think that,

you know,

Israel gave up God.

They worshipped

a golden calf,

something they made

with their own hands

because they wanted

something to celebrate.

They wanted a feast.

And we do the same,

I think.

I think we worship,

we serve our greed,

we worship our money

because we think

that will satisfy us.

I know that,

you know,

very often I will give up God

and I'll worship myself

because I want more control.

I want more control

over my own life,

over my circumstances.

I want control

over the people

who are around me.

You know,

I think that the times

that we are dissatisfied,

when we're discontent,

when we look and we say,

I want that little bit more,

we're giving up

worshiping God

to worship something else.

in the desert

for 40 days

is testing,

the hunger,

you know,

all these things,

they draw a parallel

between Jesus

and the wilderness

and Israel

with their 40 years.

You know,

the desert

was the beginning

of God establishing

his nation of Israel

and in this wilderness,

God begins

the process

of building

his kingdom

in Christ.

He frees Israel

from this bondage

of slavery

to the Egyptians

and in Christ

he makes a way

for our freedom

from deadness and sin.

Jesus' 40 days

in the desert

were Israel's 40 years

but where Israel fails,

Jesus triumphs.

You know,

where Israel

kind of goes

and makes a really feeble

and half-hearted

attempt at taking

the promised land,

Jesus is victorious.

You know,

Satan leaves him

because Satan realizes

that he's lost.

You know,

Satan went into

this temptation

hoping that

if I can make

the Son of God

sin,

then I've won.

I will have control

over the earth

and God will destroy

in his judgment

and I'll have won.

What is significant

about this temptation

is that it isn't new.

Jesus is tempted

in all the ways

that we are.

You know,

to rebelliously

test God,

to look at God's

riches and provision

and to turn

to something else

to provide for us.

To worship God's creation

instead of God.

To worship God's creation

instead of the God

who created it.

Jesus obeys

and in doing that

he identifies

with Israel

and with us.

He battles Satan

and he wins.

He trusts in God

and not bread

or angels

or power.

By his obedience,

Jesus purchased

obedience for us.

His perfection

makes his children

perfect.

His strength

makes us strong.

You know,

I'm thinking,

what does this look like

for Israel?

What does it look like

for these early Christians?

Christians.

You know,

I'm imagining

Pharisees going around

telling people,

you're doing that wrong,

you're doing this wrong,

you walked one mile

too many,

that's Sabbath breaking,

you tied the wrong knot.

You know,

I think

Christ's righteousness

bought for his people

meant

that this Jewish Christian

could celebrate

the Sabbath

freely,

not having to worry

if he was tying

the wrong knot

or walking too far

because he knows

that there's no

condemnation for him

because

Christ's righteousness

is his.

I think

when I look

at Christ

in the desert

and I see

his obedience,

I see that I get

to live

my life

without fear,

without worrying

about doing it wrong.

You know,

I think I'm a little bit

like a Pharisee.

My life is built up

around rules.

I have lots and lots

of rules

because rules

keep me safe.

They keep me

out of trouble,

they keep me

from doing stupid things

but the rules

don't keep me

from sinning

all the time.

I know

that when I mess up

and, you know,

the story about my mother

is funny but,

you know,

just this past Thursday

at dinner,

I got really frustrated

with my mother again

and I was very rude to her.

I didn't slap her though

but, you know,

I can go to my mother

and ask for forgiveness

for being really upset

but I can go to God

and I can say,

thank you God

for Christ's obedience.

because that is my obedience

because when I'm rude

to my mother,

I am still perfect

in Christ.

You know,

and when I work

at killing sin,

when I work at killing lust

and pride

and laziness,

you know,

I'm not manufacturing

my own righteousness,

I'm putting on Christ,

I'm putting on the obedience

that he displayed to us

in the wilderness.

You know,

I know that Christ's obedience

is mine

where my body

is weak

and succumbs to sin often.

I know that my soul

is alive

because it's joined up

with Jesus Christ.

Now,

I don't know about you,

you could be really worn out,

feeling powerless.

I don't know,

maybe you're at work

and there's a lot of pressure

to conform.

You know,

maybe,

maybe you just

fudge the numbers

a little bit

because everyone else

is doing it.

And you know what?

If you have good numbers,

then maybe you'll get

a promotion.

You get a promotion,

you can provide

for your family

and that's a good thing,

right?

Or maybe you don't care.

You know,

maybe you're just

going to go through

all your exams

and you're going to cheat

in all your exams

and all your tests

and all your coursework.

You're going to find

every loophole

and every way

to get academic success

without putting on the work,

without doing it honestly.

Or maybe

you've met someone

and it seems that

they're not just happy

with a little goodnight kiss,

they want something more.

You know,

they want to have sex

outside of marriage.

And you know that

as a Christian,

you probably shouldn't

be doing that.

That, you know,

sex is a good thing

for marriage.

And you decide in your mind,

I'm not going to do that,

but your heart

is still longing for sin.

You know,

how do you wrestle with that?

How do you deal with,

you know,

my heart is sinful,

but I know I need to do

this right thing.

What do you do

when your health

isn't what it used to be?

And you need to figure out

how you're going to provide

for your family.

What do you do

when your employees

are driving you insane?

What are you doing

when you can't

stand your parents?

What are you doing

when your kids'

rebelliousness

goes to a whole

nother level?

What does this story

have to say

for each of us?

What does this story

have to say to you?

What does this story

have to say

about your obedience?

obedience.

The call of the gospel

to the Christian

is obedience

and perfection.

To be perfect.

But not

to have our own perfection.

Because even if our actions

are pure,

very often our thoughts

and our hearts aren't.

The call of the gospel

is to lay down

our efforts at holiness

and to cling

onto Jesus.

To hold onto him.

To look at him

in the wilderness

and see his obedience

and say,

you know,

I probably can't be holy

like Jesus.

But Jesus was holy.

Jesus was obedient

so that I could have

his obedience.

Not that we abandon,

you know,

our pursuit of holiness.

Not that we abandon,

you know,

our efforts

to love God

and his law

and to follow those things.

Because, you know,

they're difficult.

But in that,

we can say

that our holiness

and righteousness

isn't built

on my ability

to be perfect.

You know,

my holiness

and righteousness

isn't depending

on my ability

to follow

every single rule

that I've set for myself.

Because I don't.

But that my righteousness

is based on Jesus.

On Jesus,

who in the wilderness

faced off

against Satan.

And who said,

I'm not going

to worship Satan.

I'm not going

to worship anything else

that is not God.

Who said,

I'm going to be trusting

God for my provision,

for my sustenance.

this means that

when we obey,

we can thank God

because our obedience

is his.

It means that

when we're struggling

to obey,

when we can't figure out

what is right or wrong,

when we don't know

if we're obeying

or if we're sitting,

that we can look

to Christ's obedience.

It means that

when we wake up

and we find ourselves

waist-deep in sin,

that we can repent,

that we can trust God,

that we can sing

that line from

before the throne

where, you know,

Satan is going

to tempt me

to despair at my sin,

but I'm going to look.

I'm going to look up

and I'm going to see Christ.

I'm going to see Jesus

who is perfect

and holiness,

who through

his temptation,

through his struggles

in the desert,

through his ultimate

sacrifice on the cross,

has made me right

with God.

Jesus' coming

was on an accident.

You know,

when God created

the earth,

when God gave Israel

their law,

he created it

knowing that these people

would need a savior,

that they would need

a Christ.

Christ's coming

wasn't out of the blue.

All the things

that God does

through the Bible,

all the things

that Jesus does

are intentional.

you know,

they're there

to show us

about him,

about us,

about our need

of him.

They show us

that he was God's son.

They show us

that Jesus

going to meet Satan

in the desert

was not an accident,

that God took him there,

that Jesus

followed him there.

Jesus

was to be

the true Israel,

to do the things

that Israel

could not do.

Where Israel

failed,

where Israel

rebelled,

where Israel

did not trust

in God's faithfulness,

Jesus

does all those things

and Jesus

obeys

where we

cannot.

This morning,

I got on the MTR

and I got on

Tin How

and I got on the train

and I went all the way

to Sian Poon Station

which opened this morning

and it's fantastic.

I'm so excited.

My commute will be

12 minutes shorter.

But, you know,

Sian Poon Station opened

but Sian Poon Station

is not an afterthought.

Yes, you know,

Kennedy Town

and HKU stations,

you know,

they opened back in December

but Sian Poon Station

is not an afterthought.

Sian Poon Station

is part of a plan

all along.

And I think

we forget

that Jesus

is a part of the plan

all along.

I think sometimes

we live

and we look at the Bible

as if,

you know,

Jesus was this thing

that God did

at the last minute

to save us

because we realized

that everything

wasn't going

according to plan.

You know,

I'm convinced

when I look at the Bible

that from creation,

Jesus was God's plan

for salvation.

I think that's why

John the Baptist,

when he saw

his cousin Jesus coming,

he looked at him

and said,

behold the Lamb of God

who takes away

the sin of the world.

He says,

look,

look at Christ

because this isn't

just,

you know,

a man from Nazareth

here today.

This is a picture

of everything

that we've been waiting for.

He is the new

Passover Lamb.

He is the new

sacrificial Lamb

that is going to free us

from our slavery

to sin

because this is

the same God

who was there

in the beginning

of creation

because look,

this is a man

who,

unlike Adam,

when facing off

against Satan,

will not sin

but will obey.

This is the man

who is the answer

to the promise

of Abraham.

This is the man

who is going to be

the blessing

to the whole world.

You know,

this is

a king,

a king who's

better than David

because,

you know,

he doesn't just kill

the giants of our sin

but he is a king

that lives

a good

and perfect legacy

for his children,

a legacy that means

that when we're not perfect,

we inherit

his righteousness.

This is the one

who builds

a temple

in the hearts

of his people,

a temple

that cannot be destroyed.

This

is Jesus

like Hosea

who comes back

time and time again

for his people

who wander

time and time again

back

into adulterous sin.

John the Baptist

says,

behold

the Lamb

of God.

Look,

this is our

obedience

and our

righteousness,

not self-made

but from God,

a gift

to his people.

I think

it's far too easy

to see

Christ

as something

other than

the fountain

from our obedience,

the fountain

from which

our obedience

comes

and the source

of our ability

to be good

and to obey

God's law.

John the Baptist

calls the people

here to look

to Christ

and not at anything

else.

Though when we're

trying to figure out

how we're going to

provide for our family

or how we're going

to pass this exam

or when we're looking

for significance

or value,

God wants to show

us another way.

He wants to show

us that

we don't have

to be the pilots

of our own destiny,

that our obedience

today,

that our security

in eternity

is tied up

together

with Jesus.

You know,

I wish this was

something that

I didn't forget

so easily.

You know,

I think

a lot of the time

I think I need

to make my own

righteousness.

I need to succeed

on my own.

Sometimes I even

forget God's

faithfulness

altogether

and I say,

actually,

that's going to be

a lot easier

if I just sin,

if I just do

things my way.

I think God

knows this.

I think God

knows that we

forget easily.

I think he gives

us the Bible.

I think he gives

us the Old Testament.

I think he gives

us the New Testament.

I think he gives

us Christ

to remind us

of these things,

to remind us

that our obedience

isn't self-manufactured,

but it comes

from God.

Today,

we're going to be

celebrating the

communion meal

together.

And for this

communion meal,

it does many

things.

For a Christian,

it's a reminder

of the cross.

It's a reminder

of Christ's

sacrifice for our

salvation.

Today,

I hope it's

a reminder that

Jesus is not

our backup plan.

It isn't the

plan B to

God's righteousness

for his people.

You know,

in the Passover meal,

in the communion,

we see parallels.

We see that Jesus

is the Passover

lamb,

that instead of

freedom from slavery,

he offers us

freedom from sin

and death.

That in communion,

the bread is his

body broken for us,

and that his blood

pays the price for

our righteousness,

righteousness,

just like the

blood protected

Israel from God's

judgment.

Passover is about

God saving his

people from slavery.

And communion is

about what Christ

does to secure

our salvation.

It's what Christ

does to enable us

to be obedient

and faithful.

So I'm going to

ask the communion

stewards to come

forward this morning.

I want us to think

about a couple of

things.

I want us to think

about our obedience.

Where does our

righteousness come

from?

How is it that we

are made right

with God?

Do we earn it by

being good, by

keeping the laws?

Or do we wake

up each day and

put on Christ's

righteousness?

Who is our

savior?

Who is our king?

You know, like

these kids, are we

saying, Hosanna,

Jesus is our king?

Or are we our

own king?

Is there something

else that we're

worshiping?

Now, in this

communion meal,

this is a

sacrament that as

Christians, we do

that says that our

trust is in God.

It's something that

we do as a family.

And so if you're

here today and

you, and Jesus

isn't your king, we

ask that you don't

take part in this.

But watch and

observe.

Ask the person

sitting next to you.

Come talk to me

afterwards.

Ask me or ask

Eric what it's

about.

But for those

who are Christ's,

for those of us

who say that we're

going to put on

Christ's righteousness,

we're going to

look at Christ's

obedience in the

desert and say,

yes, that is our

obedience.

I want to invite you

guys to, as you

feel led, come

forward and collect

the communion

elements.

And once you've

done that, return

to your seats and

afterwards we'll

take the communion

meal together.

here.

Let's go.