The Test

We started something last week that I'm so excited about.

It's called Following Jesus.

We're spending this entire year following Jesus.

And that actually is a little bit of a misnomer.

We're spending our entire lives following Jesus.

But this year specifically, we're in a study called Following Jesus.

And what we're going to be doing is going through the entire book of Matthew from now through December.

So we're going to go through Jesus' life and really study him so that we can understand him better, so that we can know him better and follow him more closely.

By the way, all of our kids, high school all the way down through first grade, are also going through this, although they'll be learning the same scriptures, the same story.

So if you have kids know that, they'll have a little bit different take on it depending on their age level.

So it should create some fun conversations where they can learn from you, but you could also maybe learn from them as well.

So have those conversations if you have kids.

But our whole church essentially is going through this entire year following Jesus.

And we're trying to take that in like a very literal sense, following Jesus.

So we want to sort of follow along on his journey and understand where he's at and who he's talking to and what's going on in the world around him.

So we're using a lot of maps, and I want to give a big shout out to Matt, our worship pastor, who also does a lot of our graphic design.

Matt has made all these maps.

It takes work.

We were on the phone yesterday.

He's like, wait, where is this Jewish city and how do you spell it?

And all it's it's a it's not easy to do.

So this is kind of our main map that we're going to be referencing a lot.

This shows you the world that Jesus grew up in.

Okay, this is ancient Israel.

Let's put it up here on the screen.

And you see all these different uh sort of regions, and we'll learn more about these as the year goes on.

But these are the places where Jesus walked.

These are the places that Jesus taught.

This is the world that Jesus was born into and grew up in.

And I'm so excited for us to just dive into it.

Our very first series we started last week is called First Steps.

We're looking at the earliest moments in Jesus' life and in his ministry.

So last week we talked about Jesus' birth and how disruptive of an event that was, and we explored why.

Why was Jesus such a big deal immediately?

And what were the implications of his life and his entrance into this world?

And if you weren't here last week, feel free to listen to that.

Today, we're gonna jump back into the moment of the story that we left out, left off of last week.

When we left off last week, Jesus is here.

We'll put it on the map.

Jesus is in Nazareth.

This is where Jesus grew up.

He moved there when he was about four years old from Egypt after being on the run for his life.

His parents had to flee because King Herod was after them trying to kill Jesus.

And he's grown up in this little nowhere place called Nazareth.

We joked last week that some of you might consider yourselves to be people from the sticks.

Nazareth literally translates stick town.

So Jesus grew up in the sticks.

And he spent his entire life from age four until age 30 living there.

And you might ask the question, well, what was he doing in Nazareth for all that time?

And Luke actually tells us, Luke chapter 2, verse 52.

Luke 2:52

It puts it very simply.

Jesus grew in wisdom and in stature and in favor with God and all the people.

Jesus grew up.

He grew up.

He would have worked from a very young age.

In fact, it's very likely that Jesus was the primary breadwinner for his family at a fairly young age.

We know this because Joseph, his earthly father, who every time we see Joseph in Scripture, he's a really good dad.

His earthly father is there when he's born.

We have this little moment from Jesus' life in a different gospel when he was 12 years old and his family went to visit Jerusalem, and Joseph is there, but then we never hear from Joseph again.

In Jesus' public ministry, by the time Jesus is 30 and he steps out and he begins to teach and perform miracles and reveal himself to the world, we never see Joseph again.

We see Jesus' mother, we see his brothers, but no Joseph.

And the reality is that likely Joseph had passed away at some point between Jesus being 12 and being 30.

Life expectancy was not very high in Jesus' day.

The average life expectancy was 40 years old.

And so it's likely that at a fairly young age, Jesus became the primary provider for his family.

He worked as a carpenter.

Really, it's a craftsman, is the word in Greek, and it's more likely that he was a stonemason, but he would have just been someone who built things, who helped to build cities that were nearby.

Large construction projects were happening in his world.

He would have been an incredibly hard worker, providing for his family, and likely waited until one of his younger brothers was ready to take that over before he began his ministry.

And so Jesus grew up.

And today we're going to explore the first moments we have in the Gospels of Jesus doing something.

We're going to look at two incredibly pivotal moments from his life, very, very pivotal moments, and they're closely connected.

It's his baptism and then his temptation.

Or maybe a better way to put it would be his testing.

Jesus gets tested today.

Now, all of us know what it feels like to be tested.

Like I've got four kids, and right now they're in that season of life where they're taking a lot of tests because they're all in school.

And my oldest is at that point in life, and many of you can relate to this, where, you know, your kids will come to you for help with homework or to study for a test, and you'll look at what they're learning.

You're like, I don't know any of this.

You know, especially with math.

I just look at it and go, yeah, this is a go to your mom.

Megan's really good at math, so that's helpful.

I'm not.

But our kids are always studying for tests.

They're taking tests, they're getting their grades on tests, they're nervous about tests.

And those tests matter.

We all remember the school days and tests and all the stress and anxiety that went with that.

But we also know that there's bigger tests than the ones you take in school.

There's those moments in life where you really get tested and you find out who you really are.

You find out how strong you really are, you find out how much resolve you really have, you find out how much character you have.

And unfortunately, very often, if we're honest with ourselves, and I think we can all be honest, we fail those tests.

None of us are batting a thousand in those tests.

I fail tests all the time.

And very often the tests that I fail, my friends know this really uh very much about me, is anything related to like personal discipline, especially when it comes to food and dieting.

If you know me well, you know I'm always on some new kick.

I'm always like on a new diet, I've got a new goal, and you know, the good news about me is I never quit.

So even when I fail, I just keep going, I try another one, and I'm always on one, and yes, I'm doing one right now, and it's going fine.

Um but I'm always setting these goals, I'm always trying to do this stuff, and I always fall short.

I fail these tests left and right.

My joke is that in the New Testament, we learn that the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, and self-control.

Self-control comes last.

And I'm not saying that it means you get it last, but I think an argument could be made that that is in order of importance.

So, you know, I'd rather have love and struggle with self-control.

I'm joking, it's not how it works.

It's like an all or nothing thing, I think.

But I struggle with that.

And there have been moments where I have been super resolved, incredibly focused, dedicated, and then a test comes and I don't pass it.

And so one of my weaknesses, and I'd actually love if any of you would just be willing to like be with me in this, because I think I'm not the only one.

One of my weaknesses for years has been a very specific drink.

It is Diet Dr.

Pepper.

Is anyone else here specific to that drink?

Not Diet Coke, not see, I don't think you're being truthful because there's a few of us, and those of us like, come on, solidarity.

But I know that there's more than that because when I go to the grocery store or when I go to like racetrack or quick trip, there's always plenty of Diet Coke.

Diet Pepsi, no one drinks it.

No one.

No one's ever drank a Diet Pepsi.

I'm just joking.

Some of you.

Some of you are like, I drink Diet Pepsi, and you're not from Georgia.

Um, but neither am I.

But then Diet Dr.

Pepper, those of you who feel my pain and you're the diet, you know what it's like.

Like, it's almost always out.

Or there's just a few of them left.

It's it's popular.

So there's a lot more closet Diet Dr.

Pepper drinkers.

And if you don't have the strength to come forward now, I understand.

But I'm telling you, that's been my it's like poison.

But I'm addicted to it, legitimately addicted to it.

And so, a couple years ago, it was my birthday.

And I said, you know what?

It's my birthday.

I'm gonna start this new year of my life, I'm gonna start it in the right way, I'm done with Diet Dr.

Pepper.

I'm giving it up.

I'm done.

And I was like excited about it.

I felt like I had a new lease on life, I mean I was in it.

And so I come to work because adults go to work on their birthdays.

And I, if you don't, if it's okay if you skip, but I I don't know.

So I come here, and the staff is like excited that it's my birthday.

I see some decorations.

We kind of do that on our staff when people have birthdays, we celebrate it.

We don't go all out, but you know, we we have fun at it at that whole thing.

And so I walk in and there's this banner, it says happy birthday, and on the conference room desk are six 12 packs of Diet Dr.

Pepper arranged in like a pyramid shape.

I mean, it's like three, two, one, with ribbons on it, and I've and they don't know that I've just decided I'm not drinking this stuff anymore.

So now I'm I'm in the middle of a test.

And my options are either A, say no, get behind me, Satan.

I refuse.

Like, what are the odds that the day I decide to give this up?

No one's ever given me six, twelve packs of Diet Dr.

Pepper before.

This has never happened in my life.

Yesterday I would have been excited.

Today, mm-mm.

So I have a test.

I have a choice.

I can either say no, stick to my guns, or I can go home and in less time than I'm willing to admit on stage, drink 72 cans of Diet Dr.

Pepper.

And I think we all know what I did.

I failed that test.

And I have failed many before.

And, you know, at a certain point you fail so many tests that it just doesn't phase you that much anymore, and you go, you know, I struggle with this.

I fail tests all the time.

We all do.

But testing is necessary.

If you never get tested, you never know who you really are.

Testing reveals things about us.

Sometimes it reveals our strengths or our weaknesses, and we're about to see Jesus get tested in a way that no human being has ever been tested before.

But let's start by jumping in to Matthew chapter 3.

Matthew 3 · chapter mention

It says, In those days, John the Baptist came to the Judean wilderness and he began preaching.

His message was, Repent of your sins and turn to God, for the kingdom of heaven is near.

The prophet Isaiah was speaking about John when he said, He is a voice shouting in the wilderness, prepare the way for the Lord's coming, clear the road for him.

John's clothes were woven from coarse camel hair.

He wore a leather belt around his waist.

For food he ate locusts and wild honey.

People from Jerusalem and all of Judea, and all over the Jordan Valley, went out to see and hear John.

And when they confessed their sins, he baptized them in the Jordan River.

But when he saw many Pharisees and Sadducees, these are the two major sects of the religious leaders in this part of the world, when he saw them coming to watch him baptize, he denounced them, You brood of snakes, who warned you to flee the coming wrath?

Prove by the way you live that you have repented of your sins and turned to God.

Don't just say to each other, We're safe, for we are descendants of Abraham.

That means nothing.

For I tell you, God can create children of Abraham from these very stones.

Even now the axe of God's judgment is poised, ready to sever the roots of the trees.

Yes, every tree that does not produce good fruit will be chopped down and thrown into the fire.

I baptize with water those who repent of their sins and turn to God.

But someone is coming soon who is greater than I am.

So much greater that I'm not worthy even to be his slave and carry his sandals.

He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire.

He is ready to separate the chaff from the wheat with his winnowing fork, and then he will clean up the threshing area, gathering the wheat into his barn, but burning the chaff with never-ending fire.

John the Baptist is not messing around.

John the Baptist is an intense dude, and he is so important.

See, up to this point in Israel's history, there has not been a prophet for 400 years.

For 400 years, there has not been one person speaking on behalf of God.

There's not been one person saying, hey, this is what the Lord has said.

Everything for them that God has said, God said 400 years ago or earlier.

And so they're living in this world where, because of a lack of God speaking to the people, their religion has just become hardened and rigid.

And they've really lost touch with who God actually is and what he actually cares about.

And so God sends John the Baptist ahead of Jesus to kind of shake things up.

And what he's doing is incredibly unprecedented.

Even more unprecedented than him being a prophet, because he was a prophet.

He's hearing from the Lord, he's saying what God is telling him to say, and the results of his ministry speak for themselves.

People were coming by the thousands to hear John.

There's not been anything like this in 400 years, but what he's doing is even more unprecedented than that.

Because Jewish people are getting baptized.

Now we have baptisms here almost every Sunday.

And so it's kind of routine for us.

But no one got baptized in the Jewish faith.

Unless you were converting from a different faith into Judy into Judaism, you didn't get baptized.

Ever.

And it wasn't baptism the way that we think of it.

It was a different ritual, but it was similar to baptism.

This has never happened.

Not just for 400 years, but but ever.

There's never been a time in history when Jewish people are saying, it's not enough for me just to be a descendant of this man that God chose.

I need to change.

Something needs to happen in me.

I need to repent of my sins, who I am personally matters, and I need to get right with God.

This has never happened before.

And so you have all these people coming by the thousands to be baptized.

There's a prophet for the first time in 400 years.

People are responding to God in a way that they have never responded to God before.

Now, because of John's gospel, we know exactly where this was taking place.

John chapter 1, verse 28 says that this encounter took place in Bethany, an area east of the Jordan River where John was baptizing.

John 1:28

And Jesus is about to make his way there.

So we're going to bring up a map again and kind of look at this journey that Jesus is going to take.

He's going from Nazareth all the way to this little city, this little village called Bethany.

Now, there's multiple Bethanies in this part of the world.

Like, I'm from a town called Springfield, Missouri.

Anyone else from a Springfield from somewhere else?

I'm just curious because there's a lot.

Hey, which one?

Yeah.

All right, Springfield, Massachusetts.

There's also a Springfield, Illinois.

There's a Springfield in 34 states.

Okay?

Bethany was a common name.

In fact, if you look through the Bible, you'll see, and I'm so sorry I put you on the spot.

Like you raised your hand, you didn't know what you were stepping into, but you did great.

So I should have warned you.

But no, there are all kinds of cities and towns.

If you read the New Testament, you're like Bethlehem.

You've got Beth Seda, Bethany.

In fact, this Bethany also gets called Bethabara, and that that preface, Beth, means house of.

So Bethany means house of sorrow.

Bethseda means house of fishing.

There's lots of Beths in this part of the world.

And this Bethany, it says specifically, it's Bethany beyond the Jordan.

The barriers of Israel are at this point in time and still today, you have the Jordan River and then you have the Mediterranean Sea.

That's really where Israel was.

To be on the other side of the Jordan River was to be outside of Israel.

But John is not baptizing in Israel, he's baptizing people, and they're having to cross the Jordan.

They're having to go to the other side of the Jordan River.

And it's interesting to think about why.

One reason is very practical, it's that he's kind of outside the jurisdiction of the Pharisees and the Sadducees.

So they can kind of come and observe.

And John has the boldness, and he would do this in Israel too, because if you know John, he's willing to say anything.

He has the boldness to say, hey, you guys are snakes.

We all know who you are.

You're fakes, you're frauds, you act like you're all perfect on the outside.

We all know the truth.

And on the other side of the Jordan River, they don't quite have the same amount of clout.

So they might have to be a little bit more quiet.

They may not be able to take immediate response.

But even more significantly is this is like almost for certain near the exact place that the Israelites first crossed the Jordan River on their way into the Promised Land.

If you know those stories from the Old Testament.

And so you see the city of Jericho.

That's the ancient Jericho that's up there.

One of the very first things that the people of Israel had to do when they crossed the Jordan River when Joshua led them into the promised land, if you know that story, is they had to battle at Jericho.

That's how close they are to Jericho.

So this is the same place.

The same place where the Jewish people first crossed over into the promise that God had given them.

And it's like John is saying, hey, it's time for all of us to cross over.

It's time for all of us to cross over into a new promise, a new life, a new spirit that God had been promising for centuries.

It's very powerful.

And Jesus goes to meet John.

We pick back up in Matthew chapter 3.

Matthew 3 · chapter mention

Verse 13, it says, Then Jesus went from Galilee, Galilee is the region that Nazareth is in, to the Jordan River to be baptized by John.

But John tried to talk him out of it.

I'm the one who needs to be baptized by you, he said.

So why are you coming to me?

But Jesus said, It should be done, for we must all carry out all that God requires.

And so John agreed to baptize him.

And after his baptism, as Jesus came up out of the water, the heavens were opened, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and settling on him.

And a voice from heaven said, This is my dearly loved Son who brings me great joy.

There is so much happening right now, we could stop here, we could teach on this for months.

We see the Trinity.

That's not a word that appears in our Bibles, but that's a word that we've come up with to describe this idea that God is one being with three persons: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

We see all three at the same time here.

We've got Jesus the Son in the water, we have the Spirit descending upon him, we have the voice of the Father speaking from heaven.

And if you're like, whoa, this concept, you know, I've always struggled with this.

Maybe you've heard it before, maybe it's new to you.

How in the world can God be three and one?

We've actually covered this several times.

I love to talk about it, but I don't want to spend a lot of time on it today.

So what I'll tell you is we did a whole deep dive on this about a year ago.

And on our website, we'll post a link to that that you can listen to.

And if you have our mobile app or if you have like a podcast that you listen to, just search His Hands Church Trinity, and there'll be a couple different episodes that'll pop up and you can listen to some explanations about that.

And so we see that happen here.

We have God the Father sending the Spirit upon the Son.

All three are right there, and it's it's breathtaking.

It's amazing, and people take notice.

Jesus is not being baptized out of repentance, he does not have sin to repent from.

That's why John is like, What are you doing here?

We should be trading places.

But we see right here at the very outset of his ministry the humility of Jesus.

Jesus is humble, he walks in obedience.

He puts himself below others, even though he is clearly above all.

And so Jesus walks in obedience and he says, John, baptize me.

Because I'm doing what the Father is telling me to do.

And John baptizes him, and at this moment, God the Father gives this giant seal of approval to Jesus and lets everyone there know this one's different, this one's special.

And he gets this ringing endorsement from heaven itself.

I mean, there's nothing like it.

There have been many people in the history of Scripture who have been anointed by God.

Many of the kings in the Old Testament were anointed, and a prophet would say, Hey, this is the one.

And John does that to Jesus.

John actually tells some of his disciples, follow him instead.

He's the one.

But no one's ever had God the Father speak from heaven and just let everyone know, hey, just in case you're wondering, this one right here, this is the guy.

So just imagine you're Jesus, and this happens to you, right?

It's your first moment to say to the world, here, I'm I'm here, it's me, I'm ready, I'm your savior, I'm your messiah, I'm the one you've been waiting for, and you have this miraculous moment happen, and people hear it, and everyone's talking about it, your notoriety is growing.

What do you do next?

You build on that momentum, right?

You strike while the iron's hot.

Everybody's talking about it, everyone's talking about you.

Here's your moment to step onto the scene and say, hey, I'm the guy that that just happened to, and man, people would have been there by the thousands, but that is not what Jesus does immediately after this momentous occurrence in his life.

It's not what he does.

We see what he does next in Matthew chapter 4.

Matthew 4 · chapter mention

This is verse 1.

Then Jesus was led by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted there by the devil.

I've just had the greatest moment of my life.

I've just had this unprecedented moment where God the Father has spoken audibly about me in front of other people.

The Spirit of God has descended upon me.

I know what I should do.

I should go get tested.

And I should go to, you know, the wilderness.

Now, when you think wilderness, I don't know what jumps in your mind.

I grew up in the Midwest, and so the wilderness was always trees, forests, that kind of stuff.

But that's not the wilderness that Jesus.

Grew up around.

We actually know with fairly fair certainty where Jesus went.

And he likely went to this place called Jeshimon.

And I know I'm mispronouncing that, so let's just give grace.

Jeshimon is part of the Judean wilderness.

And this is what it looks like.

We have a picture of Jesimon, so you can kind of see it.

Well, that's a map.

We'll get there in a second.

If we don't have the picture, it's fine.

There it is.

There we go.

We'll go back.

All right.

That's where Jesus goes.

And he's there for a long time.

I don't know about you.

I don't see anything worthwhile.

Doesn't look pleasant.

It looks hot.

It looks miserable.

Actually, that place was called the Devastation.

And it was about a 35-mile strip of land that was in between a place called Hebron and the Dead Sea.

And the Dead Sea is called the Dead Sea because nothing can live in it.

It is the lowest point on the earth above the ocean, in terms of like not underwater.

It's a thousand feet, almost 1,500 feet below sea level.

Nothing can even live there.

And that's where Jesus goes.

Hey, I had this big moment.

Everybody's talking about me.

My fame is growing.

I know where I should go.

The devastation.

And I'll go there, you know, to hang out with the devil.

That sounds like the right thing to do after the biggest moment of your life.

And we'll bring the map back up that we had a second ago.

This is uh where this is, right?

Jesus is leaving Bethany beyond the Jordan, he's going into the Judean desert, and he spends uh a little over a month there.

And so we pick back up in Matthew chapter 4.

Matthew 4 · chapter mention

It says, For forty days and forty nights he fasted and became very hungry.

And during that time the devil came and said to him, If you are the son of God, tell these stones to become loaves of bread.

But Jesus told him, No.

The scriptures say, people do not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.

Then the devil took him to the holy city, Jerusalem, to the highest point of the temple.

And it's likely this is like a vision that Jesus is having.

And said, If you are the Son of God, jump off.

For the Scriptures say he will order his angels to protect you, and they will hold you up with their hands so you won't even hurt your foot on a stone.

And Jesus responded, the scriptures also say, You must not test the Lord your God.

Next the devil took him to the peak of a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and all their glory.

I'll give it all to you, he said, if you will kneel down and worship me.

Get out of here, Satan, Jesus told him.

For the scriptures say, you must worship the Lord your God and serve only him.

And then the devil went away and angels came and took care of Jesus.

Now, I said a moment ago that Jesus is tested in a way that no person has ever been tested before.

The only person or people that could maybe say they they understand the position Jesus is in would be like Adam and Eve, who also appear from Scripture to be tempted by the devil himself.

We don't typically get tempted by the devil directly.

We're not that important.

You know, like most of us just get tempted by, you know, your staff with Diet Dr.

Pepper and things like that, with just everyday common occurrences.

Like it's not that hard for us to get tempted.

The devil doesn't even have to do it himself.

He just knows that in typical life, we're gonna get tempted left and right by all kinds of little things.

But when it comes to Jesus, he's like, no, some things you have to do yourself.

And so Jesus goes to be tested in the wilderness, and the devil himself, Satan himself, tempts Jesus not once.

Adam and Eve didn't make it past the first temptation.

We don't know how many Satan had in store for them.

He might have been surprised, like, oh, they ate the apple.

That was fast.

Um, not sure how that happened.

Maybe he had more in his back pocket, but we don't know if it was an apple or not, it was a fruit.

But but with Jesus, he's got three.

And apparently that's all he's got.

He's got three, he's like, I'm gonna get him on one of these, and every single time, directly with evil itself, with Satan itself, Jesus.

He not only passes, but he passes perfectly.

And this is so vital for us because in this moment we learn a lot about our enemy, and we learn even more about our Jesus.

And so I want to take a few minutes and reflect on these takeaways we get from Jesus in this temptation, because if we can see how Jesus navigates this, maybe just maybe we can get some of this for ourselves.

We can use this when we get tempted in lesser ways.

But this is really powerful.

So I want to go back to the very first temptation.

In the first temptation, we get to see the wisdom of Jesus on display.

Jesus shows us his wisdom.

No one has ever had wisdom like Jesus.

And it shows up in such a big way.

Now, some of you may know where I'm going with this, but if you don't, like, participate, or even if you do, let's have fun.

Jesus goes to the desert.

He's in the devastation, he is hungry, he has been fasting.

And Satan shows up, and what is it that Satan tempts Jesus with?

Yell it out.

Food.

Food.

Most of us, food, bread, right?

No.

Let me read you something Jesus said.

It's actually a slightly different version of what Heidi read from Luke.

Jesus would have taught many different times, many different things.

Jesus says this in Matthew chapter 7, verses 9 through 11.

Matthew 7:9–11

This is kind of a different take on that teaching we looked at a minute ago during worship.

He says, You parents, if your children ask for a loaf of bread, do you give them a stone instead?

Or if they ask for a fish, do you give them a snake?

Of course not.

So if you sinful people know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly father give good gifts to those who ask him?

Now, here's Jesus, and he says, if you're if you're really a good father, a good parent, if you really love someone and they're hungry and they ask for bread, do you show up and say, Here, I have rocks?

And it's such a ridiculous thing to think about.

Like I've read that so many times, and it just seems like Jesus is using some silly hypothetical, but this is not a hypothetical for Jesus.

This is what happened to him.

He's speaking from experience because he had to be so hungry.

He's fasting.

And if you've ever fasted before, it's hard.

If you fasted for that long, it's unimaginably hard.

And he's got to just be starving.

And Satan does not show up with bread and say, hey man, you're hungry.

Look, look what I've got.

He doesn't offer him bread.

He offers him stones.

Rocks.

He says, hey, if you're really the Son of God, turn these rocks into bread.

He offers Jesus rocks.

And Jesus has the wisdom to see it.

He has the wisdom to see that what Satan is offering him is not what he actually needs.

And if only we could be that wise.

When we get tempted, we have to realize that our enemy, it's always a bait and switch.

It's always a bait and switch.

He never ever offers us what we desperately need.

He never offers us what is truly good for us.

He's just really good at disguising stones as bread.

I mean, so much so that we'll read this story and we're like, oh, Jesus was tempted with bread.

No, there's no bread.

Only stones.

And so the next time that you get tempted, the next time that you are tempted to cross a line in your heart that you know you shouldn't cross, to do something that you know is wrong, and it starts to enter your mind that, yeah, but this is what I need, and this is what I really desire, and this will be good for me.

Oh, no, no, no.

Remember this moment.

Remember the wisdom of Jesus.

Satan never gives us bread, he only gives us stones.

And it's a pretty good way to live, just in general with life, to not eat rocks.

Don't eat rocks.

It will not work out.

Jesus had the wisdom to see it.

And we see now in Jesus, he's passing this test.

He's wise.

So many people who have come before Jesus, people who many thought maybe this is the one.

Maybe this king, maybe they're the one that the prophets spoke of.

And they're easily tripped up, they're easily deceived because they do not have the wisdom that Jesus has.

But in this first temptation, we see, oh, he sees what's really going on.

He has wisdom.

And by the way, guys, scripture tells us that if any of us lacks wisdom, we should ask God, and that God, our Father, will not deny us the wisdom that we need.

So we should desire that wisdom that Jesus has.

He's wise.

Number two, Satan says, takes him to the top of the temple.

Now, like I said, it's likely this is a vision.

Maybe it's not.

Maybe they physically went there.

It's possible they could have walked there.

It's possible they could have been transported there.

I don't know.

But I've always imagined it, I guess, as Jesus in this moment of temptation and he has a vision of this, but it doesn't really matter.

What does matter is what Satan is asking him to do.

It's kind of odd, right?

Like, hey, I don't know, jump.

Why in the world would Satan tempt Jesus to jump from the top of this temple, this high structure in Jerusalem?

What in the world would it benefit Jesus to do if he jumped?

It seems so childish, right?

It seems like something that, you know, like a middle school kid would try to get one of his friends to do, like, hey, you chicken, you should jump.

And maybe that's exactly how Satan said it.

I don't think so, though.

No, it's something that's been written about a lot.

Obviously, this is stuff that's been thought about, written about, talked about for centuries.

I think he's I think he's tempting Jesus with a spectacle.

Because if Jesus were to leap from this place in the temple that everyone could see, and he doesn't get hurt.

It's like, hey guys, look at me.

Look what I can do.

It's very interesting how Jesus went about his ministry.

And what we see in this denial is the security of Jesus.

We just saw his wisdom.

He is wise.

But now we get to see the security of Jesus.

He is secure in who he is, and he does not need to prove himself to anyone.

In Mark chapter 1, verse 40, it says that a man with leprosy came and knelt in front of Jesus, begging to be healed.

Mark 1:40

If you are willing, you can heal me and make me clean, he said.

Moved with compassion, Jesus reached out and touched him.

I am willing, he said, be healed.

And instantly the leprosy disappeared, and the man was healed.

And then Jesus sent him on his way with a stern warning.

Don't tell anyone about this.

Instead, go to the priest, let him examine you, take along the offering required in the law of Moses for those who have been healed of leprosy.

This will be a public testimony that you have been cleansed.

There was no cure for leprosy in Jesus' time.

This is amazing.

Jesus heals this man.

The way leprosy is supposed to work is that you touch someone who has leprosy and you get leprosy.

That's why lepers were banished and they had to live in colonies.

But Jesus touches a man who has leprosy, and he doesn't get leprosy, the man doesn't have it anymore.

And then Jesus says, so it's so odd.

Until you really think about it, Jesus says, don't tell anyone about this.

Jesus got a lot of attention in his ministry, but he didn't need any of it.

Because he's secure.

He is secure in who he is.

And he doesn't have to prove himself to anybody.

So when Satan, you know, has him, whether it's physical, mental, whatever, on the top of the temple, and he says, jump, prove it.

Prove that you're the one that God really loves.

Prove that God will take care of you.

Prove to all the people maybe who are watching who would see that if it is a physical thing, prove it.

Show all these people who you are, and then they'll all follow you.

He's tempting Jesus with a spectacle, with an opportunity to prove himself to either God, himself, or everyone around him, and Jesus is secure.

He does not need to prove himself to anyone.

Both of the first temptations begin with Satan saying, If you really are the Son of God, if you really are the Son of God, what did God just say to Jesus when he was baptized?

This is my son.

It is so like our enemy to get us to question the very things that God says to us.

We actually see it multiple times in Scripture.

I don't have this to put on the screens, but really interesting in the story of King David in the Old Testament.

David is anointed to be the king, while there's another king named Saul who is currently reigning, but Saul's, he's messed everything up.

And the thing about David that God likes the most is his heart.

He says, I'm searching for a man after my own heart.

It's not David's physical appearance.

Samuel's kind of, he's the prophet that anoints David.

He's caught off guard.

He's like, This one?

I mean, he doesn't really look like a king.

And God says, Man judges by outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.

So David is chosen because he has such a special heart.

And then David shows up, and this is the story of David fighting Goliath, and his brother, his older brother, who didn't get chosen, is in the army.

And David's asking questions, like, hey, why won't anyone fight this guy?

And his brother says, We all know about you and your evil heart.

And David just kind of, ah, whatever.

It's his brother.

Who cares?

But he gets accused of the very thing that God had just confirmed about him, his heart.

Here we have the enemy trying to get Jesus to question the very thing that God just told him, You are my son.

And the enemy's like, if you really are, the son, which is kind of a question, but it's an accusation.

We have got to be secure in who we are in the Lord.

I won't ask for a show of hands, but how many of us have had the thought, if I'm really a Christian, if I if I really belong to God, if God really loved me, if I was really saved, and then we follow that up with some type of proof in our life that would somehow be evidence to the contrary, right?

Like if I were really a Christian, I wouldn't struggle with this, I wouldn't be addicted to this, I wouldn't have messed up in this way.

If God really loved me, he wouldn't let this happen to me, he wouldn't have allowed me to go through this circumstance or this challenge.

It's the same dynamic.

Jesus was secure in who he was.

He didn't have to prove himself to Satan, he didn't have to prove himself to people, he didn't have to prove himself to himself.

Like Jesus knew who he was.

And if we could have that, if we could have that security, if we could live life going, you know what?

I don't need to prove myself to anybody.

I don't care what anybody thinks, I care what God thinks.

Because there will be a day when the only opinion that matters truly is the Lord's.

That's really the way it is now, but it's not how it feels.

But if I could be like that, and if I could believe what God has actually said, like just out of curiosity and to make sure you're still awake.

Anyone here love Jesus?

Like, do you love Jesus?

Like you do, okay, good.

You don't, good.

And some of you might still be figuring that out.

And be honest, if that's the case, that's okay.

If you love Jesus, if you've given your life to Jesus, if you've put your faith in him, you say, I believe.

Then God says that you have been confirmed as his very own son and daughter.

For all who believe, all who believe are saved.

Everyone who believes in Jesus is a new creation.

And a new life has begun inside of you.

That's 2 Corinthians 5, 17.

If you believe in Jesus, by the way, it also doesn't say if you're really good at believing Jesus, like if you're like the best believer, it doesn't rank you.

It just says if you believe, then you belong to him.

You belong to Jesus.

You are his son, you are his daughter.

Scripture says that the Holy Spirit joins with our spirit to affirm that we are God's children.

We are his sons, we are his daughters, we are his heirs.

And then it goes on to say that we are co-heirs with Jesus Christ, meaning when God looks at us, he sees us co-with Jesus.

It is so hard to believe that sometimes.

How many of us actually think of ourselves as co-with Jesus?

It's like Jesus and me, we're like, you know, we're kind of the same.

You know, God loves us equally, the Father, you know.

Sometimes I think Jesus is his favorite, but I actually sometimes think it's me.

You know, like would anyone in our right minds would we actually say, oh yeah, me and Jesus are on the same level?

But we are.

Not out of our own merit because Jesus has brought us into that place.

That's what God has said.

We've got to be people who hold on to what God says.

And we let that be our source of security.

Jesus' security was not tied to him proving himself to someone or doing something that would impress other people.

His security was tied to one thing, what God the Father had said about him.

And he didn't care who questioned him, if you are this, if you are that.

He knew who he was.

And that security allowed him to resist that temptation.

Last temptation.

Satan shows him all the kingdoms of the earth.

Kind of a theological sidestep for a second.

Scripture does tell us that Satan has authority in this world.

It is not a conspiracy theory to say that the powers that be in this world are heavily influenced by Satan.

And this goes all the way back to the garden because in the garden we had authority.

God created us, if you know that story, and he gave us all the authority.

He created us to rule and reign over this earth.

And then we gave that authority to Satan.

We did that.

Because whoever you obey is who you give authority to.

So Satan has a lot of authority in this world.

So Satan could actually say, hey, Jesus, I've got influence, I've got sway.

I'm the one pulling the strings in all these kingdoms that you see.

Bow down and worship me, and it's yours.

And it's interesting to think about what must have been going through Jesus' mind.

And I don't think he was like, yes, money and power and things like that.

I imagine it would be Jesus thinking about all the good he could do with that much earthly power.

I mean, how Jesus could just change everything if he was really in control in the earthly sense.

But this brings us to another aspect of Jesus that we see, and it's the purity of Jesus.

Right?

We've seen his wisdom, his security, and now we see the purity of Jesus, because what Jesus will not do is make a deal with the devil.

It is very common to believe that the pathway to do what's best involves, unfortunately, a little bit of necessary evil.

It's very easy as for it's easy for all of us to think that way that, you know, to do what's best, I gotta like, I gotta get my hands dirty a little bit.

You know, I've got to do some things that aren't good.

But I'm doing these things that aren't good so that I can do the best.

That's the way the world works.

It's necessary evil.

You gotta compromise a little bit, you gotta lower your standards a little bit, and yeah, it's hard, and maybe it's not the best, but you know, it's what it's what you gotta do to really get where you need to get.

And Jesus will not do it.

He won't.

He refuses.

I heard a pastor say once, there is no such thing as a good reason to make a bad decision.

Now, we see this in our world left and right.

We actually see it in the church.

If you've been a Christian for a long time, or maybe not even that long, you've seen, if you've paid attention, how much the church in the last 20, 30 years has compromised with the world.

The idea being that our best way to stay relevant to the world and to change the world is to become more like the world.

And so maybe there's things that the world really cares about, and our faith doesn't line up with those things, and the world's like, hey, you gotta adjust, you gotta meet us here.

You gotta let go of that, don't call that a sin anymore, don't speak out against that, just you know, we gotta, and out of a desire to love or be compassionate, you've seen a lot of a lot of churches, whole denominations, prominent Christian leaders make those compromises.

And the idea is always, well, we've gotta lower our standards, we've gotta be willing to, you know, maybe not pay attention to that part of scripture so much, so that we can really reach the world.

No, that is not what makes us relevant.

What made Jesus relevant was not that he was like the world.

What made Jesus relevant is that the world had never seen anything like him.

I heard someone describe it once, like what makes, think just imagine if if you were hot, if you're, you know, I don't know, out in the Judean wilderness for a while.

And someone came to you and said, Hey, I have hot water.

You wouldn't be like, thank you.

It's exactly the way I feel.

It meets me where I am.

I'm so I'm so hot, and this water's hot, we have so much in common, thank you.

No, that would not be relevant to you.

What would be relevant to you would be a glass of cold water.

It would be something that is entirely different than the state that you're in.

That's what makes water relevant to us when we're hot.

It's not.

It's different.

What makes Jesus relevant to the world is he is not like the world.

He's not of the world.

He is completely different, and we're supposed to be like him, and that's hard.

It's really hard to be a Christian in a world that doesn't.

Don't see things the way that we see things in a world that will call us all kinds of things like bigots or whatever if we don't go along with every single movement that the world is going along with.

It is difficult, but it's necessary.

It just is.

And what we have to understand, and this is by the way, something that really helps us at his hands, I'll just say it for what it's worth.

With all kinds of social issues, all kinds of hot button issues that people will ask us about.

We have this sort of dividing line.

And it's this idea of love and agreement.

Our world believes that if you disagree, you don't love.

So if someone says, Well, this is the way I live my life, and this is what I think is right and good, and you're like, Oh, I don't agree.

Well, you hate me.

You're a hater.

Right?

No, that's not that's not true.

Those are different things.

In fact, if I only love everyone I agree with, is that actually love?

That's a very convenient love.

I only love the people who think like I do.

I mean, if that was the way Jesus loved, no one would have been loved.

Because nobody thought like him.

It's actually a deeper kind of love that says, oh, I can love you even though I totally disagree with you.

Even though I do not see the world the way you see the world, even though I do not agree that this is good or this is healthy, you know, I can I can set those things aside and say, I don't agree with you, but man, I love you.

Now, the world doesn't necessarily receive that, and that's not up to us, but that's what we're called to.

Jesus never compromised.

He walked this line of truth and love so well, and it's hard.

I'm not acting like it isn't.

It's very easy for churches, for example, Christians, Jesus followers, to kind of go one way or the other.

We're really good at love, but we're not good at truth, or we're really good at truth, but we're not good at love, and we're supposed to be both.

Jesus was that all the time.

There was a woman once brought to him in the act of adultery, and Jesus saved her life.

Saved her life.

He said, I do not condemn you.

Now go and sin no more.

It was unbelievable love, but not at the expense of truth.

And what we see in this third refusal is that Jesus will not compromise.

He will not make a deal with the devil, he will not settle for a little bit of evil if it helps him achieve his really good goals.

He is pure.

He does not compromise.

And we can be like that.

It's not easy, but we can be like that.

Worship team, you guys can make your way out.

We're gonna take Lord's Supper in just a second and close.

But I'm reminded of James chapter 1, verses 2 through 4, as I've been preparing for this for the last few days.

James 1:2–4

It's been on my mind a lot.

Dear brothers and sisters, when troubles of any kind come your way, consider it an opportunity for great joy.

So we know that Jesus must have been having the time of his life when he was in the.

If that's the truth, like Jesus was like, this is awesome.

I'm hungry, I'm hot, I'm hanging out with the devil.

Such a great, such a great way to start my ministry.

This is exactly how I imagined it.

It says, consider it an opportunity for great joy.

For you know that when your faith is tested, your endurance has a chance to grow.

So let it grow.

For when your endurance is fully developed, you will be perfect and complete, needing nothing.

Jesus had to be tested.

He had to be.

If you're never tested, you don't really know if you're who you think you are.

Like I said, Jesus was secure, but it would be really hard for us to put our faith in someone who never had to endure anything.

Like when Jesus makes promises and he says, hey, blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.

I know that in this room are many of us, many people who have experienced mourning.

Loss.

I do a funeral on average once a week, every couple of weeks.

I get to be with a lot of people in those moments.

It's really hard.

Does it help you, if you've been through that, to know that more than likely Jesus had to mourn the loss of his earthly father at a fairly young age?

Not that you take joy in that, but does what I mean is, does it make Jesus' promise that, hey, when you mourn, I will comfort you?

Well, that means something more coming from someone who's mourned.

Coming from someone who has experienced loss.

If Jesus lived life and he was never tested, he was never challenged, he never had to experience any tragedy, any heartbreak, if he never had to go through anything hard, if he just lived this life that was completely, totally oblivious to all of that.

It'd be really hard to be comforted by someone like that, someone who can't feel what you feel.

But Jesus went through that stuff.

He knows what it feels like to be betrayed, he knows what it feels like to be lied about, he knows what it feels like to be rejected.

No one's ever been rejected more than Jesus.

He knows what it feels like to be accused, he knows what it feels like to go through incredible physical pain and agony, he even knows what death feels like.

He didn't skip any of that stuff.

He was tested.

He was tested over and over and over again.

I mean, he got tested by Satan himself, and because he had the wisdom and the security and the purity of spirit and of heart that he lived with, he was able to overcome.

Now we're not on the same level as Jesus in terms of our ability to perform at that level.

We're on the same level as Jesus as far as the way God sees us and loves us.

We are just as loved by God, the Father, as Jesus is.

But we're not we're not as good at the testing.

And what this tells us in James is that when we're tested, we should be excited because that's what allows us to develop and grow.

Jesus had to be tested for us to be able to trust him.

And just like Jesus, all of us will be tested, many of you might be going through a test of some sort right now.

And if you are, or if you're about to be, just remember, in those moments, what are you going to rely on?

What are you going to lean on to get you through that test?

If it's your own willpower, you'll be like some idiot that can't stop drinking Diet Dr.

Pepper.

That's what you'll be.

And you'll have the dad bod to prove it.

I'm telling you.

Years of neglect.

That's what this is taking.

But if through the power of the Holy Spirit, not by our own effort, but if through the power of the Holy Spirit at work within us, which is a promise that we're given, we ask God for the wisdom, the security, and the purity that Jesus lived with.

We can pass our tests.

We can get through it.

We can develop, we can grow.

And it says that when it grows, when our endurance is fully developed, we will be perfect and complete.

Perfect doesn't mean no flaw.

That word in the Greek language means exactly as it's meant to be.

We'll be perfect and complete, needing nothing.

That cannot happen if we're not tested.

And I'm so grateful that our Savior, that our King, that our God gave us a blueprint to follow for the test that we endure as well.

So with that said, let's take Lord's Supper together.

Let's thank Jesus for all that he's done for us.

Um I always have one of these in my back pocket.

I keep them everywhere right now.

If you didn't grab one of these on your way in, we have tables, there's little cups with bread and juice.

You're fine to grab one now.

Don't want you to miss out on this if you want to be part of it.

But this bread represents Jesus' body.

And the juice represents his blood.

This is all about his moment on the cross.

And we get our eyes on this every Sunday.

We get our eyes on this every Sunday.

I mean, even though we're going through the entire life of Jesus, obviously we're gonna spend probably a lot of time at the cross at some point this year.

We never want a Sunday to go by where we don't go to this moment.

Because if his temptation in the desert was his first test, this moment was the final test.

And think about what it means, how much he loves you, just like we sang earlier, how much he loves us.

That when given a choice between a brutal death on a cross for our sake, or escaping that kind of torment for his own sake, Jesus chose the cross.

He passed that test too, and he did it for each of us.

So let's take the bread.

Father, we thank you so much for this piece of bread.

We thank you, Lord, for what it represents.

This is your body offered up as a sacrifice, paying the price for our sin.

Lord, frankly, passing a test that we really couldn't pass.

But you did it for us.

We thank you, Jesus.

Let's take the bread.

And now the juice.

Lord, we thank you so much for this cup of juice.

We thank you, Lord, for what it means.

Your blood poured out.

You bled for us.

You died for us.

You held nothing back.

Lord, as we take this in, help us be inspired by you.

Help us believe you when you say that you will strengthen us, that the same spirit that lives inside of us through our faith in you is the same spirit that raised you back to life after you died on the cross.

That same spirit can give us the wisdom, the security, the purity that we need to be able to face every test that we go through.

Remind us of that this week, Lord.

It's only by you and what you did for us that we could live that way.

We thank you, Lord.

Let's take the juice.