The Answer is Jesus

We’ll begin this Easter series today. We’ll be going through 6 Sunday…including one Sunday after Easter Weekend.

We’ll be talking today about The beginning of the end. Then we’ll talk for a couple weeks about how Jesus begins to introduce this New Kingdom he keeps talking about. Then we’ll move through the week before the cross, the crucifixion, and then the resurrection. On the Sunday after Easter we’ll look at Living in this New Life…and if that sounds a bit vague, it will make a lot more sense as we move through all of these Sundays.

Today’s though, I hope will not only be really cool … maybe looking at an even in Jesus life differently … but also helping us see our lives a bit different with and without Jesus.

Way back in the beginning, in the book of Genesis, we see the picture of a perfect creation. The original Kingdom of God.

Perfect creation. Adam there, working the garden, enjoying great life with God.

Then God brings all of the animals to him…he names them…gets to know him.

Remember in this Kingdom, as God intended, man ruled or had dominion over creation under God’s rule.

All other life had a way to recreate…plants reproduced, animals were created to make more of themselves...

But for man no suitable helper was found…and God said, and this is the only reference in the garden to incomplete goodness…God said, It’s not good for man to be alone…

Humanity could not expand without a suitable helper…and unlike all other life on the planet, you had one created, another created from that one…and then as Genesis says, the two will become one again…and from that…a relationship and more little imagers of God.

Perfection…glory…no shame…no sin…no brokenness.

And then sin enters through disobedience…through a subtle lie given to humanity.

From this once perfect picture, we see lots of things happen. Instead of a Garden with plants and trees and nature at its best…humans never against each other…humans never against nature…and everyone provided for by a loving God what do we see?

We see nature take a turn. We see man move from the Garden to the wilderness. We see humanity begin to have times when they are against each other. We see a different relationship begin to appear between humanity and the animal kingdom. We see God’s glory move away from humanity.

And in that moment we have God telling Satan… Someone from humanity, from Eve (through childbirth) will take care of you. He will crush your head. Subtle right?

And then, our humans, Adam and Eve are sent out of this perfect place…and into a place that matches their brokenness. A place where plants won’t just grow for humans and animals. A place where man will need to work for a living. A place where God specifically says, you will now deal with thorns and thistles. A place with pain. Humans will still have the marriage relationship between man and woman as God intended…but it will not be the same. Humans will still be able to have little imagers of God…and God will still bless this process of man and woman being able to, in a sense, to fill the earth with God’s glory through childbirth…but it won’t be the same.

Worst of all…to the ground you will return. Death. Brokenness.

God is still sovereign, but humanity, in their disobedience, has begun to rule themselves…and now, because of this, will now “rule” creation in a much different manner than intended…they will even begin to want to rule each other.

The Kingdom has turned a 180.

In a sense…in a real sense…Adam and Eve turned the garden into a Wilderness.

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We’ll fast forward to the New Testament. John the Baptist is in the wilderness, preaching to repent from sin…why? Because the Kingdom of Heaven is coming near.

What was John doing? He was baptizing…John the Baptizer...

What’s baptism? It is predominantly a picture to associate with. Buried…the old life. Raise up in what? New Life. It signifies that something is happening in someones life. Its a commitment …away from oneself…to God. (We’ll see a baptism here in just awhile).

Then Jesus shows up…and John says…look here He is, the Lamb of God, the one who will take away the sin of the world.

And then Jesus is baptized…And the more I read this the more I think Jesus is giving us a picture of the cross and empty grave…and not only his…all of ours. Old life given up…new life received. That’s the picture…and it’s given at the beginning of His ministry…its the first picture he gives of how someone enters the Kingdom of God. This is proper…I need to do this to show…and maybe even…ladies and gentlemen…in time you’ll know more about what this really means. He’s beginning his ministry this way…with a picture of what is happening…and what will happen (just a side note…remember what he says on the cross as he takes his last breath?....it is finished) Something began…and then Jesus carried out a plan…and it all starts here…with his baptism and this next event.

What does Jesus do next?

He goes into the wilderness.

Now…lets just sit here for a minute.

Matthew begins this section like this Matthew 4:1-2 and Luke begins in much the same…almost the same wording...

Matthew 4:1–2 CSB

1 Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. 2 After he had fasted forty days and forty nights, he was hungry.

Matthew and Luke both go through the different temptations after the 40 days…Mark summarizes but says something very unique.

Mark 1:12–13 NIV

12 At once the Spirit sent him out into the wilderness, 13 and he was in the wilderness forty days, being tempted by Satan. He was with the wild animals, and angels attended him.

With the wild animals. Why put this in? Jesus was sometimes called the 2nd Adam...

In the beginning there was no broken between anything in humanity…meaning when the lion came to be named by Adam…they were probably wrestling with each other and playing fetch.

Now Mark called them wild animals.

Where does Jesus begin His ministry after his baptism? In the wilderness…in the middle of brokenness. And it is here that he begins to push and fight His way back to the Garden…for humanity’s sake. For your sake and mine.

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Jesus is beginning where humanity began to live in brokenness. Where humanity began to live in sin. And its from here that He will begin to remake His Kingdom…by first walking without sin…and then taking all of our sin to the cross as the savior.

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And after 40 days of fasting, Jesus is physically weak. Scripture says this.

And Satan comes to him and it simply says tempts him. Now these are specific temptations.

Matthew and Luke both list these temptations.

The first is this one…he’s weak because he hasn’t eaten…and there’s not Save A Lot right there…no corner market…and Satan says, If you really are the son of God (so this is a specific test), just turn those stones into bread. Now…this wouldn’t be one of our temptations right? Satan doesn’t say…Ed if you’re really the son of God...

Ed…you’re hungry at your desk…just turn that pen into a snickers bar.

Satan is tempting Jesus to walk outside of the lines of humanity…to kinda like…cheat… Jesus says…in truth…God’s word provides everything one needs.

Another one was this…Satan takes Jesus up to a high point on the temple and says…throw yourself down…if you’re really the son of God…you can call angels to save you…I know this from God’s word. Jesus says…nope that would be cheating on my part…I need to walk this path, Adam’s path…without sinning. God’s word says to not put God to the test.”

Third....Satan took Jesus up to a place where Jesus could see all the Kingdoms of the world. “I’ll give you all of this if you bow down to me. It’s been given to me and I’ll give it to you.”

-----This will actually happen but it will be given by God after the resurrection… So for now Jesus says…God’s word says…worship only God. He knows he will receive it …but in time…So He’ll resist temptation. (The devil left and then angels came to attend to him.)

In the wilderness. Walking through temptations. Why? To begin to push the wilderness back. He’s walking, with suffering, through this life.

You may say that this is an example for us…and I’m sure it can be. When satan temps you respond with truth from God. Right? That would be completely accurate. He’s doing something else though …something we’ll highlight in just a bit.

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Some of you live on land that might have woods up at the property line. I love mowing. Now I’m not quite the…all the lines have to match up and look like the Guardians ballfield…but I love taking care of a property. Its kinda like…bringing some order out of chaos....right?

Now…when I’m mowing…and some of you probably know where I’m going with this....when you’re mowing up against the woods…something invariably happens....you, your shirt…your arm…your dignity…Something happens that causes you to say things ....luckily the mower is running so people can’t hear you.

But invariably there’s a stinking thorn bush that has …within days…grown two or three feet out into the yard area…and you don’t see it till it is right on top of the mower and by the time you go to hit the clutch/brake pedal the stupid thorn bush has dug into your shirt…scraping your leg up or grazing your scalp.

Am i right anyone?

And what do we do. As we’re saying things we don’t want to say…over the noise of the mower…we’re making plans to come back after a time, with loppers, to cut that thorn bush back to Kingdom Come....that’s a unique phrase isn’t it...

I looked that up …its’ origins…and kinda cool it seems to have some significance to when Jesus makes all things new....meaning we’re cutting those thorns back to a time when they didn’t exist…and when the Kingdom comes…they won’t exist anymore. Amen?

Jesus is pushing back the wilderness. Taking care of things while in the wilderness. Confronting the brokenness of the wilderness.

This is how Jesus begins his ministry.

What wilderness might you be walking through right now? What kind of wilderness is in your life? What kind of brokenness is present that you would just like to say, Jesus…come and take care of this?

Jesus came to save the world…He also came to save you…to pull you out of your wilderness.

He came to say…I know the way out. I know how to push back the thorns.

John 16:33 NIV

33 “I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.”

Satan included.

A couple of side notes for those of you that might be asking…40 days. It’s significant too. Israel was in the wilderness for 40 years…and then some entered the promised land…not all. Jesus is entering the wilderness with the intent of making it out for the sake of humanity.

And the last…and we kind of mentioned this…but let’s highlight it.

We can say that watching Jesus walk through this 40 days where his weakness became more and more of a burden....that Jesus gives us an example to, even in our weakness rely on God…but Jesus is unique in both how he is temped and why....

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And here’s how we’ll begin to close this today…

Jesus is beginning to crush the head of the serpent…beginning to take care of Satan…right here.

He’s not only pushing back the result of sin…He is also beginning to take apart the power of sin…and Satan himself.

Jesus begins with a picture of how we need to die to ourselves and this world (baptism). Give it up…so that we can begin to be recreated. Jesus starts in the wilderness…where he begins to make all things new.

In a minute here we’re going to witness Katelyn Walker’s baptism. You may have seen her come up here last Sunday. So she’ll be walking through that image that Christ gave us of death to life. The picture of sins being washed away.

But the question still is…what is the wilderness in your life. Obviously for all of us it is generally speaking…this broken world…but specifically, where is it in your life that you need Jesus to enter and begin to push you toward Eden…out of the wilderness?

This might be a great time for you to consider this too. To make the leap of faith towards Jesus…the one who is the ultimate overcomer of all the wilderness in each of our lives.

One more thing that scripture gives us…remember when you read, read slowly and go over things again and again to pick up the little stuff.

Luke records something really informative for us…and probably the reason that I began thinking about Easter with this passage…Luke writes in Luke 4:13

Luke 4:13 LEB

13 And when the devil had completed every temptation, he departed from him until a favorable time.

I have a guess what this “favorable” time was. And I think you might too. As we walk towards Easter remember this…Jesus came to push back the wilderness in all of our lives…to not only push it back but to push it all the way back to Eden. Remember, He wants us to live our lives as though that picture of baptism is real…that we’ve died to ourselves to be raised up in new life with Him.

We’ll sing now and Katelyn can come forward…anyone else who would like to come forward…you certainly are welcome.