Tale as Old as Time

Notes
Transcript
We know the story. We could borrow the phrase from Beauty and the Beast: Tale as old as time.
Eve is standing in the Garden, looking at the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, and the serpent speaks to her.
Genesis 3:1–5 NIV
Now the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God really say, ‘You must not eat from any tree in the garden’?” The woman said to the serpent, “We may eat fruit from the trees in the garden, but God did say, ‘You must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, and you must not touch it, or you will die.’ ” “You will not certainly die,” the serpent said to the woman. “For God knows that when you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”
And he tempts her in the three areas that all humanity are constantly being tempted.
1 John 2:16 NIV
For everything in the world—the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life—comes not from the Father but from the world.
He appealed to her appetite, saying that they could eat from any tree. He appealed to personal gain, saying that they would not die. And he appealed to power and glory, by saying that they could be like God.
Every single human faces these temptations. Even Jesus did.
Hebrews 4:15 NIV
For we do not have a high priest who is unable to empathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are—yet he did not sin.
Before we read our passage for today, Just a reminder about what has happened immediately before this. Jesus has just been baptized by John and a voice from Heaven declared:
Matthew 3:17 NIV
And a voice from heaven said, “This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased.”
He goes from this amazing experience to the next one.
Matthew 4:1–11 NIV
Then Jesus was led by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. After fasting forty days and forty nights, he was hungry. The tempter came to him and said, “If you are the Son of God, tell these stones to become bread.” Jesus answered, “It is written: ‘Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.’” Then the devil took him to the holy city and had him stand on the highest point of the temple. “If you are the Son of God,” he said, “throw yourself down. For it is written: “ ‘He will command his angels concerning you, and they will lift you up in their hands, so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.’” Jesus answered him, “It is also written: ‘Do not put the Lord your God to the test.’” Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their splendor. “All this I will give you,” he said, “if you will bow down and worship me.” Jesus said to him, “Away from me, Satan! For it is written: ‘Worship the Lord your God, and serve him only.’” Then the devil left him, and angels came and attended him.
Today we are going to talk about the wilderness. We will see the wilderness wandering, the wilderness whispering, and the wilderness winning.
Before we dive in, will you pray with me?

1. Wilderness Wandering

Matthew continues to tie the life and ministry of Jesus to the Old Testament. Immediately after Jesus is declared as the Son of God, the Spirit leads him in the wilderness for 40 days of fasting.
Matthew 4:1 NIV
Then Jesus was led by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil.
Matthew as a Jews understands the significance of this. After God declares his covenant to Israel at Mt. Sinai, the spirit, through a pillar of cloud and fire, leads the nation into the wilderness for forty years of wandering. And they were hungry.
Exodus 16:2–3 NIV
In the desert the whole community grumbled against Moses and Aaron. The Israelites said to them, “If only we had died by the Lord’s hand in Egypt! There we sat around pots of meat and ate all the food we wanted, but you have brought us out into this desert to starve this entire assembly to death.”
Throughout the 40 years, they were tempted to not follow God, to turn their back on him and his calling, on their identity as God’s chosen people, and they failed. Over and over again, they failed.
To the point that God threatened to cast them off and start a new nation with Moses and his descendants.
So, here we have Jesus. In essence, his relationship with the father proclaimed to all who heard and then, he is led into the wilderness by the Spirit, just as Israel was, to be tempted.
For 40 days, he fasted.
Matthew 4:2 NIV
After fasting forty days and forty nights, he was hungry.
Which seems like an obvious statement. What Matthew doesn’t tell us, is that for those 40 days, Jesus was being tempted.
Luke 4:1–2 NIV
Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, left the Jordan and was led by the Spirit into the wilderness, where for forty days he was tempted by the devil. He ate nothing during those days, and at the end of them he was hungry.
So, he was hungry, run ragged by the devil with all sorts of different temptations. It seems so basic to say that he was tired. Physically, mentally, emotionally, spiritually tired.
Have you been there?
It seems every time that we have a spiritually high point, there is the wilderness afterwards.
Elijah experienced an amazing time of ministry, and then we see him hunkering in the wilderness.
1 Kings 19:3–4 NIV
Elijah was afraid and ran for his life. When he came to Beersheba in Judah, he left his servant there, while he himself went a day’s journey into the wilderness. He came to a broom bush, sat down under it and prayed that he might die. “I have had enough, Lord,” he said. “Take my life; I am no better than my ancestors.”
Have you been there?
Every Monday, after preaching my heart out, walking with people through their hurts and pains, I’m tired, and I have a small taste of wilderness.
Every year, I have the privilege of walking with the staff at Camp Assurance through ministry, and I get to tell them about the camp high and then the low that happens afterwards.
We all experience a wilderness in our lives. The feeling of lostness, the feeling of exhaustion.
And in those moments, the devil comes a waltzing in. Charles Spurgeon writes that the devil is a coward. He always kicks us when we are down.
And when we are down, we so easily grasp ahold of his gnarled hand and we except his ill-disguised offer of help.
But, why was Jesus in this situation?
Well, Matthew includes several teachings of Jesus that point back to his experience in the wilderness. And through those teachings, we can see how Jesus’ testing recalls that of Israel in the wilderness, showing that Jesus is the perfect Son of God, who did not sin where Israel did. We see how Jesus’ messiahship is formed as the one who suffers, refusing to grasp ahold of a kingdom, as opposed to contemporary political or militaristic interpretations. We see how Jesus provides a model for believers who are being tested.
Knowing the purpose behind it, Jesus allows himself to be led into the wilderness by the Spirit so that the devil can have his way.

2. Wilderness Whispering

And the devil gave Jesus all he had. If you and I were there, we would have caved.
At the end of the 40 days of fasting, where the devil had already been tempting Jesus, he gives him three last temptations, focused on his mission. Interestingly, they correlate with the temptations of Israel in the wilderness and the temptation of Adam and Eve in the Garden.
The first temptation that Matthew records for us.
Matthew 4:3 NIV
The tempter came to him and said, “If you are the Son of God, tell these stones to become bread.”
This is a conditional statement, the force of the original language could be translated, “if for the sake of argument you are the Son of God, tell these stones to become bread.”
God has just declared that you are his son, prove it. You are hungry. John just declared that God could raise up children of Abraham from these stones, so since you are the Son of God, if you are, you could make yourself bread.
Echoing his own words back in Gen 3:1 “has God really said?”
What type of Son would Jesus be? Would he be the type to use his power for selfishness, or would he depend on the Father to meet his needs?
Eat from the fruit, Adam and Eve. It will provide what you need. God won’t.
Go back to Egypt, Israel. God won’t provide what you need. Grumble and complain because God doesn’t care.
The second temptation that Matthew records for us.
Matthew 4:5–6 NIV
Then the devil took him to the holy city and had him stand on the highest point of the temple. “If you are the Son of God,” he said, “throw yourself down. For it is written: “ ‘He will command his angels concerning you, and they will lift you up in their hands, so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.’”
Jesus had just used Scripture to guard himself from Satan’s temptation, touting his dependence on the Word of God. So, Satan decides to throw Scripture back on Jesus, declaring that he should have dependence on God.
This temptation again casts doubt on Jesus’ identity, but with Scripture. Satan twists God’s words, from Psalm 91. He quotes correctly, but leaves somethings out.
If you are the Son of God, prove it. Do a stunt that will appeal to everyone watching and show beyond a shadow of a doubt that you are who you say you are. Take a leap of faith. You won’t hurt your foot. You won’t die.
Adam and Eve, if you eat the fruit, you won’t die. You will live forever.
Israel, if you are truly children of God, God will provide water for you. Test him. Prove him.
Temptation number 3.
Matthew 4:8–9 NIV
Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their splendor. “All this I will give you,” he said, “if you will bow down and worship me.”
Here, Satan doesn’t direct himself against Jesus’ identity but against Jesus future. His purpose. And it is a blatant attack.
Jesus has been quoting from the Law all this time and Satan tempts him to break the law, the first commandmant: you shall have no other gods before me.
But even more than that, he is tempting him to sidestep what he is here for. God has already promised to give the nations to Jesus as his inheritance, but he must first go through the wilderness, he must first go through suffering, death, and the grave.
Satan says: you don’t have to go through that. Turn away from the Father and follow me. You can have everything so easily. You can be king of kings without the cross. Just follow me.
Adam and Eve, you can be like God, eat the fruit. Follow me.
Israel, while Moses is getting the Law on Mt. Sinai, gather all your gold and jewelry and make a calf. This is your god, Israel, worship it. Follow me.
Jesus was tempted in every way, just as we are. The lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, the pride of life. Every single type of temptation that we are tempted with, he struggled through.
Just like Adam and Eve. Just like Israel. Just like us.

Wilderness Winnings

But, he didn’t sin. Every single time that Satan tempted him, Jesus pulls out Scripture, but not just any Scripture, he quotes from the Law, Deuteronomy.
Satan says: tell these stones to become bread.
Jesus says
Matthew 4:4 NIV
Jesus answered, “It is written: ‘Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.’”
Which is a quote from Deuteronomy 8:3
Deuteronomy 8:3 NIV
He humbled you, causing you to hunger and then feeding you with manna, which neither you nor your ancestors had known, to teach you that man does not live on bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord.
God teaching the Israelites, when they were grumbling about semi-empty stomachs, that there are more important things than bread, food, etc, namely knowing God and His Words.
Satan tells Jesus test God, use him to prove who you are.
Jesus says:
Matthew 4:7 NIV
Jesus answered him, “It is also written: ‘Do not put the Lord your God to the test.’”
Which is from Deut 6 6
Deuteronomy 6:16 NIV
Do not put the Lord your God to the test as you did at Massah.
The Israelites didn’t have enough water, so they wanted God to prove his provision, his character, by providing water. But testing God is not the same as trusting him, unlike what Satan was trying to say.
Satan tells Jesus to worship him, bypassing the cross.
Jesus says:
Matthew 4:10 NIV
Jesus said to him, “Away from me, Satan! For it is written: ‘Worship the Lord your God, and serve him only.’”
A quote from Deut 6 13
Deuteronomy 6:13 NIV
Fear the Lord your God, serve him only and take your oaths in his name.
The Israelites kept wanting to follow other gods, to get what they wanted bypassing their covenant with God.
Man lives by the words of God. So Jesus constantly uses those words, not his own strength. Not his divinity, the word of God.
And, at Jesus’ last rebuke, Satan leaves and angels come to minister to him. Ironically, because Satan said that the angels would only come if he threw himself off of the temple.
Why did they come? Because he is the king. He is the Messiah. And through his life and death, he accomplishes what Satan tried to get him to do.
He is the new Moses who provides bread for his people, feeding the 5000 and the 4000. God delivers Jesus from death, not when Jesus threw himself off the temple, but when he was crucified, delivered by the resurrection. And eventually, Jesus will rule the nations, not because he worshiped Satan, but because he is the proven King by his life, death, and resurrection. Every knee will bow before him.
“All these things belonged to him, but the ends of God’s call in the long term did not justify inappropriate means in the short term.”
We all face the wilderness.
We face times when we want to satisfy our base desires, whatever they are, and we think that is what we need. And we think that we can take the short cut to satisfy our desires and we justify that.
But, we have a high priest who was tempted as we are right now, and he did not sin. He showed that the short cut is not the most desirable. But, what is, is a relationship with God through our savior. And as we lean into that relationship, we discover the sweetness of every word that comes from the mouth of God. Those words spring to our lips and the devil flees and we are suddenly satisfied.
In the wilderness, we face times when we doubt God, and we want him to prove himself, his character, his love, his existence. We almost convince ourselves that this testing is actually trusting, because once he proves himself we will grasp a hold of him.
Perhaps, we’ve stopped trusting him so much that we begin to twist Scripture and use it for our own means, we dabble in sin so that we can experience his grace, because we need that assurance of his work.
But, testing is not trusting. Twisting is not believing. And sinning is not a pathway to experiencing salvation.
In the face of doubting God, we pick up his word and remind ourselves again of who he is and what he has done. And we hold on to that truth, confessing it, screaming it, even when we don’t feel it, we know it is true. And in the face of the truth, Satan flees and our confidence returns.
In the wilderness, we face times when we want all the things that we have yearned for, all the things that we deserve, all the things that God promises us. And our yearning has been so long, and we are tired of the struggle, we are tired of the wait, and Satan whispers that he can provide what we long for, because we deserve it.
And in the wilderness, his whispering is very appealing, especially because God promised that we could have it and why would we go through all this suffering to get it.
And we almost grasp his hand. But, then, we remember the truth of the Scripture that we read that morning, the verse we memorized last month, the sweetness of the prayer time yesterday, and the face no reward is equal to worshiping God alone. We proclaim those Scriptures and those truths, and the devil flees.
The wilderness is hard. And left to ourselves, we do not survive.
But, thankfully, we have a high priest that was tempted as we are, but without sin. He proved that he was better than Adam, better than Israel, able to be that sinless sacrifice and he gives us the strength to walk through the wilderness by the power of His Word, and leads to the other side.
The tale as old as time is not the tale of eternity, because the King has won.
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