Sermon Tone Analysis

I. The Preparation of the Vessel.

A. Mark 1:12 12 Immediately the Spirit drove Him into the wilderness.

13 And He was there in the wilderness forty days, tempted by Satan, and was with the wild beasts; and the angels ministered to Him.

Ekballo- “to force to leave, to drive out, to expel.”

This word is used in Acts for people being “thrown out” of a city, it is used for when Jesus “drove out” the money changers from the temple, it is the word used when Jesus “casts out” a demon, and it is the word used when Jesus says to pray that the Lord of the harvest would “send forth” laborers.

Jesus was “driven” by the Spirit into the wilderness.

This was the sovereign purpose of God for Him yet He was so cooperative with this purpose that Matthew and Luke use a more gentle term that He was “led” or “guided” by the Spirit.

B. Then Jesus, being filled with the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit into the wilderness, 2 being tempted for forty days by the devil.

And in those days He ate nothing, and afterward, when they had ended, He was hungry.

(Lk 4:1–2).

1. Matthew has more of an emphasis saying Jesus “fasted for forty days.”

(Matt 4)

2. The emphasis between the two authors here differs partly in where they place the “forty days.”

“He fasted for forty days” or “He was tempted by the devil for forty days.”

3.

If you ask someone who’s done a forty day fast, most would probably tell you that they experienced unusual, physical, spiritual, and mental temptation.

Many in our community here have probably felt the struggle involved with fasting period.

4. 1 John 3:8 For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that He might destroy the works of the devil.

a. Jesus, as a Man, had to enter into a place of fasting, to be tempted by the devil when He was most vulnerable, so that afterward He would take authority over the devil.

He would launch an all out assault on the kingdom of darkness for the next three and a half years and the thing that tempted and pressured Him in this season would be the thing He would have authority over in the next season!

b.

We want authority in prayer, authority in healing, authority in calling the lost to repent, authority over the things that come against the destiny of our families- finance, strife, dullness, etc.

But we don’t want to wrestle with our own weakness, embrace vulnerability, and truly let our weakness confront us!

Where I let myself feel my own lack, I can ask the Lord for help in that area to walk in authority.

C. To conquer this way in temptation must dependent on the Spirit and confident in the Father’s pleasure over us!

II.

The Authority of the Believer.

A. The Believer’s “mystical union” with Christ.

We see in places like 1 Cor 6:17 or Rom 6:5 that by the Spirit we are united to Jesus’ position before the Father.

The Believer’s authority is based on this union.

We’ve all been told that using the word is the way Jesus’ resisted the devil in the wilderness, but what does this this mean practically?

Speaking the Word before God concerning yourself has profound affects on your heart.

The most powerful voice you can hear speaking the truth of the word about who you are and about what is yours in Christ, is not the voice of any preacher or leader- it is your own voice!

There is a tragedy that exists where many believers remain passive while living emotionally defeated shame, depression, accusation etc.

But we have authority in union with Christ.

We can’t measure that authority physically, but we know we have it because the word says it!

The Lord says, “I’m not asking you to measure it, I’m asking you to say what My word says!

God has delegated authority to us but we have to stand in it!

Principle: your emotions will always follow your mindset (Rom 8, Col 3).

If we think rightly, and feel rightly, we can act/respond rightly.

Part of the problem is that your emotional state, your values, and your actions, right now are influenced in ways you can’t see by your mindset 5 years ago.

In the grace of God we can speed up the process of thinking rightly to feel rightly and act rightly.

We do this by speaking rightly!

Jesus says that “out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks” and James tells us that the tongue is like “the small rudder of a ship that steers the whole thing left or right!”

When pressure and warfare come don’t let any more time go by before you actually get the Word of God out of your own mouth and say what God says about yourself, and about your circumstance!