Sermon Tone Analysis

Tonight our series “Out of the wilderness” moves out of the Old Testament into the New Testament with a look at a wilderness situation that is very unique indeed.

Again, the wilderness is a territory that is rough, rocky, dry, lifeless ground.

The wilderness is not a place where new life is cultivated very easily.

But as we have seen with Moses, the Israelites, and David, the wilderness is a place of turn around.

As we have stated before, God has a way of turning dry, rocky, lifeless situations around!

In all three of the before mentioned instances, the people (or peoples) mentioned found themselves in the wilderness for various reasons.

It was God and God alone who radically turned the situations around bringing honor and glory to His name.

The wilderness is a tough place to be.

It is not a place that anyone really ever wants to be, but at times, it is where life has taken us.

This could be a result of voluntary or involuntary action.

No matter how we get there, understand God has amazing ways of getting us out of there!

Today is a day of turn around.

Our message this evening speaks of one of the greatest turn around stories recorded in the Word.

We are going to see a direct confrontation.

We are going to see darkness come against light, deception come against truth, and hate come against love.

The two most opposing forces in the universe are about to have a conversation that would reveal how the rest of the eternal story is going to play out.

Sin is nasty, and with sin comes nasty consequences.

Again, going back to the original sin, we can see the direct result play out right before our eyes.

Adam and Eve, in the Garden of Eden had but one command.

Don’t eat the forbidden fruit or you will surely die.

The rest of the Garden was theirs to fully enjoy!

The most remarkable reality at this time was their fellowship with God.

God created us to be relational.

When Adam was created, God saw that it was not good for Adam to be alone.

So what did God do?

He created out of Adam, Eve, to help fulfill the relational need within Adam.

God responded amazingly to that need of relationship.

But another relational need was made very apparent.

The most important relational need that exists within us is our need for the creation to be connected to the creator.

How is this derived?

We look at where did the serpent launched his attack.

He didn’t go after Adam and Eve’s relationship.

He attacked the relationship Adam and Eve had with God.

The moment they disobeyed the Lord’s command their relationship with God would change.

Adam and Eve had stepped into the realm of sin, a place where God could not go.

So the result of sin is broken relationship with God.

This result is still in play today.

The Bible makes clear we’ve all sinned in Romans 3:23 and that the wages of sin is death according to Romans 6:23.

If we’ve all sinned, then we all suffer from a broken relationship with God that will ultimately end up in eternal death.

Not a future anyone looks forward to for sure!

But this WAS our reality under the curse of sin nonetheless.

If there was ever a situation that was ripe for turn around it would be this!

Sin itself is much like a physical wilderness.

It leaves us spiritually rocky, dry, and barren.

It strips us of life and leaves us for dead.

There is and will never be any hope in sin.

God was about to intervene!

God was about to turn this terrible “wilderness” situation around.

And today, we watch God send a message to the enemy.

The enemy may have thought he had won, but such was not the case.

God’s message would rock the supposed victory and loose the condemning grip sin had upon the Lord’s creation.

God’s message to the enemy was clear: Devil, your days are numbered.

Where is it in scripture that we see this message?

Where is it that we see such a tremendous thing take place?

Did this message come from the cross?

No.

It comes before that.

It comes… from the wilderness.

It comes from an amazing situation where, as I said before, darkness would confront the light and… lose.

How He gets there.

Jesus is now on earth and is preparing to begin His earthly ministry.

One of the steps He takes in His preparation is water baptism.

Jesus finds John the Baptist in Jordan and request to be baptized.

John agrees and we see something important take place in Matthew 3:16-17

Powerful words spoken of the Father!

What a powerful moment as Jesus begins His ministry on earth!

But if we are not careful, we can miss something extremely important in this picture.

Matthew 3:16 specifies that the Spirit of God descended like a dove and remained on Jesus.

And note the form.

Note how it is described in Matthew 3:16.

The Spirit of God has a bodily form like that of a dove.

Although Jesus was both fully God and fully man while on earth, He would remain dependent upon the Spirit’s power and leading throughout His entire earthly ministry.

in Scripture, we find places where the dove represents peace, where the dove represents purity, and in this case, the dove also represents the power of God’s Spirit now resting upon and working in the life of Jesus.

After being baptized in water… after the foretelling of what Jesus had come to this earth to do… when the dove descended upon Jesus it was as if God was placing a stamp or a seal upon His Son as He declared He was well pleased.

How important is a “seal” like this?

Consider this.

Auto makers are doing this a lot recently.

If you buy a used Toyota from a Toyota dealership they encourage you to look for something specific: be sure the car is certified.

What does this mean?

It means they have gone through the vehicle intensively making sure everything works, and everything runs.

They place their stamp of approval on the car.

The “maker” says this car has passed its test.

This dove, this stamp “certified” Jesus as pure, undefiled, untouched by sin and empowered by the Spirit.

Jesus was truly blameless before God and man!

Now, this is not the point of confrontation I have been alluding to, but it helps sets the stage.

Jesus now certified by God Himself, is getting ready to face what might be called the testing of a lifetime.

Here is where we will see the turning point.

Here is where we will see the confrontation.

Matthew 4:1

The very same Spirit that had descended upon Jesus the previous chapter before, is the same Spirit that would lead Jesus, to the wilderness, to be tempted or tested by the devil.

Jesus willfully followed the leading of the Spirit.

Jesus was not made to do this or forced to do this.

Jesus submitted to the leading of the Spirit voluntarily.

The reason for the Spirit’s leading was clear, to be tempted by the devil.

Tempted in one sense can mean tested or tried; to put one’s faith to a sever proof.

Tempted can also mean to entice, solicit, or provoke sin.

In Jesus’ case while in the wilderness, “to be tempted” is to be understood in both ways.

The Spirit led Jesus to the wilderness to have His faith tested, and since the agent of said temptation was the devil whose goal was to separate Jesus from His allegiance with God, the enemy was trying to provoke sin.

Just like Adam and Eve.

Satan goes for Jesus’ relationship with God.