Responding Right: Pt. 1

Matthew 3:16-4:2

Intro.:

(AGS) Story of first CPR certification at 16 followed by first code the next week.

(TS) Jesus, after being baptized, declared, and affirmed as God’s Son (certified), was immediately put to the test.

(RS) Some of you just committed last week to fight the battle better- to feed the Spirit more. Some of you, through the Spirit, you felt ready and affirmed as a child of God, a soldier in the Lord’s army ready to fight, and you were put to the test. How are we doing?

ETS: Jesus was tested in the wilderness.

ESS: We should expect tests in life.

OSS: [MO: Devotional] I want the hearers to know the intentionality of the Lord and to worship Him in light of it. {Cognitive}

PQ: What pieces of background information are important to this passage?

UW: pieces

TS: Let us examine now a few pieces of information important to this passage.

The first piece of background information is the timing of the testing. (vv. 16-1a)

Then- means literally, “at that time”

It is important to notice the timing of the testing: it took place immediately after the declaration and affirmation of Jesus as God’s Son.

John McArthur wrote, “And no sooner had Jesus experienced the first great testimony to His ministry than He faced the first great test of His ministry. After being anointed by the Holy Spirit and attested by the Father, “Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led about by the Spirit in the wilderness.” (Luke 4:1) (McArthur, 86)

The second piece of background information is the location of the testing. (v. 1b)

The passage stated that He was led by the Spirit into the wilderness.

We might imagine a forest full of trees, streams, etc. when we hear, “wilderness,” but that was not the setting of the location where Jesus was.

It is commonly accepted that the location was likely just west of the Dead Sea extending almost to Jerusalem but just shy of it. McArthur stated that the area was likely “some thirty-five miles long and fifteen miles wide.” (McArthur, 87)

Additionally, George Adam Smith described the area as “an area of yellow sand, of crumbling limestone and of scattered shingle. It is an area of contorted strata, where the ridges run in all directions as if they were warped and twisted. The hills are like dust-heaps; the limestone is blistered and peeling; rocks are bare and jagged; often the very ground sounds hollow when a foot or a horse’s foot falls upon it. It slows and shimmers with heat like some vast furnace. It runs right out to the Dead Sea, and then there comes a drop of 1,200 feet, a drop of limestone, flint and marl, through crags and corries and precipices down to the Dead Sea.”

Understanding the location and the atmosphere of the setting is important. William Barclay suggested that “In that wilderness, Jesus could be more alone than anywhere else in Palestine.” (Barclay 73)

The third piece of background information is the significance of the testing. (vv. 1c-2)

As we study further into this passage, this will become more evident. However, there is a strong sense of allusion to the wanderings of the Israelites in the wilderness. Particular issues that allude to this are as follows: wilderness; forty days/forty nights; bread being a subject mentioned; the references of Deut. 6-8 from Jesus in His responses to Satan.

Perhaps, as Matthew 3:15 suggests, Jesus was now coming to redeem the shortcomings of the Israelites- they failed to trust God and they rebelled against Him over and over in the wilderness. Yet, Jesus, now fulfills everything desired by God and His righteousness.

Conclusion:

As believers in Christ, we have each been affirmed and declared as sons and daughters of the One True Father. What great truth! However, with that, we should expect that the enemy is not pleased, and he is lurking and planning to attack us when we are most vulnerable. Timing is everything- we must pay attention. Not only that, but what about the location, metaphorically or physically, that we find ourselves in life? Are you drawn away, isolated, in a difficult place where no one or anything surrounds you? Are you communing with your Father? Pay attention. The enemy is waiting for the best time. Thirdly, what past experiences in your life or the life of someone else you know is God maybe using these moments to redeem? Pay attention.

I think back to working my first code discussed in the beginning of the sermon. I was not ready, really, but I did what I knew to do based on my training at the time. We must rely upon the fact that we are sons and daughters of God during times of testing in order to respond in an appropriate manner.

What about you? How are you responding to the testing in your life? Remember, testing is neither bad nor good. It can be either. How will you react to the testing? The result of the testing- your reaction, rather- is perhaps more important than the testing itself. Let me challenge you today: trust in the intentionality of the Lord. He works in ways you may not even recognize in the moment. Pay attention. Worship Him every moment of your life.