Jesus in the Wilderness

Welcome/ Prayer/ Intro

Good Morning Church! How is everyone doing this morning? We are drawing to the close of our lent series as Easter is right around the corner! The last person we are going to look at in the wildness is Jesus!! I am excited for what God has for us today! ARE YOU?

PRAYER: God we come before you this morning thankful. Thankful that we have you in our lives to serve as a model for how to live and love. I want to thank you for this special text we have this morning that shows that you were human like us. That you struggled like we do. Holy Spirit would you use this text powerfully in our hearts this morning. Would you use this text to tranform us and help us to look more like you!

INTRO: This mornings sermon will be really straight forward and practical as we look at the story of Jesus in the wilderness.

We will unpack each temptation that He faces and then we will also see not only how he overcame them in the wilderness, but how he overcame them in passion week all the way up to the cross!

READING SCRIPTURE: Would you please turn in your Bibles to Luke Chapter 4 verse one. When you get there please shout out AMEN!

Read Luke 4:1-13

Walking Through the Text: Jesus in the Wilderness. (In the Wilderness).

Context: Jesus is in the desert, He is wandering for 40 days and 40 nights. Like Israel, Like Elijah.

remember the number 40 is the number of completeness in the bible.

This was a physical wilderness where Jesus faced physical issues

Also a spiritual wilderness where He faced Satan tempting Him along the way!

The First Temptation: Stones into Bread.

He is physically deprived of food he is probably at the end of rope physically.

The Temptation here is 2 fold first its a temptation for Jesus to put his immediate needs over God’s plan for Him. To fufill that deep down need for food.

Jesus becomes an embodiment of Israel in the wilderness as they cried for bread too Exodus 16:3 (Slide) right after they left egypt. They wanted their bellies full even if it meant returning to slavery

The other side of the temptation is to become independent and use his own power to meet his needs rather than be loyal to God.

Jesus’ response is with Scripture: People wont live by bread alone, but on the word of the Lord.

I also think Jesus was tempted in a similar way as He road into Jerusalem. As the people were praising Him, He may have been tempted to think that his job was going to be easy because the people were hailing him as King,

He may have been tempted to let them make Him their earthly king as the people had tried before!

yet, what looked like bread on Sunday, turned out to be stone on friday.

Jesus faced this same temptation in the Garden of Gathsemene, when He asked if the cup might pass from Him,

Asking to meet the immediate needs of his physical body to avoid the pain that was about to come.

and yet at the end he says not my will but yours be done.

How can we learn from Jesus’ temptation here?

Ask yourself: When I am faced with trouble how will I respond?

Will I trust and seek God in the midst of it

Will I try to find a solution on my own? - This is a temptation I struggle with.

The Second Temptation: Power I will give you all the Kingdoms of the World, if you worship me.

This temptation is directly breaking the first commandment that God gives to worship God alone

This Temptation is a shortcut sort of Speak. The Quick way to power over God’s intended plan for Jesus’ life.

Though Satan possess great authority it is ultimately a pipe dream, because He cant really give what is not his.

Ultimately, this temptation asks are you willing to take shortcuts to the end by seeking after status and devilsh power.

I can give you power and authority now.

I can give you status, now and you have to do this one thing.

I can give you a shortcut around pain and suffering!

This is a temptation to use power in ways that God does not want. We see the same thing when Jesus is arressted in the Garden (Matthew 26:50-54) (Slide)

Peter pulls out the sword to defend Jesus (Jesus corrects him and says, no this is not how we are going to do this)

Then He says, dont you realize I have legions of Angel’s I could use to defend myself?

Legions is intentonal here: its the same unit the Romans use.

What Jesus says here, Dont abuse your power to follow the ways of this world.

Satan is asking the same thing, if you just worship me instead of God, if you just follow the ways of the world I will give you the world.

Jesus’ Response: You will worship the Lord your God and Serve Him alone!

Jesus says, you will only worship God and You will only serve him, no compromise for the sake of shortcuts!

How does this apply to us today:

To what ends do we utilize the power we have?

Do we follow the ways of the world in utilizing our power?

Do we follow the ways of the World in seeking Status and power

Where are we comprimising by Worshiping other things?

Luke Contemporary Significance

Satan tempts us to slip into idolatry as directly as he did here with Jesus, using subtle substitutes. Perhaps we worship our work, our status, our possessions, our family, or other unsuitable items that stand in the way of knowing God.

The Third Temptation: if You are God’s Son, didnt God say this?

This is the same structure of how Satan Tempted Adam and Eve in the Garden, “Did God really say?”

This Temptation addresses two things

Instant Claim to Messianic Position: If Jesus did do this God would truly save Him.

Where Jesus was at the temple if this happened essentally the whole world would know that He was God’s son in one simple action.

Second, it would prove that God does care for him, right now as Jesus faces the cross, his human side must be questioning if God really does care for him and will be protect him through this!

N.T Wright adds, Trust in God doesn’t mean acting stupidly to force God into doing a spectacular rescue. The power that Jesus already has, which he will shortly display in healings in particular, is to be used for restoring others to life and strength, not for cheap stunts. His status as God’s son commits him, not to showy prestige, but to the strange path of humility, service and finally death.

Jesus faced this temptation on the Cross too!

Matthew 27:40 (NIV) (Slide) and saying, “You who are going to destroy the temple and build it in three days, save yourself! Come down from the cross, if you are the Son of God!”

If you do this one thing: Everyone will believe and you dont have to be on that cross anymore, you wont have to go through this suffering.

Jesus’ Response: Dont put the Lord your God to the Test!

Do not turn Yahweh into a magician for your needs!

Thats what the other people do with the other Gods, Remember what the prophets of Baal did to invoke his response.

How do we learn from Jesus in this way:

Testing God because we dont trust him.

A final way we tend to show a lack of trust in God is to try to force him to act on our behalf. In the test we often set up, we want to see if he is for us or against us.This type of spiritual wagering does not involve leaping from tall buildings, but in walking into events where we say in effect, “If you care for me God, then this situation will turn out this way.” In effect, we test the “emergency broadcast system” of God’s presence and presume on how he should react. This kind of testing is an attempt to control God, not follow his leading

Testing God by Blaming Him!

Luke Contemporary Significance

Another way we can sense a problem here is by blaming God whenever suffering occurs, at least indirectly. We may feel that he has abandoned us, when, in fact, he may be getting our attention, revealing a better way to us, or asking us to meet him in the midst of the adversity

The Story of Jim and Elisabeth Elliot- Latin American Indigenous Peoples murdered her husband while they were trying to make contact to share Jesus.

Yet she turned her disappointing experience into an opportunity to listen to God in the midst of uncertainty, only to find a fresh ministry of depth in her testimony about how God cared for her in the midst of such disappointment. She did not abandon God or test him, but accepted the uncharted journey he called her to take. Of course, that journey was uncharted only for her, not for the God who walked with her down that road.

Elizabeth would later return with her daughter to live among and minister to the same people that caused her such pain!

Elliot wrote, “The deepest things that I have learned in my own life have come from the deepest suffering. And out of the deepest waters and the hottest fires have come the deepest things I know about God.”

Transition: Now that we have gone through the three temptations that Jesus faced lets talk about what changes in our lives because of this story.

Application and Wrap up!

What to Remember When we Face Temptation

When I am faced with trouble, How will I respond?

Whose power/provision will I rely on, mine or God’s

When Given the opportunity, will I chose power and shortcuts to get what I want and build my name?

or will I be like Jesus and humbly serve to build God’s Kingdom

When I am tempted to Test God because I lack trust in Him, How will I respond?

Will I rely on my need to test Him or get an answer.

Instead of blaming God in the midst of suffering will I see it as an opportunity to seek Him.

Invitation to Prayer Room and closing Song

We are going to close our time together in a special way we are going to travel to old church to see the prayer room that has been set up for Holy Week.

We are going to hear about each of the prayer stations and youll have a chance to use them.

Invite Jess up to lead sending Song

Would you pray with me?