The Temptation

So far in his gospel, Mark has introduced the beginning of God’s new creative action—the fulfillment of the Old covenant, and the establishment of the new covenant in Jesus Christ, the Messiah, the Son of God, the true King of kings and Lord of Lords. Mark has given witness and proof, to his Gentile, Roman audience that John prepared the way for the King’s arrival, fulfilling the Old Testament prophesy concerning the King. That in the wilderness, the way is prepared before the face of God, by one much like the prophet Elijah, who would call sinners to repent and prepare their hearts to receive their Saviour and Lord.

Then, at His baptism, Jesus was anointed with the visible presence of the Holy Spirit, and the audible words of His Father. In this, the coronation of the King, Jesus was announced to the world, that He has come. After this momentous occasion, what would we expect the King to do? We would expect Him to do kingly things. What does a king do? A king expands his kingdom by defeating his enemies. Jesus began His kingly work of expanding His kingdom, in obedience to the Holy Spirit.

The Spirit

Immediately the Spirit drove Him. Just as the Spirit of God drove Adam and Eve from the Garden of Eden, so the Holy Spirit drove Jesus up out of the lush ground of the Jordan River into the surrounding wilderness. This is the way of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit moves in His people to change and to grow.

Growth is natural. The scriptures talk about seeds that, when planted, watered, fertilized, all within good soil, grow to produce fruit bearing, seed bearing plants, 100, 60, or 30 fold, or 100, 60, or 30 times what was planted. It is natural for a fertilized egg to grow into a baby, for a baby to become a toddler, a child, a teenager, a young adult, a mature adult, a senior. It is unnatural when such growth stops.

Likewise, when you undergo a regimen aimed at improving your health, you will take on certain activities that will help you get into better physical fitness. The degree of difficulty in performing one task is initially greater than after a period of regular exercise. Also, as the task is mastered, and the body has gained a higher degree of physical fitness, the task will need to be adjusted in order to continue growing in fitness until the desired outcome is reached. Spiritual growth is no different.

Now when it comes to Jesus, He is our example, yes, but He is also so much more! Luke 2:40 says, “And the Child grew and became strong in spirit, filled with wisdom; and the grace of God was upon Him.” The Spirit encouraged Jesus’ growth. The Spirit led Jesus to His baptism in order to fulfill all righteousness. Jesus, though He was sinless, nevertheless submitted to a baptism for the repentance of sins, so as to make full atonement for our sins. He identified with sinful humanity, He took on the sinful state of humanity, though He Himself was without sin. As it says in Hebrews 4:15 “For we do not have a High Priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but was in all points tempted as we are, yet without sin.” And 2 Corinthians 5:21 “For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.” God the Father, through the Holy Spirit, made Jesus, who knew no sin, that is, who committed no sin of His own, ever, to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.

Jesus in His baptism, took on, as it were, our sinfulness, all our sinfulness, so that we in our baptism, take on His righteousness. That is the promise that is applied, that’s the promise we teach our children in baptism.

The Holy Spirit drove Jesus into the wilderness, so that we who are born in the wilderness of sin and death, can know that we have a High Priest who sympathises with our weakness. The Spirit places us in periods of wilderness—no, not the difficulty of a imperfect marriage, or cancer, or physical hardship, no, the wilderness is where rampant sin and temptation is. The Spirit leads us there, but not into temptation, but into the place where we recognise that we cannot do anything by our own strength. It is where we are brought low, as low as the people of Israel who couldn’t feed themselves, who couldn’t stop the snakes from biting, but who had to turn to God to provide all their needs. This is where Jesus isn’t our example, He is our means. He is our Provision, He is our strength, He is the Word of God, the sword of the Spirit that causes the devil to turn tail and flee. That’s why the Spirit leads us into the wilderness.

The Wilderness

The Spirit is leading us into the wilderness. But know this, Jesus has gone here first. The first opponent the Spirit lines up is Satan. The wilderness is a fitting location for this showdown. In the beginning, when God created the heavens and the earth, He put Adam and Eve in a beautiful, fruitful, garden. Satan tempted them out of God’s will, out of God’s provision, with the offer that they could decide for themselves, provide for themselves, and live for themselves. As a result, they exchanged truth for a lie , and worshipped and served the creature, Satan, and themselves, rather than the Creator, God himself (Romans 1:25).

This brought about spiritual death. That’s the state of every human heart that has been born since, apart from those the Holy Spirit makes alive. Adam and Eve were kicked out of the garden into the wilderness. Satan and sin seek only to destroy. Sin takes the good of the earth and corrupts and destroys it—with weeds, wilderness, catastrophe, etc.. Instead of living in a land with plenty of goodness and growth, the things that grow best are weeds, thorns and thistles. In the sweat of his face, man has to work the ground (Gen. 3:19).

There in the wilderness, the harshest of conditions, in the very wastelands of sin, Jesus confronted Satan.

It is fitting that Jesus was in the wilderness for 40 days. This too is Jesus way of identifying with Israel, with us. Whatever we are going through, and I believe that we are in wilderness times right now. We are witnessing the rise of the narcissistic self, the rise of idealisation of the self, the total attack on human morality, such as hasn’t been seen, possibly since the fall of Rome, North America is plunging into a moral wilderness. With the rise of Progressive Christianity, after years of easy believism, empty Gospel messages where people were told you can have Jesus and your own identity, your own lifestyle, your own comforts and habits and sins; all you need to do is believe. It is not surprising then that people don’t want to hear that they have to obey as well. We do the first part of the great commission, but we leave out the last part—teaching them to obey everything Jesus commanded.

That’s the wilderness we’re in. And many Christians are ill-equipped to deal with the wilderness and the temptations from Satan. Many churches haven’t been teaching, training Christians in the spiritual warfare that is seen in temptation.

The Temptation

Mark doesn’t record the temptations as Matthew does. He simply states that Jesus was tempted by Satan. What we learn from Matthew is that Jesus absolutely destroyed Satan. Every single temptation was quickly, decisively, powerfully turned aside by Jesus using the Word of God.

This is why the Word of God is a sword. It is a formidable weapon. No weapon that is fashioned against it can stand. This is a fulfilment of Isaiah 54:16-17 “‘Behold, I have created the blacksmith Who blows the coals in the fire, Who brings forth an instrument for his work; And I have created the spoiler to destroy. No weapon formed against you shall prosper, And every tongue which rises against you in judgment You shall condemn. This is the heritage of the servants of the Lord, And their righteousness is from Me,’ Says the Lord.”

Satan tempted Jesus using the very same tactic he used on Eve and Adam. He tried to trick, tempt, cajole, and all otherwise get Jesus to turn from His identity, His purpose, His Father’s plan and His and His Father’s glory. Satan is insatiable, discontent, malevolent and the personification of sin and evil. His character comes out in evil men who do wicked things to other people. His character is likened to the wild beasts who are without reason, without discipline, who cannot be tamed. He rains down a full assault on Jesus.

And Jesus, filled with His identity in His self, His Father, and the Holy Spirit, remains steadfastly strong. He exercises His Kingly authority, and dispenses with Satan and is unperturbed by the wild beasts. Resolute, strong, and powerful, as weakened by the ordeal as He was, He did not waver or falter. Armed with the Word of God, the powerful presence of the Holy Spirit and the administration of the angels, He stood His ground and gave not an inch.

The Angels

God the Father was present with Jesus, through the Holy Spirit. We must not consider the baptism, the coronation as the first moment when the Father gave remembrance to His Son. Nor should we think that the that was the first moment that the Holy Spirit was with Jesus. Remember what we already read in Luke 2:40 “And the Child grew and became strong in spirit, filled with wisdom; and the grace of God was upon Him.” Conceived by the Holy Spirit, grown and strengthened in the Spirit, filled with wisdom from the Spirit, and the grace of God the Father was upon Him always.

And throughout His temptation, God’s presence was administered to Him through His angels. The angels provided encouragement, strengthening, a lifting of His Spirit, the extra bit of energy to stand strong, stand firm, to stand against the fiery arrows of the evil one. God the Father and God the Holy Spirit was with the Son always, even to the end. So Jesus stood, and was strong, in the Father and the Spirit—fulfilling the truth revealed in Ecclesiastes 4:12 “Though one may be overpowered by another, two can withstand him. And a threefold cord is not quickly broken.”

Brothers and sisters in our Lord Jesus Christ, do not despair for yourselves where you are at. The Spirit has led you here for His glory and Your salvation. Salvation includes sanctification. Sanctification is extremely difficult. You are a new creation in Christ.

But your old self, your sinful self, your natural self nature is in active warfare against this new nature. For some periods, the new nature wins, for other periods, the old nature wins.

The way to deal, the way through the wilderness is the same way our Saviour went before us. Whereas Israel complained, whined, grumbled and in all otherwise failed to follow God, Jesus never did. He is more than our example. He is our means. He is our power, our strength our righteousness.

The Holy Spirit has led you here, to where you are. So what if it isn’t all sunsine and roses. You have the Spirit of God in you! You have the Son of God on your side! You have the Father’s blessing, His promise in your baptism, His grace, mercy, patience and love. Nothing can rob you from the Father’s love for you in Christ Jesus. That’s your identity. You have the Father’s love and His blessing upon you, as you’ve been adopted as His child. This is my beloved Son. The Father’s love is also given to you!

You have the full armour of God. Ephesians 6:10-18 reminds us, “Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might. Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places. Therefore take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand. Stand therefore, having girded your waist with truth, having put on the breastplate of righteousness, and having shod your feet with the preparation of the gospel of peace; above all, taking the shield of faith with which you will be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked one. And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God; praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, being watchful to this end with all perseverance and supplication for all the saints.”

Take your eyes off yourself, and your own limitations. God’s well aware of them. Turn your eyes upon Jesus, the author and the perfecter of your faith. Trust the Holy Spirit’s work in your life. He’s bringing you through what you’re going through in order to make you stronger, so that you grow in Christ. In doubt and temptation, rest in your Lord. Your hand is in His hand, he cares for you. He counsels your soul through life, He is your guide, He will take you to glory, Amen.