Temptation in the Wilderness

Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. He fasted forty days and forty nights, and afterwards he was famished. The tempter came and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, command these stones to become loaves of bread.” But he answered, “It is written, ‘One does not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.'” Then the devil took him to the holy city and placed him on the pinnacle of the temple, saying to him, “If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down; for it is written, ‘He will command his angels concerning you,’ and ‘On their hands they will bear you up, so that you will not dash your foot against a stone.'” Jesus said to him, “Again it is written, ‘Do not put the Lord your God to the test.'” Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their splendour; and he said to him, “All these I will give you, if you will fall down and worship me.” Jesus said to him, “Away with you, Satan! for it is written, ‘Worship the Lord your God, and serve only him.'” Then the devil left him, and suddenly angels came and waited on him.
Matthew 4: 1 – 11

After Jesus’s baptism, He was led by the Holy Spirit into the Wilderness for forty days (and nights) to fast and prepare for His ministry. Here He resisted the devil and the temptations laid before Him and strengthened Himself to be ready for what lay ahead.

Forty is a number that pops up time and time again in the Bible. In the account of Noah, once he and his family are on the ark it rains for forty days and nights. Moses fasted on Mount Sinai for forty days and nights. Elijah fasted in the desert for, wait for it, forty days and nights. After leaving Egypt the Israelites wandered the wilderness for forty years.

A lot of forties and we should also recognise that we are in one ourselves as we travel the forty days of the season of Lent, participating in Jesus’s ministry and following His way toward the cross. We remember Jesus’s time in the Wilderness during this time of Lent but are we taking the opportunity of the Lenten time of preparation to patiently prepare spiritually, seek God and deepen prayer?

After identifying with sinners in His baptism, Jesus then identified with them again in severe temptation. This was a necessary part of His ministry, so He truly was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness. Jesus did not need to be tempted to help Him grow. Instead, He endured temptation both so that He could identify with us (Hebrews 2:18 and 4:15), and to demonstrate His own holy, sinless character.

Temptation is a certainty for everyone. Yet Jesus’s temptation was more severe because He was tempted directly by the devil himself, while we contend mainly with lesser demons. It was also more severe because there is a sense in which temptation is “relieved” by giving in, and Jesus never did yield. Therefore He bore levels of temptation we will never know by experience.

Jesus is tempted by food, by who to worship, and by the power of the nations. This is another way in which Jesus identified with us as all three of these were faced by the Israelites in their exile. Sometimes they were able to withstand the temptation, and sometimes they did not. Jesus, on the other hand, withstood all His temptations even though what Satan offered him is firmly within Jesus’s rights and power.

Jesus’s wilderness temptations “prove” to us what sort of God He is. The tempter starts each of his offers with the Greek word, ei, which is often translated as “if” but also translates as “since…” Satan knows Jesus is the Son of God, he knows the power and authority that belong to Jesus, he also knows that what he is tempting Jesus with are well within Jesus’s rights and capability. Satan is both tempting and taunting Jesus but Jesus refuses to fall for either, proving His humility through denying Himself for the sake of others.

So Jesus was tempted just like us but Jesus succeeded where we fail. Jesus succeeded because He knew that His life was in God’s hands. We do not live by our power of provision but by God’s help and blessings. Jesus succeeded because He knew that God was with Him and He did not need another display of power to prove it.

The cross reminds us that God is with us. We do not need to tell God how to run our lives or how to do things differently; God is with us no matter what. God is with us whether He leads us through the valley of the shadow of death or to the mountain peaks of joy. Jesus succeeded because He knew that worshiping God meant doing God’s will and not seeking His own desires. We do not live for our own desires but for God’s glory so that in the end we will be glorified by God.

We can have victory over temptation if we will look at the root of what the devil is putting in front of us. Ultimately, every temptation challenges whether or not we believe that God is with us, that God will provide for us, that God is for our good, and that God will deliver on His promises to us. Jesus had victory in the wilderness so that He could set us free from these enslaving temptations and sins. Jesus had victory so that he could stand before the Father on our behalf, interceding for us when we fail. His success is even more proof that He is the King who has come to save us from our sins.

Wilderness (Photo by Luis Quintero on Pexels.com)

Here Is The News…

(Isaiah 40:1-11, Luke 3:1-6)

Today, we have heard about the proclamation of God’s message.

The message is that people need to repair their lives and prepare for Christ’s coming. John (the Baptist) proclaims this by calling the people to repent and be baptised.

We also have the beginning of the end before the new beginning.

We have the introduction of four men who will play significant roles in Jesus’s crucifixion. In fact, the seven people Luke mentions at the beginning of our Gospel reading, are only remembered today, despite historical records, because they are mentioned here in Luke’s Gospel.

God chooses unlikely people. We sometimes wonder about our calling, but God knows what He is doing. He knows the right people to call. God often calls the lowly.

And John fulfils the prophecy from Isaiah quoted by Luke. “A voice of one calling in the wilderness, ‘Prepare the way for the Lord…'”

But why in the wilderness and not Jerusalem? The wilderness is sparse whereas Jerusalem was highly populated and held the Temple.

Yet, throughout history the wilderness has been a place where God has shaped His people and forged the nation of Israel. It is where God’s prophets did most of their work and where Jesus was tested. God continues to work in the wilderness; for the wilderness is where and when life seems bleak and barren. It is when we are most open to hearing God. God works in the wilderness of our lives.

The baptism of repentance for the remission of sins is the type of baptism that John introduced to the Jews. They were already familiar with a different type of baptism – a type called Proselyte Baptism which was a ritual required of any Gentile who wished to become a Jew to cleanse sins.

But John was introducing a baptism which required all to repent and be baptised for the forgiveness of sins.

This concept was unfamiliar to the Jews and so the prophecy that John would give the people knowledge of salvation was fulfilled through his teaching of this concept.

John taught the ethical requirements of repentance. It requires bearing fruit worthy of repentance and sharing with those in need. To deal honestly with people and not use power in an abusive way.

Advent is a time of preparation. Here we find the way to prepare – bearing fruit worthy of repentance -sharing with those in need – dealing with people honestly – using power justly – turning around and facing a new direction.

Repent and turn around away from the sin. Turn away from worldly compulsions and turn towards Godly affections.

The reward of repentance is remission of sins. This is more than just forgiveness. It is also freedom from compulsions and addictions and habits that threaten to undo us.

Repentance is called for by John at both personal and national levels for without it Israel was heading towards destruction.

At the end of this Gospel Luke emphasises again repentance and forgiveness . “Thus it is written, and thus it was necessary for Christ to suffer and to rise from the dead the third day, and that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in His name to all nations…”

People still need forgiveness. God still forgives.

People know they are sinners. Dealing with sin seriously can be a relief because if sin is not ignored but is addressed then forgiveness can be believed.

Just as Israel needed repentance, we also need to prepare our hearts and minds to receive the Lord and to help our friends and family prepare their hearts and minds as well.

The important work and the real goal is the preparation of our hearts and minds to receive God and the work of the Holy Spirit.

We can contribute to the Spirit’s work in many ways but especially through prayer and the preparation of our hearts.

ALL will see God’s salvation.

Jesus has eliminated barriers to the salvation of all people.

We live in a highly divided world. God calls ALL people in every land, every race, every persuasion, every circumstance.

ALL are called. ALL will see the salvation.

No-one is excluded. The call is to repent and receive forgiveness of sins.

Awe and Wonder*

*(John 6: 1-21), talk given at HTS 28th July 2024

Again, we have a reading that is often preached on. The feeding of the 5000 and walking on water – as recounted by John.

Consequently, I have heard so many different theories about how the feeding of the 5000 was accomplished.

These theories are spoken by supposed men of faith, and yet, what they all have in common is that they detract from the awesomeness of the miracle performed by Jesus.

I have said before (and will probably do so again) that we, mere mortals, try to explain away acts of God. We are so eager to know how something has been done that we make up theories to translate the unknowable, the un-understandable, the sheer magic if you like of God’s awesome power into something mundane as we falsely claim we know how it was achieved. Like explaining away all illusionist’s tricks as mere slight of hand. We can’t just accept the wonder – the miracle – for what it is.

A miracle!

The work of God!

An amazing gift from Him to us!

We don’t need to know how it was achieved – not if we have faith and believe. It should be enough for us just to know that God did it – God provided!

God did not ignore the pleas made on behalf of His people. Instead He provided what was needed and a lot more besides.

No one went hungry. Everyone ate their fill. And yet 12 baskets of bread remained at the end of the feast.

12 baskets of bread
12 tribes of Israel
12 Apostles

Whilst you think about that for a moment; let me mention some more parallels that are at work here.

The Passover, a major festival in the Jewish calendar remembering when the Angel of Death passed over the houses of the Israelites the night before they, in a mass exodus, followed Moses out of Egypt into the Wilderness, where God provided for them with another miracle – manna – bread from heaven.

Moses, the foreteller of the plagues of Egypt, leading a crowd through a Wilderness where God provides them with the food they need each day. Moses, who went up a mountain to speak to God in peace and solitude away from the crowd.

Jesus, instead of foretelling plagues upon Egypt, provided healing in abundance. The crowd followed Him, drawn to Him by the signs they witnessed. Jesus was leading a crowd. John just tells us that they were the other side of the Sea of Galilee. The lack of a specific place name for where this significant event takes place puts it in parallel with Moses leading the Israelites through the Wilderness.

Jesus leads a crowd through the Wilderness. With the power given to Him by God His Father, Jesus provides bread in abundance. This acts as confirmation to the crowd that Jesus is from God. He sees what is in their minds and, knowing God’s plan knows that becoming the warrior king the crowd wanted was not how God wanted Him to save the world. Jesus goes up a mountain to speak with God in solitude away from the crowd.

As is a common thread through John’s Gospel; this passage is about who Jesus us and about proclaiming Jesus’s greatness. John does this by recounting this event in such a way that we see these parallels.

Both Moses and Jesus enabled their multitudes to have food in the Wilderness. However, it is the difference that is important here.

Moses asked God where to get food for the people. He didn’t know and asked God genuinely. Moses needed to rely on God. God provided, in abundance, food for His people. When Jesus asked Philip ‘where will we get bread for the people’ it was actually a rhetorical question. Jesus already knew what He was going to do. Jesus, the Son of God with the power of God, already knew that He Himself would perform a miracle providing food in abundance for the people.

John claims Jesus is testing Philip – and this is possible. The Jews knew the Scriptures in great depth. It is possible, therefore, that Jesus wanted to see whether the disciples knew enough about who He was, and is, and to see if they remembered the manna from heaven and would realise that in a similar way Jesus would be providing for His people.

We cannot second guess God, but what we do know is that if that was the case Philip failed. And not only Philip.

Like many today, Philip could only focus on how much it would cost to find a ‘shop’ and buy bread and Andrew could only focus on how little the supplies were.

And likewise, if Jesus tests us in a similar way, do we truly acknowledge that He will provide, or, do we fail the test by focussing on cost and resources?

Jesus fed His people. He took the loaves, gave thanks and distributed it to the people. And here we have the next important difference highlighting Jesus’s greatness.

If the Israelites collected more manna than they needed and tried to store it then the manna perished. When the disciples gathered the leftovers so that none would be wasted there were 12 baskets of good food leftover. Proof of the abundance Jesus provides for those who truly put their faith in and rely on Him.

The crowd see Jesus as a prophet sent from God. It is possible they may have seen Him as a second Moses.

But regardless of how the crowd saw Him, Jesus is more than just a prophet. He is the Son of God.

And in case we had any more doubts, like many passages in the Bible, like the Trinity, we have a third significant difference highlighting who Jesus is, His greatness and His power.

When the Israelites reached the Red Sea, Moses had to rely on God to part the waters so that he could lead the Israelites across on dry land.

When the disciples were crossing the sea in a boat, Jesus needed no such help. Jesus, God’s Son, with power over creation, walked on the water to the boat and immediately they all reach shore.

Jesus walked across the surface of the water as Lord and Master, revealing Himself to His disciples using His name – the name God revealed to Moses – I Am.

Moses is considered to be God’s greatest prophet and lawgiver. But Jesus is God. Jesus is mightier. Jesus is more.

Whoever you see as that Moses equivalent – be it as prophet or leader …

Jesus is greater
Jesus is the one who provides
Jesus is more

Let us see Jesus for who He really is. Let us fully put our faith and trust in Him. Let us fully rely on Him and allow Him to provide for us. Let us not continue to fail the test as Philip and Andrew did. Let us be ever thankful to God for HIs great grace, abundance and mercy. Amen.