Creekside Church, Sunday, March 27, 2022
The Desert
Locations & Times
Creekside Church
660 Conservation Dr, Waterloo, ON N2J 3Z4, Canada
Sunday 9:00 AM
Sunday 10:30 AM
This morning – hone in on one word that we glossed over last week – faith
- This whole life of following Jesus is a walk by faith
- God wants to test this faith, reveal this faith, refine this faith, grow this faith
---
Luke 4:1-13
1Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, left the Jordan and was led by the Spirit into the wilderness, 2 where for forty days he was tempted by the devil. He ate nothing during those days, and at the end of them he was hungry.
3 The devil said to him, “If you are the Son of God, tell this stone to become bread.”
4 Jesus answered, “It is written: ‘Man shall not live on bread alone.’[g]”
5 The devil led him up to a high place and showed him in an instant all the kingdoms of the world. 6 And he said to him, “I will give you all their authority and splendor; it has been given to me, and I can give it to anyone I want to. 7 If you worship me, it will all be yours.”
8 Jesus answered, “It is written: ‘Worship the Lord your God and serve him only.’[h]”
9 The devil led him to Jerusalem and had him stand on the highest point of the temple. “If you are the Son of God,” he said, “throw yourself down from here. 10 For it is written:
“‘He will command his angels concerning you
to guard you carefully;
11 they will lift you up in their hands,
so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.’[i]”
12 Jesus answered, “It is said: ‘Do not put the Lord your God to the test.’[j]”
13 When the devil had finished all this tempting, he left him until an opportune time.
---
Notice tests 1 and 3 begin with "If you are the Son of God"
Luke 3 - Jesus is baptized and God the Father speaks over him,
“You are my Son, whom I love; with you I am well pleased.”
There is a theme of the devil attacking Jesus' identity. Get him to doubt his Father.
---
More subversive test, the devil wants to define what "Son of God" means
o You shouldn’t be hungry! You shouldn’t suffer!
o You should be known! you should shine!
Eugene Peterson puts it this way – The devil is happy to leave the ends in tact. He’s interested in challenging the means.
Who he was had been confirmed by the Spirit, now the question was How? How would he go about the restoration of all things? Heaven to earth?
The devil doesn’t attack the mission, the goal, the end, he attacks the means. He attacks the way it will be done.
"Every temptation comes packaged as a good." - Eugene Peterson
---
How does Jesus define what son of God will look like?
- Quotes Scripture, 3x
- It’s in his heart – it just comes out
- the devil quotes Psalm 91 – this likely strengthened Jesus because he knew the full context
---
Jesus Quotes Deuteronomy 8:3, 6:13, 6:16
Each quote is a callback to Israel's failures while they wandered in the desert.
Jesus is linking himself to the story of Israel
Israel wandered for 40 years in wilderness. Israel is God’s first born son (Exodus 4)
Jesus – 40 days in wilderness – Son of God
Where Israel fails, Jesus succeeds
Jesus is the faithful Israelite
Jesus goes into the wilderness to prove he’s God’s true son
---
Luke 3 - Genealogy connection. A long list of failures.
Jesus passes the test that had previously sunk everybody.
---
Following his testing in the wilderness, Mark, Matthew and Luke all give their own versions of how Jesus begins to preach the good news (Mark 1, Matthew 4, Luke 4).
Now that Jesus has passed the test he can proclaim good news to those who have been held captive by the curse.
---
Gal 3:26-27
So in Christ Jesus you are all children of God through faith, for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ.
---
Ambrose of Milan - “There is here an Adam typology and a Genesis background to this story: as Adam is cast out of paradise into the wilderness, so Christ, the new Adam, goes into the wilderness on our behalf, then to come forth from that temptation to lead us back to paradise” (Exposition of Luke 4.7)
---
Next time you find yourself in a test pray this reminder:
- I am in Christ.
- I am a child of God.
- The spirit of Jesus, who is a Spirit of power, is in me
---
There will be tests.
But there is one who has already passed the test, and his Spirit lives in you.
Which means, there is power for you to get you through the test.
- This whole life of following Jesus is a walk by faith
- God wants to test this faith, reveal this faith, refine this faith, grow this faith
---
Luke 4:1-13
1Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, left the Jordan and was led by the Spirit into the wilderness, 2 where for forty days he was tempted by the devil. He ate nothing during those days, and at the end of them he was hungry.
3 The devil said to him, “If you are the Son of God, tell this stone to become bread.”
4 Jesus answered, “It is written: ‘Man shall not live on bread alone.’[g]”
5 The devil led him up to a high place and showed him in an instant all the kingdoms of the world. 6 And he said to him, “I will give you all their authority and splendor; it has been given to me, and I can give it to anyone I want to. 7 If you worship me, it will all be yours.”
8 Jesus answered, “It is written: ‘Worship the Lord your God and serve him only.’[h]”
9 The devil led him to Jerusalem and had him stand on the highest point of the temple. “If you are the Son of God,” he said, “throw yourself down from here. 10 For it is written:
“‘He will command his angels concerning you
to guard you carefully;
11 they will lift you up in their hands,
so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.’[i]”
12 Jesus answered, “It is said: ‘Do not put the Lord your God to the test.’[j]”
13 When the devil had finished all this tempting, he left him until an opportune time.
---
Notice tests 1 and 3 begin with "If you are the Son of God"
Luke 3 - Jesus is baptized and God the Father speaks over him,
“You are my Son, whom I love; with you I am well pleased.”
There is a theme of the devil attacking Jesus' identity. Get him to doubt his Father.
---
More subversive test, the devil wants to define what "Son of God" means
o You shouldn’t be hungry! You shouldn’t suffer!
o You should be known! you should shine!
Eugene Peterson puts it this way – The devil is happy to leave the ends in tact. He’s interested in challenging the means.
Who he was had been confirmed by the Spirit, now the question was How? How would he go about the restoration of all things? Heaven to earth?
The devil doesn’t attack the mission, the goal, the end, he attacks the means. He attacks the way it will be done.
"Every temptation comes packaged as a good." - Eugene Peterson
---
How does Jesus define what son of God will look like?
- Quotes Scripture, 3x
- It’s in his heart – it just comes out
- the devil quotes Psalm 91 – this likely strengthened Jesus because he knew the full context
---
Jesus Quotes Deuteronomy 8:3, 6:13, 6:16
Each quote is a callback to Israel's failures while they wandered in the desert.
Jesus is linking himself to the story of Israel
Israel wandered for 40 years in wilderness. Israel is God’s first born son (Exodus 4)
Jesus – 40 days in wilderness – Son of God
Where Israel fails, Jesus succeeds
Jesus is the faithful Israelite
Jesus goes into the wilderness to prove he’s God’s true son
---
Luke 3 - Genealogy connection. A long list of failures.
Jesus passes the test that had previously sunk everybody.
---
Following his testing in the wilderness, Mark, Matthew and Luke all give their own versions of how Jesus begins to preach the good news (Mark 1, Matthew 4, Luke 4).
Now that Jesus has passed the test he can proclaim good news to those who have been held captive by the curse.
---
Gal 3:26-27
So in Christ Jesus you are all children of God through faith, for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ.
---
Ambrose of Milan - “There is here an Adam typology and a Genesis background to this story: as Adam is cast out of paradise into the wilderness, so Christ, the new Adam, goes into the wilderness on our behalf, then to come forth from that temptation to lead us back to paradise” (Exposition of Luke 4.7)
---
Next time you find yourself in a test pray this reminder:
- I am in Christ.
- I am a child of God.
- The spirit of Jesus, who is a Spirit of power, is in me
---
There will be tests.
But there is one who has already passed the test, and his Spirit lives in you.
Which means, there is power for you to get you through the test.