Jesus, Our Perfect Substitute Shows Us The Way to Fight (Part 2 of 2)
Mark 1:9-13 (Luke 4:1-13)
Mark 1:9-13 (Luke 4:1-13)
How’s everyone doing tonight? Prayer Requests? Praise Reports?
Let’s Pray…
Okay last week we took a look at Mark 1:9-13 and I promised that we would take another look at it again this week. So go ahead and turn your Bibles there. And be ready to turn in a minute to Luke 4.
Last week we looked at this passage and some related passages from a purely spiritual standpoint. And we looked at some of the deeper theological truth in the text there. And this week we are going to use the same text and one new one and we are going to use the spiritual foundation from last week to build a practical “how to” formula from the text this week.
And listen we are doing it this way – from the Spiritual > to the how to practicals - for a very specific reason. It is a part of the DNA of this church to constantly guide you – to guide us all - back into the truth of our new identity in Christ – IF you are in Christ.
If we don’t remind ourselves all the time about who we were, who Christ is and what He’s done for us and what life is like now as a result of Jesus, then we end up making church nothing more than a place for self-help programs that are all about you and me and our story and less about God and His story.
So again, it is a part of our DNA to always build first on the Spiritual truths of Scripture.
But THEN it is good and necessary to move into the boots on the ground teaching to show what our faith looks like outside of discussion time – outside of church gatherings.
It is NECESSARY to show what the truth of our faith looks like as we BE the church everywhere we go.
It is NECESSARY to show and teach and learn and help one another to remember what our faith looks like when we are in the crowds and when we are all alone in our homes, in our rooms.
It is NECESSARY to demonstrate how the Christian life isn’t some “head in the clouds” belief system that might be quaint and nice to listen to, but lacking teeth to help us get through our days with our problems and our families and our bosses and our life in the “real world”.
So today we are going to ask the question? In light of the GREAT EXCHANGE, What do we DO?
First, let’s read Mark 1:9-13 together:
Okay if you weren’t here last week you can go back and read the sermon notes on the Web site. A quick review for the people who weren’t here, we answered the questions of: Why did Jesus need to be baptized? And, Why would the Spirit send Jesus out into the wilderness to be tempted?
Remember the baptism from John was a baptism of repentance for sinners. It was a baptism in which people came and confessed their sins and were cleansed in preparation for the coming of the Great King.
But, Jesus was sinless so He had no sins to confess or repent of AND He is the GREAT KING!? So we asked the obvious question, why did He have to be baptized?
And we asked, why would the Spirit of God, send the Son of God into the wilderness to be tempted by Satan?
The answer to both questions is that these things HAD to happen. You see, for us to identify with Jesus, Jesus had to first identify with us. Remember last week we read about the Great exchange from Paul who wrote:
21 God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. (2 Corinthians 5:21)
And we ended last week with the writer of Hebrews who tells us that Jesus understands our temptations because He was tempted in the same ways.
And, because He conquered the temptation and because He did not sin, then we can live as conquerors too. Why? Because by faith in Christ, we have been saved and if saved then adopted and now through our faith we have not only been spared the torment of Hell, but we have also been given power in the Holy Spirit to live lives in power and in truth.
The writer of Hebrews says it like this:
Hebrews 4:15-16
So that’s where we start. We start in the Spiritual realm, We start with our new identity in Christ and our privileges as Christians to go to the throne of grace.
But, then what? Does He blot out all of the problems, situations, temptations and trials? Not yet, that’s what happens on the day he returns, Praise God!
But, until then, we’re not alone – Until then, we’re not powerless – Until then, the verse tells us that He will absolutely HELP US in our time of need.
But that doesn’t mean that we don’t, AS GOD’S CHILDREN, have a part to play.
“Helping us” implies that we are working this out with the aid and direction and power of God. We are not sitting on our hands or hiding our head in the sand. We are taking His help and moving forward.
So, here we go. If you are in a battle against temptations, or if you heading into one right now - Let’s see some application from Jesus’ example.
We’ll look at the Baptism, then the temptations and find some practical steps that we can take.
First Step, Jesus left Nazareth in Galilee. He left His home. He left what He knew and what was comfortable with in order to live a life on mission.
He was raised in a good home and had a marketable trade, no one thought He was crazy; no one wanted to kill Him. It was a fairly normal life from what we know.
But He left what He was comfortable in and followed after the will of God, though He knew what would happen at the end of this journey.
This may be the deal breaker for many of us.
To truly follow God and to truly take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of us, to truly take hold of His plan and purpose for our lives, we need to turn away from some things and let go of some things.
Some of you have to walk out of the comfort of your own sinful lifestyles and the relationships that foster that sin.
Others will have to walk away from the chains of “what will _____ think?” type questions.
At a certain point, we have to let that go.
Those people who suck you back into the gossip trade,
Those people who lead you to the club every weekend,
Those people who keep your eyes on the chase after the next new trinket instead of the race toward Holiness…
Eventually you’ve got to turn away from them, regardless of the cost.
Now, we are NOT saying you have to leave your family. But you do have to break away from the influence they have over you if they are keeping you from a living and vital relationship with Jesus Christ and fellowship with other believers.
For others, leaving your Nazareth in Galilee is something more subtle. I believe that even in a crowd even this size, some of you are going to get a call out of the field that you are in right now to pursue another calling. Maybe you are already feeling a call, but you are holding back because it will mean a loss of comfort or predictability in life.
Believe me I understand that. Everyone who knows my story knows that I understand that. Let me tell you from my own experience. If He’s calling you, you might as well get moving. Don’t be Jonah and run away and don’t turn a deaf ear to God. No, leave you Nazareth in Galilee and begin your journey. Moving on…
If you are a believer here and you have not been baptized then we need to remedy that tonight or this week at the latest.
God doesn’t honor disobedience and the first command He gives us after “Believe” is to be baptized. We went through this a few weeks ago and let me just say it again from the first conversions onward in the book of Acts we see it again and again, they believed and were baptized.
I didn’t understand this when I was a new believer. And let me tell you that YEARS after my conversion - after all that time trying to walk in the power of God and repeatedly falling FAR short, I realized that I hadn’t done the basic beginning step as a believer.
So I did it, I got baptized and my connection to God the Father was immediately evident to me. It was indescribable. If you are a believer – Get baptized.
And, if you weren’t a Christian before you came here, but the Spirit worked in your heart tonight and you accept Christ as your savior and Lord tonight then let us know and we’ll lead you through the next steps, Amen?
Now, I also want to look at Jesus' baptism in light of the 3rd camp of people in church tonight where most of us are. If you are a believer and you have been baptized continue in a willingness to obey God in the next decision and the next.
Before you can overcome temptations and obey God, you first have to be willing to obey His will. Some of us have strayed — even in our faith.
The second step for you if you have obeyed in Baptism is to continue in obedience, and willingness to obey. And, where there is not a willingness, pray to God for a willingness to be willing.
That may sound silly, but that was one of the most powerful prayers in my life as a new believer and there are times that I still have to go back to it.
“Lord, give me the willingness to be willing to obey.”
Next step.
Okay, so leave your Nazareth in Galilee. Be baptized and continue in a willingness to obey God the Father. The next step is to keep listening as God reminds you of your identity as His child.
I won’t spend a lot of time there because we already did. It’s what we’re all about. It’s our DNA remember? You are going to hear it every time we talk here and every time you read this Bible, I want you to read it as a child listening to his Father.
Remember, that is who you are because of the bloody cross and the empty tomb.
Now we’re going to look quickly at the temptations for some more practical steps. But since the Mark version is so quick, we are going to read about the temptations in Luke.
Luke 4:1-13
The next step is to trust God and go where the Spirit leads you.
Remember that if you are in Christ, then God has good plans for you. Plans to prosper you and not to harm you. So follow Him. The Spirit led Jesus into a dangerous place and He went. So many times I think we buy into a lie that Christianity is supposed to be safe. We have a dangerous faith if you are thinking simply about your own skin.
Our faith has been dangerous by worldly standards throughout history. But remember, even if the world were to KILL you, it doesn’t mean squat. I pray dangerous prayers for all of you all the time and I hope you are praying for me as well. I am praying that we might all take on a way of life like the Apostle Paul, who under the reality – not the threat – the REALITY of fierce persecution said: So What?! "For me to live is Christ, but to die is gain!” (Philippians 1:21)
Brothers. Sisters. We CANNOT live the lives we’ve been called to if we are going to cling to fallen notions of safety and refuse to follow the Spirit WHEREVER He leads us, even into the wilderness, even into the lion’s den, even away from job security, even into the troubled neighborhoods – ANYWHERE and EVERYWHERE that the Spirit of God leads us, we must follow.
And parent, we must release our children to follow the Spirit as well.
Don’t hinder the gospel from shining through their lives lived for Christ either.
I like to tie the Sermon on the Mount back to a lot of my messages. It was the first chunk of Scriptures that I ever preached a series on and it is close to my heart, but also, it is so rich, that nearly every other part of the Bible can easily tie into the Sermon on the Mount.
We see that here. Remember when He was attacking the Pharisees, Jesus blasted them for HOW they fasted, but He didn’t say not to fast.
In fact, we see here at the very outset of His earthly ministry the importance of fasting in the defeat of temptation. And in the spiritual walk in general.
When we fast, from food is serves as a reminder that the thing we need the most is God. We are reminded that He is our provider and our sustainer. We are reminded that He is the Bread of Life that will fill us eternally.
But when we don’t fast, when we refuse this basic spiritual discipline, we lose a piece of the fullness of God that is available NOW.
Yes there are things that we cannot experience on this side of Heaven, but there is a level of God-consciousness that we can have in the here and now that we forfeit by refusing to fast.
Now, this is a message about the practical steps of avoiding temptations, what’s fasting got to do with that?
It’s simple. When we fast we realize that we don’t need to settle for the easy pleasure, which is temporary and usually completely unfulfilling.
If we pursue those finite distractions we miss out on infinite Glory made manifest in moments of God connectedness.
It’s like when my friends invite us over for the next cookout and they cook steaks and they cook it just right medium-rare and seasoned to perfection with a side of corn on the cob and followed with some hot peach pie and ice cream. I’d be a fool to give up that satisfaction because I filled up on Cheetos on the way to their house.
When we develop the discipline of fasting it also works to discipline us out of trivial satisfactions because we know there is deeper and richer blessings beyond what is within our worldly reach.
Everyone gets that junk. But we get more. We get Christ, we get a closeness to God that is just for us.
Finally, last step, let’s read again starting in Luke 4:3.
This text teaches us enough for it’s own sermon, but there’s no time, we will revisit it some other time. Here’s what I want you to get from the text tonight. Jesus was tempted in every way.
He was tempted to satisfy the immediate at the cost of the eternal by making the stones into bread.
We are tempted the same way when we are tempted to use our money foolishly with credit cards and get the immediate satisfaction of the purchase despite what that will do to our debt.
We are tempted to do the same when we are tempted to violate God’s design for sex and instead sin in adultery or other avenues of sexual immorality for an immediate thrill despite what that will do to our marriages or future relationships.
Next, Jesus was tempted to grab hold of Power and control at the price of turning his worship away from the Father.
We are tempted in the same way when we turn away from God’s design for the relationship between husbands and wives, parents and children, employers and employees, government leaders and the people they lead in order to usurp God ordained authority in whatever realm that we DON'T have it.
We are tempted to violate this when we turn away from God and His commands over us and shake our fists at Him in rebellion and declare that we know better than His commands.
It is the way that Eve was tempted in the Garden. The snake, Satan said, If you eat the fruit you will be like God. You will have that kind of power. And she fell, and Adam fell and through Adam, we fell and we’ve been doing it in one way or another, to one degree or another ever since.
And the last temptation that we read about was in the form of pride. Satan tempted Jesus and tried to get Him to sin in order to gain recognition — in order to be seen as the big-shot.
If you’re God, show it off. If you're God perform this miraculous feat where everyone can see it and they will all flock to you.
We are tempted in the same way when we do things, even good things – even church things – even things that everyone else but we ourselves might see as humble, loving service — We are tempted to bask in our own recognition instead of diverting the gaze of the people back to God.
This is the way the Pharisees were tempted and the avenue in which the chased their sin.
But in every temptation Jesus relied on the Word of God to discern the truth and honor the Father.
Over and over I call you to be Bible people. I call you to spend more time in the Word than on Facebook. More time in the Word than in front of the television. More time in the Word than at ball games. More time in the Word than in history books or books of fiction. More time in the Word than ANYWHERE else.
And let me just admit to you here, I need to be called to this again and again too. I’m not asking you to read it like you are in a race, but pick up the Bible and dig deep into the word. Chew on it piece by piece until it becomes a part of you because as long as Jesus waits to return, we will be tempted again.
Today’s victory doesn’t keep us safe. Usually it just makes us cocky and vulnerable. Verse 13 says,
He’s not done tempting us. So lean into Christ and remember that...
Let’s pray…
