Episode Transcript
[00:00:04] We are going to be continuing a series of sermons looking at the Gospel of Luke. And we're going to. Today, we're going to begin by looking at the baptism of Jesus in Luke 3:21:23, and what happened to him straight afterwards in Luke 4:1:13.
[00:00:20] So let's read that together. The scripture should appear behind me on the screen.
[00:00:25] So first of all, Luke 3:21 23, the baptism of Jesus. When all the people were being baptized, Jesus was baptized too. As he was praying, heaven was opened and the Holy Spirit descended on him in bodily form like a dove. And a voice came from heaven, you are my son, whom I love. With you I am well pleased. Now, Jesus himself was about 30 years old when he began his ministry. And then just take it forward a bit. Luke 4:1 13, the baptism and then the temptation of Jesus. So from verse one, Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, left the Jordan and was led by the Spirit into the wilderness, where for 40 days he was tempted by the devil. He ate nothing during those days, and at the end of them he was hungry. The devil said to him, if you are the Son of God, tell this stone to become bread. Jesus answered, it is written, man shall not live on bread alone. The devil led him up to a high place and showed him in an instant all the kingdoms of the world. And he said to him, I will give you all their authority and splendor. It's been given to me, and I can give it to anyone I want to. If you worship me, it will all be yours. Jesus answered, it's written, worship the Lord your God and serve him only.
[00:01:46] The devil led him to Jerusalem and had him stand on the highest point of the temple. If you're the Son of God, he said, throw yourself down from here, for it is written, he will command his angels concerning you, to guard you carefully. They will lift you up in their hands so that you will not strike your foot against a stone. Jesus answered. It, said, do not put the Lord your God to the test. When the devil had finished all this tempting, he left him until an opportune time. Let's pray. Father, when we read your word, there's a real danger that we just read.
[00:02:23] Maybe a familiar, maybe an unfamiliar story, and we miss the truth, the truth of Jesus, the truth of the enemy, the truth of what happens at baptism, that voice from heaven, and then what happens in the wilderness. The voice from the wilderness, from the enemy.
[00:02:42] Help us, Lord, to open the Scriptures and understand them. Open our hearts and minds so that we come to grips with the truths and the life that you have for us. Your word promises that your spirit is life and the Word is the living word. So let us connect with that Lord, in Jesus name and amen.
[00:03:03] Now, before we begin, I don't know if you've heard the story of The Celtic evangelist St Patrick, who is often quoted as driving all the snakes out of Ireland. Well, there's a story concerning him. It's an ancient story. It's in the Celtic chronicles. And he approached a place in Ireland called Munster, which is down in the south of Ireland, and he came across this bloke called King Angus. Does anybody know the story?
[00:03:29] Well, King Angus, when he saw him coming, said to him, St. Patrick, I've heard about the Christian faith and I want to be baptized. So St. Patrick said, okay, let's do it. And he had a baptistery dugout. And the thing that St. Patrick did, like lots of those Celtic evangelists, they had a crozier, which is a shepherd's crook. And at the bottom of it would be an iron spike that he would stick in the ground. And then people would gather around that, knowing that he was going to preach or share the gospel. So the baptism went ahead. And as he was praying for King Angus, he took his crozier and he stuck it in the ground so that it quivered and remained there. And then he prayed. And as he opened his eyes, he was still looking down and he realized that he'd stabbed this thing through King Angus foot.
[00:04:19] And when he saw all the blood, he was obviously concerned. So he said to King Angus, you didn't say anything? And King Angus said, well, I remembered the wounds of Jesus and I thought you were going to do them to me.
[00:04:32] So I just want to say we don't have that kind of ritual here. You might be pleased about that. But if you're going to be baptized, you might want to get a pair of steel toe cap boots. If you see Phil and Esther carrying a crozier towards the beach or wherever it is, it didn't happen to Jesus like that. But it's a good story, isn't it?
[00:04:53] Just say yes, Dave. It will make me feel better. Make me feel like you're listening at least.
[00:04:59] Have you ever thought about what you need to be able to function as a human being? Many of you will have heard of Abraham Maslow's hierarchy of needs, where he's a psychologist and he's broken down what people need to be able to function. And that the pinnacle, he has a pyramid, isn't it? The pinnacle is self Actualization, where people come to be comfortable with who they are and therefore able to live their life. There are other theories too, but generally we all have physical needs, such as food, shelter, warmth. And we have psychological needs, such as a sense of who we are, identity, the need to connect with other people, to love and be loved, and a sense of purpose. What we are to do with this life or to accomplish in this life.
[00:05:47] Jesus, theologically, and we know this is true, was fully human and fully divine. Therefore he carried those same needs with him. To be able to function properly, he needed to have confidence in those things. And when we look at Jesus, at the baptism of Jesus, we see the Trinity, we see Jesus the person, we see the Holy Spirit in the form of a dove. And we hear. Some said it thundered. I love that because I know that when I preach, some of you will hear the voice of God. Not that I'm God, but you will hear the message of God through my words. And others will say, that was all right, or what was he on about? Some said it thundered, but some recognize the voice of God. If you are able to hear the voice of God in the thunder, listen. Because I'm just a guy, just the guy that God has called to give you this word today. But in this word is the voice of God. In this word there is truth. And I'm confident of that. But I also acknowledge that some of you will hear thunder or the rumble of something, maybe my hungry belly. And some of you will hear the voice of God. And when you hear the voice of God, there is a truth. And that truth is for you. So listen for the voice of God.
[00:07:05] What did he say to him?
[00:07:08] The words of the Father, this is my son there. Identity, belonging and security, whom I love to love and be loved with him. I am well pleased. Significance. And all this happened at the beginning of his ministry.
[00:07:29] But look what happens next.
[00:07:32] Immediately, we're told by Mark, immediately he is led into the wilderness. That's why Luke's story of the wilderness follows on straight after. There's no gap. He comes from the baptism ceremony. And the Holy Spirit, believe it or not, leads him into the wilderness. Not his circumstance, not the enemy. The devil didn't lead him into wilderness. It was the Holy Spirit. That's a bit challenging, isn't it? But it does tell us that we're not in a position of complete abandonment in the wilderness. It means that the Holy Spirit can be with us.
[00:08:06] So his physical needs, food, shelter, warmth, are all taken away immediately.
[00:08:13] I don't know if you can identify with that, but I can. I've had moments of spiritual clarity and purpose where I haven't had a shred of doubt about who I am, what I'm called to do and what I'm supposed to be. All of those things, the fact that God loves me. I've had moments of clarity that that is the case. But quite often they are immediately followed by challenge and difficulty. And some of those challenges and difficulties are really, really hard. Really, really difficult. We've already heard Graham's and Liz's testimony this morning that they have found that they face difficult times. I found I was a pastor Christian. I was a youth leader for about eight years and then a pastor for 27, and we baptized quite a few people over those years. But my experience is that it's very common for people to have a blessing such as being baptized, and then within that week afterwards they will find life is horrible. They'll find all kinds of challenge. The devil likes to attack couples on their way to church. Did you know that there's lots of couples that will have a row on the way to church. If you do think, just imagine what it's like to be the worship leader or the pastor who's going to bring a word and your wife has been horrible to you unjustly so. People find themselves in a wilderness experience, at least the spiritual wilderness experience, where temptations rise up to defeat me.
[00:09:54] This is my case.
[00:09:56] Things like temptations toward the world when you realize you're not being paid very well. Temptations towards the world where you're feeling tired and you haven't had a holiday. Temptations to the world where you look at your house and you think, I know somebody who's got a better house than me. Those are temptations to the world. Temptations to realize you could do something else, you could earn something more. You start to think about chasing the pound. You never catch the pound that you're chasing. Do you know that if you spend your life chasing the pound, you'll never catch it?
[00:10:30] Temptations to depression, anxiety, fear, doubt.
[00:10:38] There are a few things we can learn from Jesus. Experience in the wilderness. The whole wilderness experience starts with this encouraging moment, the strengthening moment. Words of the Father, identity. This is my son.
[00:10:54] Can you imagine if God said over you, this is my son. Do you know he does? If you're a Christian, that's what he says over you. Our identity was once rooted in who we were in the world and what we could do, what we could accomplish, how our IQ could be fine tuned and applied To. To make our lives comfortable, to feather our nest.
[00:11:18] Once we become Christian, none of that matters.
[00:11:22] Once we become Christian, our identity becomes rooted in what the Father says about us, and not in what we accomplish in this world, but what Jesus accomplished on the cross. That's the difference. It's a massive difference, isn't it? That's why in a church you can find people that struggle with life through. Through social problems, mental health issues, learning difficulties, all of that stuff. But you could find the CEO of international firms and factories and captains of industry. You could find some of the highest. If you'd done the alpha course, you would have seen the guy that runs the genome. He's the top genome scientist in the world talking about his Christian faith.
[00:12:02] That's because Christianity is a family that embraces the very, very intelligent, successful people with the very, very people that are struggling with life. And all of them will have blessings and all of them will go through a wilderness experience.
[00:12:20] All of them will have strife and troubles and attacks on their very core, their very spirit.
[00:12:28] So our identity is no longer rooted in what we might see a success or failure in the world. Our identity is now rooted in what Jesus accomplished on the cross. And look at it. There is no space for failure. He was completely successful as he went through that whole experience on the cross. It is finished. We saw that in the worship earlier on his last words, because it was done. It was over security, whom I love. For God so loved the world that he gave his only son, John tells us in John 3:16, God so loved the world. Are you in this world?
[00:13:12] Yeah, you are. So does God say that over you? Yes, he does. Have you done terrible things? I can see by your faces you've never done anything as bad as me. I've done some really bad things in my life.
[00:13:26] One of the things that really gave me the shivers when I started going to church was this theory that when you get to heaven, there's going to be like a vhs, shows you how old it is, but there won't be a DVD of your life on a screen. And you'll go through your life like a drowning man and everybody will know all the ins and outs.
[00:13:48] That's a pretty awful thing, isn't it?
[00:13:51] Well, for me. Look at you. Don't. You're thinking, that's no problem. It'd be like Sound of Music. But for me it would be like Saving Private Ryan. Or it would be the completely the opposite. If I had to watch a video of my thoughts, my goodness, you would think, could that be Dave and I would know. Yeah, it could.
[00:14:10] But it's not rooted in any of that. All of that is immaterial. It doesn't matter.
[00:14:17] Our security is in him. Our identity is in him. His love for the world surely includes you. And amazingly, me.
[00:14:28] With him, I am well pleased. Obedience to God precedes his pleasure. When I was a kid, I had a Saturday job working with my dad. My mum was outraged because he gave me 10 shillings a week. That also shows how old I am. But I used to get 10 shillings a week and my mum made me give it up to work in a wet fish shop in Peckham Rye Lane because they paid me three pounds a week and I stank a fish for a week. But when I worked with my dad, if I did a job and it irritated him, because sometimes that's true, I could just see it on his face and I hated it. I hated upsetting my dad. But if my dad said, well done, I thought all my Christmases had come at once. If my dad put his arm around my shoulders and said, good job, or whatever, that would make him American. But if he said something like, well done, my dad didn't say well done if it wasn't well done. So if he was pleased with me, I felt, like, massive. I felt fantastic. And my desire to please my dad, well, here he is. He is my son and I love him and I'm pleased with him.
[00:15:44] I can't think of more valuable, treasured words that you would take and hide in the deep places of your soul, so that when you're dragged off into the wilderness, even by the Holy Spirit, you've invested something in your soul which is a knowledge of who you are, that you are loved, and that God is pleased with you so that you can be trusted with the wilderness experience.
[00:16:11] Wow.
[00:16:13] Yeah.
[00:16:14] If we link these words with the Great Commission, in Matthew 28, we hear this. This is my son, whom I loved. With him I am well pleased. Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. Matthew 28, 19, 20. And then back into Luke 19, when we hear the response. When we've lived out our life and done all our stuff, he says, well done, my good and faithful servant.
[00:16:46] We live in a space between the Great Commission and the well done.
[00:16:52] We live our lives in that space. We're given a job to do, a task to do, to live out our lives. Please don't become one of those Christians that bash Each other around the head with scripture and confront people and think, well, this gospel is offensive, so I can be offensive. That's not the point. The point is we live our life in such a way that God is able to shine his light through us.
[00:17:17] That's the Great Commission. To make disciples, to win people. I used to say to my church, we need to win, build sin. That was our three things in our vision. We need to win the lost, not beat them up, not drag them in, not condemn them until they give their life to Jesus. But to win them. There's an old English word, winsome. It means that you're so attractive that you draw people alongside you, win them over. So we win people. Then we build disciples. And then we build people into people that understand with maturity the word of God and what God desires us to do. And then we send. And we send people out into the world to make saints. Win, build, send. People could remember that it's important to remember the vision and the values of your church. But I found that when build, send, people could remember. So that's great, isn't it? So let me just spread you with that virus. Win, build, send, win the last build disciples, send out saints. It's easy. But that's what we're called to do. That's the Great Commission. And if we do that successfully, then our inheritance is well done, good and faithful servant, which I don't long to die, but I long to hear.
[00:18:25] I long to hear, I'm with Groucho Marx. I don't mind being dead. I just don't want to be there when it happens.
[00:18:32] I'll leave that one to settle for a bit.
[00:18:38] So we live in this space when God is pleased with us. Nothing else matters, not even the wilderness. And then what can we learn in the wilderness? Luke gave us three examples of the devil tempting Jesus. The first one was a physical need. He says he was hungry. The second was to prioritize power over authenticity. And the third was to take the easy route. These can all seem appealing even to us, because they seem to meet or point to those natural human needs to live, to recognize and to accomplish. But the temptations go further. When we read in the niv, in particular, if you are the Son of God, you could read that the devil is immediately tempting Jesus to doubt that he's the Son of God. But that's a modern translation of that word, if it can be translated that way, but it can also be translated as since, or as you are the Son of God. As you are the Son of God, throw yourself off the temple. You know, if Jesus thought he was a human, that temptation wouldn't matter, would it? Because angels aren't going to come and catch a human being. They're not, are they?
[00:19:52] No, Dave. Say no, Dave. Do you expect that if you fell off a cliff, an angel would swoop in and catch you, or do you imagine you might go splat?
[00:20:01] Yeah, it's going to be splat, isn't it? Yes, Dave. All right.
[00:20:10] So it's not about whether Jesus was the Son of God. He was saying, well, seeing as you are the Son of God, do these things go this easy way to accomplish your. Your purpose and your destiny?
[00:20:22] So Mark's Gospel in particular doesn't list any of these specific temptations that Luke does. Perhaps it's because each of us face slightly different temptations and he keeps it general so that we understand the specific and the general both matter in our lives. Both specific actions and general attitudes matter, and we'll face both in our lives.
[00:20:49] We don't have to give in to any of those temptations because Jesus is sufficient to handle whatever life brings. But to be honest, in the wilderness, it doesn't seem obvious that Jesus is sufficient. Let me just say that because sometimes jargon would lead you to think that Jesus is sufficient. And if you feel like he's not, for the moment, you must be failing. The devil would like you to think that. The truth is that in the wilderness, Jesus doesn't always seem obvious, but the Scripture tells us he's always there. And the Scripture tells us he is always sufficient. The Scripture tells us he is always enough. But the reality is, in the wilderness, it doesn't always feel like that. Unless I'm alone there, unless I'm the only one who's ever felt like that. You know, where are you, God? Why are the heavens like brass? It's an old expression that means when you pray, there doesn't seem to be any answers. I mean, I don't know. I don't feel like I'm special, either good or bad. I just feel like that's an experience that's common to everybody and common to Jesus in the wilderness. But he is enough. And so there are these helpful lessons for us in the council of Jesus in the wilderness. So let's see how we can apply these things to our daily life. First of all, the wanderings in the wilderness.
[00:22:07] So immediately after he was baptized by John, he heard God's voice from heaven and things began to change. He was led by the Spirit into this wilderness experience. Luke doesn't describe how Jesus felt about this. But Jesus was going from a very positive experience to a very negative one.
[00:22:28] A wilderness is any place we don't want to be. I know some people like Bear Grylls, they want to be out there eating snakes and drinking stuff you're not supposed to drink. But generally speaking, being alone in the wilderness is not attractive.
[00:22:44] Here he found himself alone.
[00:22:47] His friends were not there.
[00:22:50] He had no support team to encourage him other than the Holy Spirit.
[00:22:56] Maybe he felt aloneness intensely. Maybe he wandered around thinking, what do I do now?
[00:23:04] How do I handle this? Where do I go? He faced three dangers. Loneliness, Satan, and in the other accounts, wild animals. Loneliness is a psychological danger. He'd already been told he was hungry, so that's his physical danger. He's in the wilderness, so we know there's no shelter and stuff like that. But here's the physical one. What does God think about being alone? Well, in Genesis we read the Lord God said, it is not good for the man to be alone. You know, that's the first human crisis. There isn't another one in Genesis before then. And it happens before sin enters the world.
[00:23:42] The first human crisis. God said, it's not good for the man to be alone. I think that's amazing.
[00:23:49] I don't like my own company. If I spend too much time with me, I get really. I had enough of him. I don't like my own company. I like to be with other people.
[00:24:00] That's because we're all made to love and be loved, you know that.
[00:24:04] So it's not good for us to be alone. And isn't it true that when we're faced with the world and experience, we feel like we're alone almost immediately? And when we feel alone, we begin to feel low spirited and vulnerable. A lot of sin takes place when people get to feeling isolated or alone. People drink too much because they're lonely. People have all kinds of compromised relationships because they're lonely. People do all kinds of things to chase excitement because they're lonely. When you get. There's an old phrase, isn't there? The devil makes work for idle hands. In other words, the devil gets into you and starts messing about with your head when you're alone.
[00:24:46] Jesus was alone in the wilderness, as I said just now. No support group and no one to give him advice. And when things began to hit him adversely, he could have wondered, has God abandoned me? Do you remember? That's what he said on the cross.
[00:25:02] Has God abandoned me? Right at the beginning of My ministry is God not pleased with me? Have I done something wrong between God saying with him, I am well pleased to now wandering around in this wilderness, Does God not love me anymore? Those things that were spoken over his life would be undermined by his wilderness experience.
[00:25:21] These things Satan uses on us to make us doubt and feel discouraged.
[00:25:27] There are many thoughts that we can apply to our own lives from this experience of Jesus. We do have wilderness experience where we feel alone. We do have experiences where we feel like we're wandering around and we don't know what to do or what to think or where to go or where to turn. And we are surrounded by many dangers and temptations that are every bit as threatening or even more so than the loneliness and the wild animals that Jesus faced. There are many people that live alone these days. The breakdown of marriage, even the breakdown of traditional male and female roles and codes of behavior mean that there are more people living alone than ever before.
[00:26:08] Do you know what? Even if you're married, you can feel alone.
[00:26:12] I believe that Jesus drew his companionship with His Father through faith and the Holy Spirit. But I also believe that if we are effective as a community of faith, as a church, then nobody needs to compromise in relationships. If you are lonely, whether you are single or married, then I want to pray that God will fill you with His Holy Spirit and you will know what it is that you walk. Like those disciples on the road to Emmaus, with a companion. By the way, that's one of my favorite scriptures, that one about the disciples on the road to Emmaus, because it points to me towards Genesis. You know, in Genesis, before sin, when the sin happened, God came down in the cool of the evening and said, adam, where are you? And God was expecting to walk and talk with Adam in the cool of the evening. These disciples on the road to Emmaus are a demonstration to me that we are still able to walk and talk with God in the cool of the evening. And I think it's one of my favourite pictures in Scripture because you are enabled by faith and by the Holy Spirit to take your troubles to Jesus and to walk with him and talk with him in the cool of the evening. Kintsugi hope is great for that life. Groups can help as well. But at the end of the day, you're not going to just walk with those groups, you're going to walk with Jesus. And I love that scripture in Emmaus about Emmaus, because that's what it tells us. And a good Bible study is to find out who they are, because you Can. If you study it in Scripture, you can find their names. That'd be interesting, wouldn't it? Yes, Dave. Yes, Dave. Yeah.
[00:28:00] So I believe that you don't need to be alone. And I believe that the church can be, if it's functioning right properly, can be the context for you to find companionship.
[00:28:13] And you can find all kinds of stuff. You could share experiences. You can find people that love you. You can have the opportunity to love and be loved in church.
[00:28:23] And if you're lonely, I know that you might think, well, Dave, it's easy for you to say that, yeah, it is. But I have lived it, and I know that it's possible. And I know that this is a community of faith. And I know that if I told you to stand up and look around you, you would see faces of people that have promised that they will love you. And if you give them the opportunity, they will do that.
[00:28:48] Then you can get a mirror and see your own face. Because if you're part of this church, you have promised to love other people. And if they give you the opportunity, then you can show that.
[00:29:03] And love is not just a theory. And it's not a thought or an emotion. Love is an action.
[00:29:08] There's a song. I can't remember the musical, but the girl sings, don't talk of love like the stars above if you let love me, then show me. In other words, if you love someone, do something about it. It's in the same one as the Lambeth Walk, if you're interested in musicals. But anyway, it doesn't matter. So is it Dr. Doolittle?
[00:29:33] Eliza Doolittle? Is that that one? It's going to bug me now because I can't remember the musical, but, yeah, My Fair lady, that's it.
[00:29:40] So I don't want you to think that I'm against singleness. Quite the opposite. I believe that, as the Bible says, it's not good for man to be alone. And yet it also says it's good to stay unmarried. There is something of a spiritual answer to this conundrum and something of a community answer. The church. I think that if you seek the Lord, he'll give you a gift to be settled as a single person, because your fulfillment still is in Jesus.
[00:30:06] I think that if you seek the Lord, you will find a companion for your life.
[00:30:12] But I also believe passionately that that is expressed through the church. I do believe that the local church is the answer. I do believe that. I know the gospel is the ultimate answer, but the connection is the local church.
[00:30:27] So Satan represents a spiritual danger. Your adversary. Scripture tells us the adversary, the devil, as a roaring lion, walks about seeking whom he may devour. Now, I spoke to a South African guy once that knew about lions. And what he told me is lions only roar when they're hungry. They don't roar when they're satisfied. They always roar when they desire to devour something.
[00:30:52] So the fact that the devil's always wandering around roaring means he's always hungry. That's because Jesus has removed his teeth so the devil can't consume you. He can give you a good gummy, but he can't tear you apart.
[00:31:06] That's good news, isn't it?
[00:31:09] Thank you.
[00:31:11] There's at least one bloke who's not going to be eaten by a lion.
[00:31:16] So the devil wants to tempt Jesus there in his wilderness today, destroy his work and cancel his mission on earth. He wanted to sidetrack him, and he had a perfect opportunity to do that when Jesus was alone in the wilderness.
[00:31:31] Satan wants to sidetrack all of us from accomplishing anything for the kingdom of God to lead us away. And lots of people. There's a spirit of the age around now where people are openly saying, I haven't fallen out with Jesus, but I've fallen out with a church, so I don't go to church anymore. But the Bible addresses that. It says, do not give up meeting together because we are a family. And if you take yourself out of family, where are you going to be?
[00:31:59] In the wilderness, on your own, facing the devil without anybody to guide you or support you? Don't give up church.
[00:32:09] Don't give up on each other. You know, Jesus is in this group of people and they promise to love you. You might be unlovely, but they still promise to love you. You might be really difficult. There's nobody in this church like that. But they still promise to love you. I think that's amazing.
[00:32:30] Sometimes we stumble and fall and we try to hide it because we think people will be ashamed of us. They promise to love you. There's no room for being ashamed of you. Kintsugi Hope is something that will channel that and help it and gather people together. But the bottom line is it's church.
[00:32:47] Yeah, even on Friday. By the way, as I was writing this script, I read that a guy called Stuart King, who was one of the founders of Mission Aviation Fellowship, has passed away. He was a Second World War pilot. He passed away this week. The news and the papers reported it. Maf, MAF as a humanitarian charity bringing aid to The Third World. I think that that offends God because it's not humanitarian, it's Christian.
[00:33:20] I know that I'm a preacher, so I could go on for ages, and that clock is turning into a fan and spinning too fast. But I could tell you some amazing stories about Mission, Aviation, fellowship, and they all demonstrate faith in the Spirit.
[00:33:34] It's a great Christian ministry, but the world wants to claim it because it wants to undermine the spiritual impact that Christians can have in this world.
[00:33:44] So Amazing Grace, the wonderful hymn, says, through many dangers, toils and snares, I have already come. How many times have you sung that? How many times have you acknowledged the reality of that? What do you think those toils and snares and difficult times are? They're wilderness experiences. There are times when you don't know which way is up and you don't know which way to turn, and you need Jesus.
[00:34:07] So we know that Jesus experienced the invitation to sin because Jesus tells us that he was, in all points, tempted, like as we are, yet without sin in Hebrews. And I love it that at the end of that Luke scripture, it says when the devil had finished all these temptations, he went off for a more opportune time or worse than that effect. Because it just doesn't stop at the beginning of your Christian life. It doesn't just stop. Then the wilderness experience will come at you when you least experience them. I wish I had time to talk about, you know, where I look up to the hills. Where does my help come from? You know, I wish I could talk to you about the way that we're to make the King's Highway. In other words, tear down the mountains and fill in the valleys so that people have a smooth path to walk on. I wish I could talk about that. That's the work of the church. It's the work of God through the church. But I can't just acknowledge that every time you sing Amazing Grace, you recognize that maybe even in the last week, day or hour, you've had something that opposes you. But still you can say, the amazing grace of God has rescued me, has filled me, has. Has given me a sense of purpose and identity, and I know that he loves me.
[00:35:22] Wild animals represent physical danger as he was in the environment. He was surrounded by danger. A person out there alone at night could have been torn apart by these wild animals.
[00:35:37] But listen.
[00:35:39] Yet Jesus had created them. Wow.
[00:35:43] Yet Jesus had created these wild animals and wanted to tear them apart. I think that's a fascinating conundrum, don't you?
[00:35:51] Yes, Dave, you know, it could be that you're appointed to a leadership position in the church, so you set out to be the best that you can be in that role. There's nothing wrong with that. But after a while you can become tired, exhausted, or even conceited and big headed. The danger then becomes that your position becomes a danger to you. The thing that you have created can tear you apart.
[00:36:17] Or it could be that you are successful at work, you've built the reputation in the workplace, or maybe you've built your own fortune. But then when ministry opportunities come calling, your own financial security becomes more important to you than the faith that has been set before you, the faith task that has been set before you. Billy Graham has famously said that all temptations can fit into the categories of money, sex and power. All three of these temptations are wild animals that prowl in the darkness. And if you create, opportunities can devour you. So the danger to Jesus was complete.
[00:36:57] But God had spoken these words over Jesus at his baptism and Jesus had to rely on that word. This is my son, whom I love. With him I am well pleased.
[00:37:09] Notice that in the wilderness he was not hearing constant repetition about how much God loved him.
[00:37:17] He wasn't. Sometimes people get stuck in the wilderness and all they want to hear is encouragement, well done, whatever, whatever. But the reality is that isn't the wilderness experience. That's not true. Sometimes you can't rely on people keep up coming up to you and saying, well done, it will be all right when it won't be, and all of that kind of stuff. Sometimes you just have to rely on Jesus, his love, his empowering, His Holy Spirit.
[00:37:45] Certainly he didn't. And we too need to believe God's word to us because sometimes there is just periods of silence when we don't feel his presence and we don't hear his voice. But let me tell you something. The promises of God are in the Bible. If you never read the Bible, you're never going to read the promises of God. You're never going to invest those promises in your heart. And when you're in a wilderness experience, there will be more silence than encouragement.
[00:38:12] So we need to know what is in scripture so that it is second nature to us to know that we are loved. And let me tell you, just try and remember that childhood song, Jesus loves me. This I know because the Bible tells me so. If you just remember that, then that will point to the promises of God in scripture. And that's an easy one to remember, isn't it? Yes, Dave, Some of you think I've forgotten it already. Jesus loves me. This I know, because the Bible tells me so.
[00:38:43] So Jesus knew what his father had said at his baptism. This is my son, whom I love. With him I am well pleased. And he knew that the Holy Spirit had descended on him like a dove. He was secure in his identity, safe in the Father's love, sheltered in the Father's pleasure, and that the Word and the Spirit would be living water to drink and food for his soul. That might sound like jargon to you, but I tell you, when you face darkness or despair, you can feed on that promise. You can know that.
[00:39:14] So we often talk about spiritual experiences of being fantastic on the mountaintops, based, I suppose, on Moses meeting God at the mountaintop.
[00:39:25] And then sometimes we say, they're awful in the valley, based, I suppose, on the valley of the shadow of death in Psalm 23.
[00:39:33] Now, the reality of a mountaintop is that not much grows there. They're usually bare rock. They're usually very windy, very exposed, very cold places. At the top of the highest mountain in the world, Mount Everest, there's a place called the Death Zone because of the amount of climbers, professional climbers, not idiots that have gone up there but still have died. The Death Zone is on the top of a valley. That's interesting, isn't it? It's clear air. You can see for miles. You. You can have moments of real clarity. But there's real danger on a mountaintop. So if you were to be stuck in a wilderness, any wilderness, jungle or desert or whatever, how would you live, practically speaking? Well, you wouldn't stay on a mountaintop because you would be exposed and you might die, and people don't live there. There's not much on a mountaintop, but there's no cities, there's no towns, there's no dwellings. At the end of Jesus ministry, there's an incredible mountaintop experience. Jesus takes Peter, James, and John up a high mountain, and then he's transfigured before them. And during this miraculous event, Moses and Elijah appear and they talk with Jesus, and a cloud develops and envelops them. And a voice from heaven declares this. This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. Listen to him. Great words, aren't they? They're very familiar because we just read them in his baptism. So his ministry is bookended by this statement of God over his life, which is fantastic.
[00:41:16] So the natural response from the disciples to this event is, let's build a tabernacle. Let's stay here. This Is such a fantastic experience. Let's live on the mountaintop forever. But jesus says, no, you can't fulfill the great commission up here. You've got to go down to the valley.
[00:41:35] You got to go down. You can't stay on this exposed place where you probably won't live. There's no plants, there's no animals, there's no food, there's no shelter. My watch is telling me to stop.
[00:41:46] There's none of that on the mountaintop. To fulfill your purpose, you've got to go down in the valley. So let me look at valleys.
[00:41:55] If you're stuck on dartmoor and you're lost and you haven't got a map and you don't know what to do, and you're alone and you haven't got any shelter, you're likely to go to the top of. They're very old mountains, so they're not very high. But you're going to go to the top of the highest place on there and look. On a clear day, you'll be able to see where to go. You see the lights of princetown or exeter or whatever. You can see where you're supposed to go. So you get your direction from the clarity of a mountaintop experience.
[00:42:24] But then you go down to the valley. Now, what valley should you aim for? Valleys are full of life, generally speaking, good and bad. Wild animals live in valleys, but so do edible plants. They're sheltered and they're shaded. And here's the thing. They're carved by the movement of water.
[00:42:43] And water in the bible is most often represents the holy spirit.
[00:42:50] So living water will carve a valley in your life. Don't be frightened of the valley. So is there the shadow of death in that valley? Is it the valley of the shadow of death? Who cares? I tell you what, if you're depressed, you care.
[00:43:05] But what shadow have you ever bumped into?
[00:43:08] What shadow has ever crushed your bones?
[00:43:11] What shadow has ever tripped you up? There is no substance to a shadow. It's just a little absence of light.
[00:43:20] So when you walk through the valley of the shadow of death, and you know you've got the companionship of jesus, you, haven't got to be frightened of it, because he ain't nothing but a shadow.
[00:43:29] The reality is the light of the world walks with you. The reality is that the light always drives back darkness. Now, these are metaphors that were written thousands of years ago, but they still apply to your life today because it's the living word. So if you were stuck on dartmoor, Find a valley with a river in it and then follow the valley in the way in the direction that the river is flowing. And I guarantee that eventually you'll find people. You'll find a dwelling, you'll find a town, you'll find a city, you'll find edible stuff. You'll be able to drink the water. You will live. You stay on the mountaintop where you've got clarity and purpose and blessing.
[00:44:11] You ain't going to live. You've got to come off the mountaintop and into the valley. Don't be frightened of the valley. Don't be frightened of sharing your faith. Don't be frightened of rejection, because there's no substance to it. And even if it does, I mean, I cut myself off from the Marines when I left the Marines in 1986, but recently I've reconnected and now I felt fear because I expected rejection. I haven't had any rejection at all from the hundreds of Marines. They use language that I don't share. They share images on my Facebook that refer. They didn't. They have experiences, they do all kinds of stuff. But when they meet me, they apologize for swearing. I let this. It doesn't particularly bother me, but they've apologized for swearing. And one of them the other day that I hadn't seen for maybe 45 years said to me, you're in ministry. You went into ministry, didn't you? With respect. And he was a second hand car salesman. So, you know, anyway, I got to speed up a bit. So 1 Peter 5:9 gives us some answers. Be sober, be alert. Your adversary, the devil is prowling around like a roaring lion looking for anyone he can suck because he can't devour them. Resist him, firm in the faith, knowing that the same sufferings are being experienced by your brothers in the world. Now, the God of all grace who called you to his eternal glory in Christ Jesus, will personally.
[00:45:39] God will personally get involved with your life and he'll restore, establish, strengthen and support you after you've suffered a little. To him be the dominion forever after you've suffered a little. So the Bible doesn't promise you a life of ease, does it? But it does promise you all the resources you need to experience and come through that momentary suffering. And that has got to be a good thing, hasn't it? Yes, Dave. So resist him, firm in the faith. We have to examine the darkness and wilderness areas of our life and then begin to resist the devil those areas, just as Jesus did in the wilderness.
[00:46:21] So I'm going to skip a bit and get to my conclusion. Reclaiming God's call on your life. You may say, yes, Jesus was successful. He didn't give in because he was Jesus. He had the opportunity to make a choice, though, just like we do. He made the choice. He could have made a bad choice and never have gone on to fulfill his mission through to bring salvation to humankind, but he didn't. He made the right choice. He could have called 10,000 angels to get him down off the cross, by the way, but he didn't. He endured it for the sake of you and I.
[00:46:57] In Psalm 25, which Jesus quotes, David begins by saying, lord, I turn my hope to you, my God, I trust in you. And I believe that Jesus did exactly that. And I believe that that's the chief lesson for us today, is that if you are going through it, find the Holy Spirit. If you are in the wilderness, find the valley that the Holy Spirit is carving. Don't be frightened of it, but step into it bold, knowing that Jesus is your companion, like he was with those two on the road to Emmaus. He'll be with you. He'll bring his light to shine and he will help you. And. And the Bible even says that he'll be behind you and say, this is the way, now walk in it. He loves you and he will never leave you nor forsake you, especially in the wilderness. Amen.
[00:47:48] So what response do we make?
[00:47:51] I know that there are people that are eager to pray for you here in the fellowship. So I just want to say, if you're going through spiritual wilderness, if you're struggling with being alone or lonely or life or whatever crushing you, and come and receive love through prayer. Come and receive strengthening through the love of the people that are praying for you. So I don't know where we're going to finish. I'm going to dump this now on Phil and Esther or whoever's leading or Matt, and he's going to take it from here. But I've got to say to you, even if it's not to come forward, don't leave this place until you've received reassurance from the Lord that He says, this is my son. By the way, there's no daughters there, are there?
[00:48:38] No, Dave. That's because not because he prefers men to women. But we are all sons. We are all equal. We all get an equal share of his kingdom. There is no inequality in the kingdom of God. So if you don't want to come forward, make sure you don't leave until you've experienced the love of somebody's prayer. Amen. God bless.
