WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:04.000 As we turn to God's word, let's pray. 00:00:04.000 --> 00:00:08.000 Father, as we've just sung, we pray that you would speak 00:00:08.000 --> 00:00:12.000 as your word is open before us. Help us to hear your voice. 00:00:12.000 --> 00:00:16.000 Please lead us in your ways. Amen. 00:00:22.000 --> 00:00:26.000 This morning I'd like us to turn back to the chapter that we read in the Gospel of Matthew. 00:00:26.000 --> 00:00:31.000 In these early months of 2020, we are working our way through this Gospel 00:00:31.000 --> 00:00:36.000 to see the great story of Jesus' life and how he changed his followers 00:00:36.000 --> 00:00:39.000 and how he changed the world. 00:00:39.000 --> 00:00:43.000 Last week we looked at a really significant moment where Jesus was baptized 00:00:43.000 --> 00:00:48.000 and in many ways it was a hugely triumphant moment in his experience 00:00:48.000 --> 00:00:51.000 because there was this powerful voice from heaven saying, 00:00:51.000 --> 00:00:55.000 this is my beloved son with whom I was well pleased. 00:00:55.000 --> 00:00:59.000 And you think it's kind of like almost like everything's just ready to go 00:00:59.000 --> 00:01:06.000 and Jesus is ready to burst onto the scene for everyone to listen to what he is going to say. 00:01:06.000 --> 00:01:10.000 But that's not what happened. 00:01:10.000 --> 00:01:14.000 Instead, Jesus was led away from everyone. 00:01:14.000 --> 00:01:17.000 He went out into the wilderness on his own. 00:01:17.000 --> 00:01:25.000 Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. 00:01:25.000 --> 00:01:28.000 This is an immensely important passage. 00:01:28.000 --> 00:01:34.000 One of the reasons it's important is because it is one of these sections of the Bible 00:01:34.000 --> 00:01:39.000 that deals with something that is incredibly practical for us all. 00:01:39.000 --> 00:01:45.000 It's touching on something that we all experience every day. 00:01:45.000 --> 00:01:48.000 Temptation. 00:01:48.000 --> 00:01:50.000 That's something that we all battle with. 00:01:50.000 --> 00:01:52.000 Temptation to be lazy. 00:01:52.000 --> 00:01:59.000 Many of you will maybe have gone back to your university courses in the past week or two 00:01:59.000 --> 00:02:03.000 and maybe some of you went back thinking, I am going to go and I'm going to work incredibly hard 00:02:03.000 --> 00:02:06.000 and I'm so delighted to be opening these books again 00:02:06.000 --> 00:02:08.000 and it's wonderful to have thousands of pages to read 00:02:08.000 --> 00:02:12.000 and these lectures are just like being on holiday. 00:02:12.000 --> 00:02:18.000 Maybe. Or most of you were probably like, oh man, this is a bit grim. 00:02:18.000 --> 00:02:21.000 And there's a strong temptation to be lazy. 00:02:21.000 --> 00:02:23.000 Same to be angry. 00:02:23.000 --> 00:02:27.000 Those of you who maybe work in shops or with the public, 00:02:27.000 --> 00:02:31.000 I don't know if I'd like to say this, but there can be nothing more infuriating than people 00:02:31.000 --> 00:02:34.000 and sometimes people can be difficult and awkward 00:02:34.000 --> 00:02:39.000 and you can have that temptation to be angry, this temptation to be selfish, 00:02:39.000 --> 00:02:42.000 and to be greedy, to want more for ourselves than other people's expense. 00:02:42.000 --> 00:02:45.000 There's the temptation to hide our faults, to be dishonest. 00:02:45.000 --> 00:02:49.000 There's the temptation to lift ourselves up so that we get the glory and the credit 00:02:49.000 --> 00:02:51.000 and come across us better than other people. 00:02:51.000 --> 00:02:54.000 There's the temptation to lust over others. 00:02:54.000 --> 00:02:59.000 There's the temptation to speak about people behind their backs. 00:02:59.000 --> 00:03:04.000 We constantly face a battle against temptation. 00:03:04.000 --> 00:03:07.000 And when we talk about that, one thing we must never forget, 00:03:07.000 --> 00:03:11.000 which probably sounds almost silly, but it's incredibly true, 00:03:11.000 --> 00:03:15.000 temptation is tempting. 00:03:15.000 --> 00:03:20.000 Now what I mean by that is the fact that it's appealing and attractive. 00:03:20.000 --> 00:03:22.000 It's something that we are drawn to. 00:03:22.000 --> 00:03:26.000 If something is not appealing, it's not temptation. 00:03:26.000 --> 00:03:31.000 It's the attractiveness of it that makes it hard. 00:03:31.000 --> 00:03:36.000 And so this passage is giving us some immensely important practical teaching 00:03:36.000 --> 00:03:38.000 about temptation. 00:03:38.000 --> 00:03:41.000 And I want to just highlight two or three things very, very briefly. 00:03:41.000 --> 00:03:45.000 The passage that Callum read gives us an insight into the kind of tactics 00:03:45.000 --> 00:03:50.000 that the devil used against Jesus and what I want us to recognize is that 00:03:50.000 --> 00:03:54.000 he uses the same tactics against us. 00:03:54.000 --> 00:03:57.000 We see first of all, if you look through this passage, 00:03:57.000 --> 00:04:00.000 that the devil tempts us when we are weak. 00:04:00.000 --> 00:04:02.000 So Jesus had gone into the wilderness. 00:04:02.000 --> 00:04:07.000 He hadn't eaten for 40 days. He was hungry. 00:04:07.000 --> 00:04:11.000 And the first thing the devil does is try to exploit that weakness 00:04:11.000 --> 00:04:15.000 and says to him, see these stones? You could turn them to bread. 00:04:15.000 --> 00:04:17.000 You could eat. 00:04:17.000 --> 00:04:22.000 Now, I'm trying to lose a couple of pounds after Christmas and all that carry on. 00:04:22.000 --> 00:04:27.000 And if I'm at the office, it's fine. There's no food nearby. 00:04:27.000 --> 00:04:30.000 And you feel okay. And you can ignore food and you can work away. 00:04:30.000 --> 00:04:33.000 But see when I get home and you get the amazing smell of food 00:04:33.000 --> 00:04:37.000 and you've got cupboards full of chocolates and this drawer that's got like 00:04:37.000 --> 00:04:40.000 just bursting with all the selection packs that have been emptied into it. 00:04:40.000 --> 00:04:43.000 It is so tempting. 00:04:43.000 --> 00:04:46.000 And imagine what it must have been like for Jesus. 00:04:46.000 --> 00:04:48.000 It's like you're starving. 00:04:48.000 --> 00:04:52.000 Turn these stones into bread and eat, eat, eat. 00:04:52.000 --> 00:04:55.000 The devil's trying to exploit his weakness. 00:04:55.000 --> 00:04:58.000 The devil does exactly the same with us. 00:04:58.000 --> 00:05:02.000 The areas in life where we're weak, where we're vulnerable, 00:05:02.000 --> 00:05:05.000 these are the areas that the devil will often attack. 00:05:05.000 --> 00:05:09.000 But the second thing we see is that the opposite is also true. 00:05:09.000 --> 00:05:13.000 Sometimes the devil will attack us where we're strong. 00:05:13.000 --> 00:05:19.000 And you see that in the second temptation that the devil that's recorded for us here. 00:05:19.000 --> 00:05:23.000 The devil comes and says to Jesus, if you are the Son of God. 00:05:23.000 --> 00:05:28.000 Now Jesus' greatest strength is the fact that he's the Son of God. 00:05:28.000 --> 00:05:30.000 That's what makes him unique. 00:05:30.000 --> 00:05:32.000 That's what makes him special. 00:05:32.000 --> 00:05:35.000 That's what makes him the King, the Lord, the ruler. 00:05:35.000 --> 00:05:38.000 That's why he is so strong. 00:05:38.000 --> 00:05:41.000 And the devil is saying if you are the Son of God, 00:05:41.000 --> 00:05:47.000 then come and turn these stones into bread. 00:05:47.000 --> 00:05:51.000 If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down 00:05:51.000 --> 00:05:54.000 from the temple. 00:05:54.000 --> 00:05:57.000 And so the devil won't just try and exploit our weaknesses. 00:05:57.000 --> 00:06:00.000 The devil will also try and exploit our strengths. 00:06:00.000 --> 00:06:04.000 That is often why successful people fail. 00:06:04.000 --> 00:06:09.000 So sometimes it's the smartest people who end up talking nonsense. 00:06:09.000 --> 00:06:13.000 Sometimes it's the best theologians who can lead people astray. 00:06:13.000 --> 00:06:17.000 Sometimes it's the most charismatic leaders who seem so strong 00:06:17.000 --> 00:06:20.000 who end up with their lives in a mess. 00:06:20.000 --> 00:06:25.000 And I think that these two things are there for us to see very clearly 00:06:25.000 --> 00:06:29.000 that in our places of weakness and in our places of strength 00:06:29.000 --> 00:06:32.000 we will face temptation. 00:06:32.000 --> 00:06:37.000 We also see that the devil tries to tempt us with half truths, 00:06:37.000 --> 00:06:40.000 sometimes even with three-quarter truths. 00:06:40.000 --> 00:06:43.000 You see that in verse 8. 00:06:43.000 --> 00:06:46.000 The devil took Jesus and showed him all the kingdoms of the world 00:06:46.000 --> 00:06:52.000 and said, I'll give them to you if you just bow down and worship me. 00:06:52.000 --> 00:06:54.000 Now that's not a lie. 00:06:54.000 --> 00:06:56.000 That's a kind of half truth or a three-quarter truth 00:06:56.000 --> 00:07:01.000 or even a kind of 95% truth because Jesus has come to be king. 00:07:01.000 --> 00:07:04.000 That's exactly why he's here. 00:07:04.000 --> 00:07:10.000 And so the devil isn't trying to completely put Jesus in an alternative direction. 00:07:10.000 --> 00:07:13.000 He's recognized, yeah, you are the king. 00:07:13.000 --> 00:07:18.000 I'll make you king if you just bow down and worship me. 00:07:18.000 --> 00:07:21.000 And these half truths, these three-quarter truths, 00:07:21.000 --> 00:07:32.000 these nine out of ten truths mean that it is very easy for the wrong thing to feel right. 00:07:32.000 --> 00:07:37.000 And that's something we have to be immensely careful of in temptation. 00:07:37.000 --> 00:07:45.000 The devil won't ruin your relationship with God with ugly, revolting, harsh propaganda. 00:07:45.000 --> 00:07:54.000 He will ruin your relationship with God with things that look and feel incredibly appealing. 00:07:54.000 --> 00:07:57.000 And that's why we have to be really careful. 00:07:57.000 --> 00:08:00.000 How do we just defend ourselves in the face of this? 00:08:00.000 --> 00:08:03.000 Well, Jesus gives us a brilliant example. 00:08:03.000 --> 00:08:08.000 What does Jesus say after every temptation? You can see it there in the passage. 00:08:08.000 --> 00:08:12.000 Every time he responds, Jesus says the same thing. 00:08:12.000 --> 00:08:15.000 It is written. 00:08:15.000 --> 00:08:22.000 It's a brilliant reminder that the Bible is our great weapon to protect ourselves in the face of temptation. 00:08:22.000 --> 00:08:26.000 Later on in the New Testament, Paul describes this magnificently, 00:08:26.000 --> 00:08:30.000 talking about the kind of pressure and attacks and temptations we face in all circumstances. 00:08:30.000 --> 00:08:35.000 Take up the shield of faith with which you can extinguish all the flaming darts of the evil one. 00:08:35.000 --> 00:08:42.000 Take the helmet of salvation, the sword of the spirit, which is the word of God. 00:08:42.000 --> 00:08:53.000 It's a brilliant image of the Bible as a sword to defend ourselves and protect ourselves in the face of temptation. 00:08:53.000 --> 00:09:04.000 If we are under attack, this is our defense. This is our weapon. We must listen to what God is saying in His word. 00:09:04.000 --> 00:09:14.000 So if we look at this passage, we can see some very helpful, important and relevant practical lessons for us all. 00:09:14.000 --> 00:09:19.000 And I want you to remember these and to hold them with you. 00:09:19.000 --> 00:09:22.000 But that's not really what I want us to think about today. 00:09:22.000 --> 00:09:27.000 And I don't want to focus just on the practical lessons that we learn from the temptation 00:09:27.000 --> 00:09:37.000 because there's a much bigger and I think we can honestly say more important thing that we have to consider. 00:09:37.000 --> 00:09:43.000 And that's to ask ourselves the question, why did this have to happen? 00:09:43.000 --> 00:09:48.000 Because it's kind of strange that as we said, Jesus is announced at His baptism as the Son of God. 00:09:48.000 --> 00:09:54.000 It all seems to be that everything is set for Him to go and have a really influential ministry. 00:09:54.000 --> 00:09:56.000 But all of a sudden He disappears. 00:09:56.000 --> 00:10:06.000 And we have this very kind of isolated incident where He's tempted. 00:10:06.000 --> 00:10:11.000 And we have to ask ourselves the question, why is this happening? 00:10:11.000 --> 00:10:20.000 It would be easy to think that it's just there to give us lessons on how to cope with temptation and it's valuable from that point of view. 00:10:20.000 --> 00:10:25.000 But there is something much more important going on. 00:10:25.000 --> 00:10:31.000 The temptation of Jesus is pointing us to something much bigger. 00:10:31.000 --> 00:10:37.000 In fact, it's pointing us to something that lies at the very heart of Christianity. 00:10:37.000 --> 00:10:42.000 It's pointing us to something that we must make sure we understand. 00:10:42.000 --> 00:10:48.000 And that's what I want us to look at today as we ask the question, why did this have to happen? 00:10:48.000 --> 00:10:53.000 And the first thing that we need to do to answer that question is take a big step back. 00:10:53.000 --> 00:10:57.000 Because to answer that, we can't just look at Matthew chapter 4. 00:10:57.000 --> 00:11:06.000 We actually have to look at the whole Bible, which is part of the reason why I got Callum to read from the very beginning and from the passage that we're reading. 00:11:06.000 --> 00:11:09.000 This section is not just about Jesus' personal experience. 00:11:09.000 --> 00:11:15.000 It's about God's great plan to save and restore humanity. 00:11:15.000 --> 00:11:18.000 And that's indicated for us in two ways. 00:11:18.000 --> 00:11:28.000 First of all, you can see that in verse 1 of chapter 4, it says, Jesus was led up by the spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. 00:11:28.000 --> 00:11:30.000 And that's a really important phrase. 00:11:30.000 --> 00:11:41.000 He was led up because it tells us this is God's plan and God wants this to happen. 00:11:41.000 --> 00:11:45.000 It's not a kind of surprise to God that Jesus is being tempted by the devil. 00:11:45.000 --> 00:11:51.000 It's actually a key part of everything that he has intended. 00:11:51.000 --> 00:11:54.000 So clearly this isn't God's plan. 00:11:54.000 --> 00:11:59.000 This is something that God wants to take place. 00:11:59.000 --> 00:12:11.000 The second thing that we have to recognize is that if we read through the rest of the New Testament, we'll see that a very important contrast is made between Jesus and someone else. 00:12:11.000 --> 00:12:19.000 And the someone else is Adam, the first human to have ever lived. 00:12:19.000 --> 00:12:21.000 We see that in various places. 00:12:21.000 --> 00:12:26.000 There's an example of it here in 1 Corinthians chapter 15. 00:12:26.000 --> 00:12:30.000 It says, thus it's written, the first Adam became a living being. 00:12:30.000 --> 00:12:34.000 That's just a simple biological fact. 00:12:34.000 --> 00:12:38.000 A first human must have existed at some point. 00:12:38.000 --> 00:12:40.000 The last Adam became a life-giving spirit. 00:12:40.000 --> 00:12:44.000 But it's not the spiritual that is first, but the natural, then the spiritual. 00:12:44.000 --> 00:12:46.000 The first man was from the earth, a man of dust. 00:12:46.000 --> 00:12:48.000 The second man is from heaven. 00:12:48.000 --> 00:12:55.000 Now in that passage and in other passages like this, it's making a comparison between Adam, who we read about in Genesis 1, 2 and 3, and Jesus. 00:12:55.000 --> 00:13:01.000 The first Adam, the last Adam, or the first Adam and the second Adam. 00:13:01.000 --> 00:13:07.000 And this comparison is at the very heart of Christianity. 00:13:07.000 --> 00:13:09.000 But what does it mean? 00:13:09.000 --> 00:13:15.000 Why is there this contrast between Adam number one and Adam number two, Jesus? 00:13:15.000 --> 00:13:24.000 Well, the Bible and all of history is ultimately the story of two humanities. 00:13:24.000 --> 00:13:27.000 We often like to divide humanity into two. 00:13:27.000 --> 00:13:35.000 We'll divide humanity into the rich and the poor, the east, the west, the left, the right, the black, the white. 00:13:35.000 --> 00:13:40.000 Whatever it may be, we often divide humanity into two. 00:13:40.000 --> 00:13:52.000 We're right to divide humanity into two, but we make the wrong divisions because the two division of humanity that the Bible teaches to us is that there's one humanity who is under the first Adam. 00:13:52.000 --> 00:13:58.000 And there's one humanity under the second Adam, Jesus. 00:13:58.000 --> 00:14:03.000 One of them is broken and heading to death. 00:14:03.000 --> 00:14:09.000 The other is being fixed and is heading towards life. 00:14:09.000 --> 00:14:12.000 One is desperate to survive. 00:14:12.000 --> 00:14:16.000 The other is desperate to serve. 00:14:16.000 --> 00:14:20.000 One is desperate to find meaning in life. 00:14:20.000 --> 00:14:26.000 One, the other is desperate to share the meaning of life. 00:14:26.000 --> 00:14:34.000 And the Bible sets us before these two great humanities, the one that's under Adam and the one that's under Jesus. 00:14:34.000 --> 00:14:38.000 Adam was the first human, the first man, the head of humanity. 00:14:38.000 --> 00:14:49.000 In a sense, he was the Son of God, but he fell, he sinned, and he failed, which is what Colin read to us in Genesis chapter three. 00:14:49.000 --> 00:14:56.000 Therefore, we have another man, the true eternal Son of God, who comes as the second Adam. 00:14:56.000 --> 00:15:02.000 He has come to put right everything that has gone wrong. 00:15:02.000 --> 00:15:10.000 And this great first Adam, second Adam comparison in the Bible is a key theme that runs throughout the whole of Scripture. 00:15:10.000 --> 00:15:13.000 They are similar in many ways. 00:15:13.000 --> 00:15:21.000 And one of the clearest similarities we have is that both Adam and Jesus were tempted by the devil. 00:15:21.000 --> 00:15:24.000 The first Adam was tempted by the serpent and failed. 00:15:24.000 --> 00:15:27.000 The second Adam would face a similar challenge. 00:15:27.000 --> 00:15:35.000 And this, this is the reason why Jesus was tempted. 00:15:35.000 --> 00:15:40.000 And I want to look at this in a little bit more detail, asking two very simple questions. 00:15:40.000 --> 00:15:46.000 What are the similarities between the temptations of Adam and Jesus? 00:15:46.000 --> 00:15:49.000 And what are the differences? 00:15:49.000 --> 00:15:52.000 So first of all, the similarities, there's several. 00:15:52.000 --> 00:15:59.000 If we compare the Garden of Eden with what happened at Jesus's temptation, there's some remarkable correspondence. 00:15:59.000 --> 00:16:03.000 I'm going to blast very quickly through eight. 00:16:03.000 --> 00:16:07.000 Number one, both Adam and Jesus are confronted by the devil. 00:16:07.000 --> 00:16:13.000 It's a time of testing. Sometimes we could use the word probation, the idea that they're being tested. 00:16:13.000 --> 00:16:18.000 Both Adam and Jesus have been appointed by God for specific roles. 00:16:18.000 --> 00:16:28.000 So you think of God, he has appointed two people, first Adam, second Adam, and the devil is like, I'm going to test both of them. 00:16:28.000 --> 00:16:33.000 The devil wants to prevent them fulfilling their God-given destinies. 00:16:33.000 --> 00:16:38.000 Number two, both temptations revolve around the devil speaking. 00:16:38.000 --> 00:16:43.000 So in Genesis 3, this serpent spoke to Eve and threw Eve to Adam. 00:16:43.000 --> 00:16:49.000 And as we read in Matthew 4, the devil speaks to Jesus in the wilderness. 00:16:49.000 --> 00:16:51.000 Both temptations involve food. 00:16:51.000 --> 00:16:57.000 Adam and Eve were tempted by the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. 00:16:57.000 --> 00:17:00.000 Jesus was tempted to turn stone into bread. 00:17:00.000 --> 00:17:04.000 Number four, both temptations bring the promise of status. 00:17:04.000 --> 00:17:09.000 So Adam and Eve were told, if they eat the fruit, it will make them equal with God. 00:17:09.000 --> 00:17:16.000 God knows that when you eat of it, your eyes will be opened. You'll be like God, a promise of amazing status. 00:17:16.000 --> 00:17:21.000 Jesus likewise was promised authority over the whole world. 00:17:21.000 --> 00:17:27.000 Jesus showed them all the kingles and said, all of this I'll give to you. There's this promise of status. 00:17:27.000 --> 00:17:32.000 Number five, the devil tried to question the truth of what God had said. 00:17:32.000 --> 00:17:35.000 So to Adam and Eve, he said, you'll not surely die. 00:17:35.000 --> 00:17:39.000 God had said, you will. The devil said, no, no, no, you won't. 00:17:39.000 --> 00:17:43.000 You won't surely die. What God said is not quite right. 00:17:43.000 --> 00:17:48.000 And when the devil speaks to Jesus, he challenges him to prove that he's the Son of God. 00:17:48.000 --> 00:17:50.000 He says, if you are the Son of God. 00:17:50.000 --> 00:17:53.000 Now God has just said that he is the Son of God. 00:17:53.000 --> 00:17:58.000 And it's baptism, but the devil's trying to sow seeds of doubt, 00:17:58.000 --> 00:18:03.000 trying to get both Adams to question the truth of what God has said. 00:18:03.000 --> 00:18:12.000 Number six, both temptations are based on half truths and are trying to disrupt and ruin the plans that God has. 00:18:12.000 --> 00:18:16.000 So God has made Adam and Eve in his image. 00:18:16.000 --> 00:18:19.000 Every human is made in the image of God. 00:18:19.000 --> 00:18:26.000 They were already like God, but the devil deceives Adam and Eve by saying, 00:18:26.000 --> 00:18:31.000 you'll only actually be like God if you eat the fruit that's on this tree. 00:18:31.000 --> 00:18:38.000 And so he's trying to just give them a half truth of what God has already said. 00:18:38.000 --> 00:18:46.000 For Jesus, it's the same. He's come as King. He's come as the suffering servant in order to establish the kingdom of God and bring salvation. 00:18:46.000 --> 00:18:55.000 But Jesus tries to, the devil tries to convince Jesus that he can have the kingdom now without the suffering. 00:18:55.000 --> 00:18:58.000 Just bow down to me and I'll make you king of everything. 00:18:58.000 --> 00:19:06.000 You don't need to go to the cross. You don't need to have all the suffering that God has planned for you. 00:19:06.000 --> 00:19:19.000 Number seven, in both temptations, the devil tries to get Adam and Eve and Jesus to question God's care and purposes. 00:19:19.000 --> 00:19:26.000 And so the devil is coming with his own crafty words to cast doubt on everything that God has said. 00:19:26.000 --> 00:19:32.000 Now isn't that what the devil always does? He tries to get us to doubt God. 00:19:32.000 --> 00:19:39.000 So he tries to get us to doubt God's existence. We've got a massive society today which just doubts God's existence. 00:19:39.000 --> 00:19:45.000 People think that that's a big question and the devil casts loads of doubt there. 00:19:45.000 --> 00:19:52.000 The devil wants to cast doubt on God's promises, all the things that God's promised the devil say, no, that won't really happen. 00:19:52.000 --> 00:19:57.000 The devil wants to get us to cast doubt on God's wisdom. 00:19:57.000 --> 00:20:03.000 So when God has established certain things as right and wrong, the devil says, no, no, no, don't listen to that. 00:20:03.000 --> 00:20:12.000 And perhaps most of all, the devil wants us to doubt God's love, to doubt the fact that he cares for us and that he's committed to us. 00:20:12.000 --> 00:20:16.000 The devil constantly tries to get us to doubt these things. 00:20:16.000 --> 00:20:22.000 Why does the devil want us to doubt things like God's existence, God's promises, God's wisdom and God's love? 00:20:22.000 --> 00:20:27.000 Why does he want us to doubt all that? 00:20:27.000 --> 00:20:32.000 Because they're all true. 00:20:32.000 --> 00:20:37.000 The devil doesn't care if you doubt something that's false. 00:20:37.000 --> 00:20:42.000 But he wants you to doubt things that are true. 00:20:42.000 --> 00:20:48.000 And in it all, number eight, well, I should recap because I went through them too quickly. 00:20:48.000 --> 00:20:52.000 Number one, they're both confronted by the devil. Number two, they involve the devil speaking. 00:20:52.000 --> 00:20:55.000 Number three, they involve food. Number four, there's a promise of status. 00:20:55.000 --> 00:20:58.000 Number five, there's a question of the truth of what God has said. 00:20:58.000 --> 00:21:01.000 Number six, the temptations are based on half truths. 00:21:01.000 --> 00:21:05.000 Number seven, the devil wants them to question God's care. 00:21:05.000 --> 00:21:15.000 And number eight, and summing it all up, in both temptations, the devil has one great aim, disobedience. 00:21:15.000 --> 00:21:19.000 That's what sin is, disobeying what God wants. 00:21:19.000 --> 00:21:25.000 The devil wanted Adam to disobey God, and he succeeded with his first attempt. 00:21:25.000 --> 00:21:30.000 Now the devil wants Jesus to do exactly the same thing. 00:21:30.000 --> 00:21:33.000 The similarities are remarkable. 00:21:33.000 --> 00:21:43.000 Jesus is experiencing the same test that the first Adam was confronted with. 00:21:43.000 --> 00:21:45.000 But what about the differences? 00:21:45.000 --> 00:21:51.000 And it's important that we notice there's some very significant differences 00:21:51.000 --> 00:21:55.000 between the temptations of the first Adam and the second Adam. 00:21:55.000 --> 00:21:58.000 What are these? Well, I'm going to say four. 00:21:58.000 --> 00:22:02.000 First of all, there's a difference in location. 00:22:02.000 --> 00:22:10.000 So Adam was tested in paradise in all the beauty and perfection of the Garden of Eden. 00:22:10.000 --> 00:22:15.000 God had made the world for Adam to enjoy, and he was there in this beautiful environment. 00:22:15.000 --> 00:22:21.000 Imagine, it's probably hard to do at the moment, but imagine Scotland on a beautiful warm summer's day 00:22:21.000 --> 00:22:26.000 with everything in bloom, with provision, with the noise of birds singing, with water flowing. 00:22:26.000 --> 00:22:31.000 Adam was tested in paradise. 00:22:31.000 --> 00:22:36.000 Jesus, in contrast, is tested in the wilderness. 00:22:36.000 --> 00:22:38.000 And the contrast couldn't be greater. 00:22:38.000 --> 00:22:43.000 Adam's tested in beautiful conditions in all the comfort of Eden. 00:22:43.000 --> 00:22:47.000 Jesus is tested in a harsh, hostile environment. 00:22:47.000 --> 00:22:53.000 In fact, Jesus is right in the middle of all the chaos and curse that resulted from Adam's failure. 00:22:53.000 --> 00:22:57.000 There's a massive difference in terms of their location. 00:22:57.000 --> 00:23:00.000 Secondly, there's a difference in terms of resources. 00:23:00.000 --> 00:23:02.000 So in Eden, Adam lacked nothing. 00:23:02.000 --> 00:23:07.000 God had said, you can eat of every tree of the Garden, apart from one. 00:23:07.000 --> 00:23:11.000 And so apart from that tree in the middle, Adam could have had as much as he needed. 00:23:11.000 --> 00:23:16.000 Abundant provision, never hungry, never lacking, never short of anything. 00:23:16.000 --> 00:23:22.000 Jesus, on the other hand, was starving. 00:23:22.000 --> 00:23:30.000 He hadn't eaten for 40 days, and he was hungry when temptation came. 00:23:30.000 --> 00:23:33.000 In Eden, Adam had company. 00:23:33.000 --> 00:23:40.000 God had given him a wife. They were there in harmony with one another, with nature and with God. 00:23:40.000 --> 00:23:44.000 Jesus was alone. 00:23:44.000 --> 00:23:48.000 Adam was tested with a full stomach, a content heart, and a perfect home. 00:23:48.000 --> 00:23:51.000 He had no reason to lack satisfaction. 00:23:51.000 --> 00:23:59.000 Jesus was tested in weakness, hostility, and vulnerability. 00:23:59.000 --> 00:24:03.000 Number three, there's a difference in the level of temptation. 00:24:03.000 --> 00:24:07.000 And it's important to notice that with Adam, the devil only had to tempt him once. 00:24:07.000 --> 00:24:12.000 And he didn't meet much resistance, even with that. 00:24:12.000 --> 00:24:16.000 But with Jesus, the devil has to bring things to a whole new level. 00:24:16.000 --> 00:24:22.000 He didn't try once, but three times, again and again and again, trying to catch Jesus. 00:24:22.000 --> 00:24:30.000 And the key point we have to recognize is that Jesus' temptations were far more severe than Adam's. 00:24:30.000 --> 00:24:35.000 And there's a very important theological point to note here, because sometimes we can think to ourselves, 00:24:35.000 --> 00:24:40.000 well, if Jesus is the Son of God, and if Jesus is sinless, and if Jesus is all powerful, 00:24:40.000 --> 00:24:44.000 then it can't have been very hard for him to have been tempted. 00:24:44.000 --> 00:24:51.000 And how can he know what it's like for us when we face temptation? 00:24:51.000 --> 00:24:56.000 But that's to get the truth completely the wrong way round, because the truth is, 00:24:56.000 --> 00:25:02.000 we are weak, and we succumb to temptation so easily. 00:25:02.000 --> 00:25:11.000 And for that reason, we will never know just how severe Jesus' temptation was. 00:25:11.000 --> 00:25:17.000 We give into temptation long before the devil has had to reach his maximum attack. 00:25:17.000 --> 00:25:22.000 But with Jesus, the devil threw everything at him. 00:25:22.000 --> 00:25:28.000 And that's why when Jesus begins his ministry after this, he's confronted again and again by evil spirits. 00:25:28.000 --> 00:25:32.000 It's as though all the powers of hell are let loose on Jesus. 00:25:32.000 --> 00:25:35.000 There's a great quote from Donald MacLeod who says, 00:25:35.000 --> 00:25:49.000 Against us a little temptation suffices. Against Jesus, Satan found himself forced to push himself to his limits. 00:25:49.000 --> 00:25:57.000 Jesus knows what it's like to temptation. In fact, he knows it far better than we ever will. 00:25:57.000 --> 00:26:02.000 And that's of course why he's the perfect person to go to whenever we are tempted. 00:26:02.000 --> 00:26:08.000 Never ever feel that you are beyond Jesus' understanding. Never be discouraged to talk to him if you are struggling. 00:26:08.000 --> 00:26:14.000 Even if you have the most embarrassing temptation in your life that you do not want anyone to know about, 00:26:14.000 --> 00:26:19.000 you can go to Jesus and talk to him about it. 00:26:19.000 --> 00:26:25.000 He knows temptation far greater than any of us ever will. 00:26:25.000 --> 00:26:29.000 So there's a difference in location, a difference in resources, a difference in the level of temptation. 00:26:29.000 --> 00:26:37.000 But most importantly of all, there is a difference in the response to temptation. 00:26:37.000 --> 00:26:42.000 The first Adam saw the fruit, listened to Satan, disobeyed God and fell. 00:26:42.000 --> 00:26:54.000 The second Adam was tested by everything that hell could muster against him and he resisted it and was obedient to God. 00:26:54.000 --> 00:27:02.000 And the key point is that Jesus, the second Adam, has come to put right everything that went wrong through the first Adam. 00:27:02.000 --> 00:27:08.000 The temptations are a clear statement that Jesus has come as Adam in reverse. 00:27:08.000 --> 00:27:14.000 So where the first Adam failed, Jesus succeeded. Where Adam gave in, Jesus resists. 00:27:14.000 --> 00:27:17.000 Where Adam disobeyed, Jesus obeyed. 00:27:17.000 --> 00:27:24.000 And the contrast is so important and so clear and it's beautifully summarized for us by Paul, better than I ever could. 00:27:24.000 --> 00:27:30.000 He says, have this mind amongst yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who though he was the form of God, 00:27:30.000 --> 00:27:36.000 did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself by taking the form of a servant, 00:27:36.000 --> 00:27:39.000 being born in the likeness of men, being found in human form. 00:27:39.000 --> 00:27:44.000 He humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. 00:27:44.000 --> 00:27:48.000 Do you see what Paul is saying there? He's telling us that Jesus has come to be one of us. 00:27:48.000 --> 00:27:53.000 He's taken human form. He's part of Adam's race. 00:27:53.000 --> 00:27:58.000 And he did not think that equality with God was a thing to be grasped. 00:27:58.000 --> 00:28:03.000 Now that's really important language there because go back to the Garden of Eden. 00:28:03.000 --> 00:28:12.000 The devil says to Adam, if you grasp that fruit, you'll be equal with God. 00:28:12.000 --> 00:28:16.000 And I think the language here is very, very deliberate. 00:28:16.000 --> 00:28:24.000 That equality with God is not a thing to be grasped like you would just grab a fruit from a tree. 00:28:24.000 --> 00:28:31.000 On the basis of a promise to be equal with God. Jesus is doing the very opposite of what Adam did. 00:28:31.000 --> 00:28:36.000 Adam reached out, grasped the fruit, and in doing so he tried to grab equality with God. 00:28:36.000 --> 00:28:38.000 But Jesus is not like that. 00:28:38.000 --> 00:28:45.000 Instead, Jesus is obedient, obedient in the face of temptation, obedient to all that God required, 00:28:45.000 --> 00:28:48.000 obedient to all that God the Father wanted. 00:28:48.000 --> 00:28:53.000 And as this passage tells us that obedience didn't just take him to the wilderness, 00:28:53.000 --> 00:29:02.000 it took him all the way to the point of death, even death on a cross. 00:29:02.000 --> 00:29:10.000 And it's here that we see that the contrast between Adam and Jesus doesn't just come down to these two temptations. 00:29:10.000 --> 00:29:17.000 We can narrow it down even further than that because ultimately the destiny of the first Adam 00:29:17.000 --> 00:29:22.000 and of the second Adam came down to two trees. 00:29:22.000 --> 00:29:27.000 Now if you were to ask the question, what's the Bible all about? And I said to you, it's about two trees. 00:29:27.000 --> 00:29:33.000 Maybe you say that's a bit strange, but it's true. 00:29:33.000 --> 00:29:38.000 Because the first Adam stood before the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. 00:29:38.000 --> 00:29:46.000 He saw that the fruit was good to eat, it was desirable, and it was very, very tempting. 00:29:46.000 --> 00:29:51.000 And he also knew that God did not want him to do it. 00:29:51.000 --> 00:30:01.000 But he chose to put himself first, he went to the tree, he tasted its fruit, and death came to us all. 00:30:01.000 --> 00:30:07.000 The second Adam also stood before a tree, but it wasn't the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, 00:30:07.000 --> 00:30:14.000 it was the tree to which he was about to be nailed. 00:30:14.000 --> 00:30:17.000 It was the cross. 00:30:17.000 --> 00:30:22.000 And it couldn't have been more different to the tree that the first Adam went to. 00:30:22.000 --> 00:30:29.000 This tree has the bitterest fruit imaginable, this tree is hideous to the eyes, this tree meant agony and death, 00:30:29.000 --> 00:30:37.000 this is a cursed tree, and everything in the human mind and the human heart would want to run away from that tree. 00:30:37.000 --> 00:30:44.000 And in the Garden of Gethsemane Jesus himself saw that and begged that he wouldn't have to do it. 00:30:44.000 --> 00:30:56.000 But yet the great difference for the second Adam was that in taking the fruit of that hideous tree, 00:30:56.000 --> 00:31:02.000 he was doing exactly what the Father wanted him to. 00:31:02.000 --> 00:31:13.000 Adam faced the appealing, tempting fruit of his tree, and he took it in disobedience to God. 00:31:13.000 --> 00:31:29.000 Jesus faced the hideous, horrible, terrifying fruit of the cross, but he obeyed, and he tasted death itself. 00:31:29.000 --> 00:31:36.000 And in doing so, Jesus reversed the disobedience of the first Adam, Jesus released the world from the curse of sin, 00:31:36.000 --> 00:31:40.000 Jesus destroyed the works of the devil and left him powerless, 00:31:40.000 --> 00:31:45.000 Jesus abolished death and brought life and immortality to light through the gospel. 00:31:45.000 --> 00:31:52.000 The temptation of Jesus is telling us that he is on a great mission to restore the damage done by the first Adam 00:31:52.000 --> 00:31:55.000 and to destroy the devil and his kingdom. 00:31:55.000 --> 00:31:58.000 Romans chapter 5 summarizes that brilliantly, 00:31:58.000 --> 00:32:03.000 for if because of one man's test pass death, reign through that one man, that's talking about the first Adam, 00:32:03.000 --> 00:32:11.000 much more will those who receive the abundance of grace and the free gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man Jesus Christ. 00:32:11.000 --> 00:32:16.000 Therefore, as one test pass, that was when Adam pulled the fruit from the tree and ate it, 00:32:16.000 --> 00:32:24.000 when one test pass led to condemnation for all men, so one act of righteousness, Jesus going to the cross, 00:32:24.000 --> 00:32:31.000 leads to justification in life for all men, for as by one man's disobedience, the many were made sinners, 00:32:31.000 --> 00:32:36.000 so by one man's obedience, the many will be made righteous. 00:32:36.000 --> 00:32:43.000 That's why Jesus had to face this temptation to undo what Adam had done wrong. 00:32:43.000 --> 00:32:50.000 And here is where I really hope you can see that the work of Jesus isn't just to give us good advice in the face of temptation 00:32:50.000 --> 00:32:53.000 or to give us a good example in any other part of our lives. 00:32:53.000 --> 00:33:01.000 The work of Jesus is an amazing work to save the universe and restore humanity. 00:33:01.000 --> 00:33:07.000 I hope you can see that the whole Bible fits together perfectly, so you can go back to the very beginning 00:33:07.000 --> 00:33:12.000 and then come into Matthew and see that everything fits together so perfectly. 00:33:12.000 --> 00:33:20.000 And I hope that you can see that in God's plan of salvation, everything has been implemented perfectly. 00:33:20.000 --> 00:33:26.000 So every detail of what Adam mocked up at the beginning, Jesus fixes. 00:33:26.000 --> 00:33:30.000 Which is why we don't need anything more than Jesus. 00:33:30.000 --> 00:33:34.000 He is everything that we need for salvation. 00:33:34.000 --> 00:33:41.000 It's incredible to see how the Bible fits together so perfectly that God is piecing all of these stages together 00:33:41.000 --> 00:33:47.000 across history, across people, across generations in order to work out his plan of salvation. 00:33:47.000 --> 00:33:50.000 I hope you can see how it all fits together. 00:33:50.000 --> 00:33:55.000 I hope you can see that Jesus is coming to reverse the failings of the first Adam, 00:33:55.000 --> 00:34:01.000 but there's something else I want you to see as well. 00:34:01.000 --> 00:34:12.000 I want you to see that ultimately all of this was for you. 00:34:12.000 --> 00:34:21.000 Jesus has come to undo the failures of the first Adam so that he could save all the children of Adam. 00:34:21.000 --> 00:34:26.000 In other words, so that he could save all of us. 00:34:26.000 --> 00:34:33.000 That's why he became one of us in order to rescue us. 00:34:33.000 --> 00:34:40.000 Since the children, us, since we share in flesh and blood, he himself likewise partook of the same things 00:34:40.000 --> 00:34:45.000 that through death he might destroy the one who has the power of death, that is the devil, 00:34:45.000 --> 00:34:55.000 and deliver all those who fear of death were subject to lifelong slavery. 00:34:55.000 --> 00:34:58.000 That's what Adam's first sin has done for us. 00:34:58.000 --> 00:35:03.000 It's left us slaves and it's left us in fear of death. 00:35:03.000 --> 00:35:16.000 That's why humanity pours so much energy into trying to survive because we're scared of death and we want to avoid it. 00:35:16.000 --> 00:35:25.000 That is what Jesus has come to save you from, to save you from that fear of death. 00:35:25.000 --> 00:35:39.000 That's why when I think of Eric, a 40-year-old man who has died suddenly and left two beautiful daughters and a wife, 00:35:39.000 --> 00:35:50.000 one thing that was true of Eric was that he would not have feared death. 00:35:50.000 --> 00:36:03.000 And one thing that his widow, Mary Catherine, knows is that she'll see him again. 00:36:03.000 --> 00:36:07.000 And that's the difference Jesus makes. 00:36:07.000 --> 00:36:14.000 He delivers us from the power of death, from the fear of death and from the slavery of death. 00:36:14.000 --> 00:36:25.000 That's the whole reason Jesus has come to save us, to give us life. 00:36:25.000 --> 00:36:33.000 That's why he was tempted because he wants to save you. 00:36:33.000 --> 00:36:37.000 And all of that leaves us with a question. 00:36:37.000 --> 00:36:49.000 We've done this comparison between the first Adam and the last Adam, between Adam and Jesus, between one humanity that's dying, one humanity that's being saved. 00:36:49.000 --> 00:36:58.000 Just have to ask yourself, which humanity do you want to be part of? 00:36:58.000 --> 00:37:08.000 We want to align ourselves with different things and we want to make it clear that we identify with certain groups, certain humanities, 00:37:08.000 --> 00:37:11.000 whether it's sport or football or politics or whatever. 00:37:11.000 --> 00:37:20.000 One thing that's absolutely sure that on the day of judgment when Jesus is returned, you're not going to be asked who did you vote for. 00:37:20.000 --> 00:37:22.000 You're not going to be asked who did you support. 00:37:22.000 --> 00:37:32.000 You're not going to be asked which political system did you align with. You're not going to be asked what your race is. 00:37:32.000 --> 00:37:44.000 You're going to be asked which humanity you're part of, the first Adams or the last Adams. 00:37:44.000 --> 00:37:54.000 And the amazing thing about Jesus is that in order to be part of his humanity, what do you have to do? 00:37:54.000 --> 00:37:58.000 What do you have to give him? What do you have to pay? What do you have to achieve? What do you have to work for? 00:37:58.000 --> 00:38:06.000 What do you have to do to be part of Jesus's humanity? What do you have to give him? 00:38:06.000 --> 00:38:11.000 Nothing. 00:38:11.000 --> 00:38:16.000 Just hold out your hands and say, Lord Jesus, please save me. 00:38:16.000 --> 00:38:23.000 Let's pray. 00:38:23.000 --> 00:38:34.000 Lord Jesus, thank you that you resisted the temptation that you faced 00:38:34.000 --> 00:38:46.000 and that you came to rescue us from all our brokenness and weakness and from the power that death has over us. 00:38:46.000 --> 00:38:51.000 Thank you, Lord Jesus, that you obeyed in the wilderness when you were tempted. 00:38:51.000 --> 00:38:57.000 Thank you, Lord Jesus, that you obeyed in the garden when you were overwhelmed. 00:38:57.000 --> 00:39:04.000 Thank you, Lord Jesus, that you obeyed on the cross when you were battered. 00:39:04.000 --> 00:39:15.000 Thank you, Lord Jesus, for coming to be our Savior and help us all just to see what you have done for us 00:39:15.000 --> 00:39:21.000 and help us all just to come to you with open hands, asking for salvation. 00:39:21.000 --> 00:39:29.000 Please save us. Please have mercy on us. Thank you for everything you've done for us. Amen.