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Good morning, Christ Church.
My name is Bill Barnes, and I am part of the Bavinkian community group.
And I'm going to be reading this morning from Genesis, the book of Genesis, Genesis 3.1.
Now the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals the Lord God had made.
He said to the woman,
Did God really say, you must not eat?
From any tree in the garden?
The woman said to the serpent,
We may eat fruit from trees in the garden, but God did say,
You must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden,
and you must not touch it, or you will die.
You will not certainly die, the serpent said to the woman,
For God knows that when you eat from it, your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.
When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye,
and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it.
She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it.
Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they realized they were naked.
So they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves.
Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the Lord God as he was walking in the garden in the cool of the day.
And they hid from the Lord God among the trees of the garden.
But the Lord God called to the man,
Where are you?
He answered,
I heard you in the garden,
and I was afraid,
because I was naked.
So I hid.
The grass withers, and the flowers fall.
The word of our God stands forever.
Our gospel lesson today is a reading from the gospel according to Matthew.
Matthew.
As soon as Jesus was baptized,
he went up out of the water.
At that moment, heaven was opened,
and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and alighting on him.
And a voice from heaven said,
This is my Son, whom I love.
With Him, I'm well pleased.
Then Jesus was led by the Spirit into the wilderness,
to be tempted by the devil.
After fasting 40 days and 40 nights,
he was hungry.
The tempter came to him and said,
If you are the Son of God,
tell these stones to become bread.
Jesus answered,
It is written,
Man shall not live on bread alone,
but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.
Then the devil took him to the holy city,
and had him stand on the highest point of the temple.
If you are the Son of God,
he said,
Throw yourself down,
for it is written,
He will command his angels concerning you,
and they will lift you up in their hands,
so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.
Jesus answered him,
It is also written,
Do not put the Lord your God to the test.
Again,
the devil took him to a very high mountain,
and showed him all the kingdoms of the world in their splendor.
All this I will give you,
he said,
if you will bow down and worship me.
Jesus said to him,
Away from me, Satan,
for it is written,
Worship the Lord your God,
and serve him only.
Then the devil left him,
and angels came and attended him.
This is the gospel of the Lord.
Praise to you, O Christ.
Well, thanks, Bill, for that scripture reading.
Good morning, everyone.
Welcome to Christ Church.
My name is Andrew,
and I'm one of the pastors here.
Will you pray with me as we open up God's word?
Our Father, we pray
that you would help us to believe,
just as our Savior, Jesus,
that we shall not live by bread alone,
but by every word that comes from your mouth.
Thank you for being a God who speaks words to us.
And in the preaching of your word, O God,
we pray that you would help us to believe them,
as our Savior did,
that we might overcome the schemes of the devil,
and the lies that he spits into our ears.
Help our unbelief, we pray.
In the name of Jesus, amen.
All right, so a few weeks ago,
I got to meet a grad student from Cal,
and this is one of the things I love about Christ Church.
We always have people coming through our doors,
sitting in our pews,
who are not Christians.
I love that about our church.
And so he came,
and it was his first Sunday here,
and he was really open with me right off the bat.
He said, you know,
I used to be a Christian,
but I'm not anymore.
I can't believe anymore,
and I'm not sure if I ever really did believe,
but I'm willing to talk to people
to try to figure things out.
I said, well, you're welcome here.
We love that you're here.
We're so excited about that.
Let's talk.
So a few days before Christmas,
we got on the phone.
I went out for a walk with my dog.
Actually, that was irrelevant,
but I did that on the phone with him.
And we talked for about an hour and a half,
and I got to hear some of his story.
And, you know, basically,
his big hang-up with Christianity was,
you know, I can believe my science and history textbooks
and the proven facts that are within them,
but I have trouble believing the Bible
and this unproven Christ.
And so, you know,
I tried to share with him
what I thought was strong evidence
for, you know,
the historicity of Jesus
and the reliability of the Scriptures,
but you know what we spent most of our time
talking about that day?
What we spent most of our time talking about
was not the evidences surrounding Jesus,
but what we talked about
was the nature of belief,
the nature of faith itself,
like how and why do we even believe
the things that we believe,
or what makes something truly believable
as true and as trustworthy.
And I tried to show him that
whether you're the most spiritual,
pious, religious, holy man in the world,
or you're the most secular, scientific,
anti-supernatural, modern person in the world,
at the very bottom,
we all have to live by faith.
We all have to live by faith,
whether faith in a personal God
who makes the world revolve around the sun
and maintains the laws of gravity,
or faith in some impersonal force,
or faith in chance,
that by chance,
somehow the sun will just rise tomorrow,
and in the next second,
we all won't start levitating
from our pews, right?
And so I challenged him to consider,
like, sure, you can doubt Christianity,
and I understand why you would doubt Christianity,
but like, why,
but like, what are the things
that you don't doubt,
and why not?
What are the ultimate things
that you're most convinced of,
the things that you can place your faith in,
is what I asked him.
And that's the question
I want to ask all of us today.
What are we placing our faith in?
What is the one thing
we are most convinced of
in all the world,
so convinced we'd stake
our whole lives upon it?
What is the one thing
that we believe about ourselves,
and about the world,
and about God,
that if this one thing were not true,
everything else would unravel for us?
You know, for the French philosopher,
Rene Descartes,
his one thing was what?
I think, therefore I am.
I doubt, therefore I am.
His one thing was that,
because at the very least,
I know that I'm doubting with my mind,
even that I'm doubting that I have a mind,
if I'm doubting,
I know that I have a mind.
That was his one thing,
that he could doubt everything.
And maybe that's where
some of us are at today.
This broken world has given us
so many reasons to doubt.
We've been let down repeatedly
by all the people
and all the institutions
and all the systems
that promised never to fail us,
our parents,
our politicians,
our churches,
our technologies.
We feel like there is nothing
and no one we can trust,
not even ourselves.
And so maybe we're like today,
you know, okay,
that's my one thing.
The only thing I can be convinced of
is that I cannot be convinced of anything.
The only thing I can trust
is that I cannot trust anything or anyone.
But you know,
even the atheist British philosopher,
Bertrand Russell,
he said that while such skepticism
is logically flawless,
it is psychologically impossible.
It is unlivable.
No one can truly live
with such radical skepticism.
So again,
the honest truth is
we all have to make calls
about what we're gonna believe,
what we're gonna place our faith in,
what we're gonna commit our lives to.
And if that sounds scary to you,
well, yeah, it is.
It's incredibly scary, right?
Because whatever we most fundamentally believe
will affect our whole life.
There is nothing more important
than assessing
what our deepest beliefs
and commitments are,
what we are placing our trust in
with our whole lives.
And you could probably guess
what I would tell you
to trust and believe.
I'm a pastor.
I'm preaching the Bible.
You know,
you might expect me to say,
believe in Jesus.
believe the Bible is God's word.
So I don't feel like
I need to do that today,
at least not explicitly.
But what I wanna do
for all of us today
is I wanna look at
what Jesus himself
placed his ultimate trust in.
I want us to consider
what, according to the Christian tradition,
this ideal human,
God himself,
in the flesh,
what he committed
and submitted himself to.
And I want us to consider
whether following him,
believing what he believed,
trusting what he trusted,
might actually be a good idea
for all of us too.
And maybe you're like,
yo,
what does any of this have to do
with this temptation narrative
that we just read about Jesus?
And my response to that
is that
we have to understand
that temptation
is not merely about behavior.
Behavior flows from belief.
Behavior flows from faith,
from our deepest,
seated commitments.
If you are tempted to,
if you're tempted by
and to succumb to pornography,
you are not just tempted
to some act with your eyes.
Deep down in your heart,
you believe,
you have faith
that there is more pleasure,
more fulfillment,
more satisfaction
in the objectification
of other human beings
than in living
and loving God's way.
If you are tempted by greed,
you are not just tempted
to the act of hoarding
and withholding your money
and your resources.
Deep down,
you believe
that God won't provide for you
and that you have to provide
for yourself.
So if we want to address
the wayward behaviors
of our lives,
if we want victory
over temptation,
we have to look at our hearts.
We have to look
at our faith commitments.
And that's why I wanted us
to hear the original
temptation account
this morning
from Genesis chapter 3.
Because see, yes,
Adam and Eve,
they shouldn't have committed
the action of eating the fruit.
But do you know
what the real fatal sin was
even before that?
The sin that led them
to eat the fruit?
They stopped believing
God's word.
They doubted God's word.
Instead of crushing
the serpent,
they entertained
the question,
did God really say?
They entertained
the serpent's question
and they subjected
the creator's word
to their own creaturely scrutiny
and skepticism
and analysis.
Even doubting his character.
Entertaining the thought
that God was not truly for them.
Entertaining the thought
that God was not truly loving.
That God was not truly good.
That God was withholding
something from them.
The original sin
wasn't merely the eating
of some forbidden fruit.
But it was a lack of faith
in God's true word
and in God's good character.
It wasn't merely
a sin of the hands
or the lips
but a sin of the heart.
So again,
we have to look at our hearts.
We have to consider
our deepest faith commitments.
And this is also why
we picked back up
and read some of our passage
from last week
from Matthew chapter 3
verses 16 and 17.
I wanted to remind us
of Jesus' baptism.
Of Jesus' ultimate
faith commitment.
His faith and trust
in the words
his father spoke to him
at his baptism
from the heavens.
This is my beloved son
with whom
I am well pleased.
See,
this was
Jesus' ultimate
faith commitment.
This is what he believed
more than anything else
in all the world.
Right before entering
the wilderness temptation,
Jesus heard the word of God
and he was anointed
with the spirit of God
crying,
Abba, Father,
within his heart.
And this word
and this spirit
who confirmed to him
that he was truly God's son,
truly loved by his father
and even truly liked
and pleasing to his father,
this was the word.
This was Jesus' one thing,
the one thing he most believed,
the one truth
he was most committed to
and convinced of.
This word from his father
about who he was.
This was his ultimate truth
against which every other truth
was tested.
And that's what this
wilderness temptation
account is about.
In the wilderness,
Jesus' ultimate faith commitment
is tested.
That's what's happening here.
This is not just
a little nice story
telling us how to
overcome temptation.
This is a story
about whether or not
Jesus will be the son of God
who saves the world.
The stakes are high.
Will the second Adam
succeed?
Where the first Adam
failed?
When the first Adam
plunged creation
into a state of hell,
will the second Adam
be able to bring us
to new creation
by withstanding
the temptation
of the devil?
Does that make sense?
All right,
now let's turn
to this temptation account
in Matthew chapter four.
So again,
this is the scene,
this is the context.
Jesus has just had
the most defining moment
of his life thus far,
right?
He is literally defined
from the heavens
by his Father in heaven
as a pleasing
and beloved Son of God.
And we are told
in verse one
that the Spirit
then leads him out
into the wilderness
to be tempted
by the devil.
And I want us to pay
really, really close attention
to what exactly
the temptation was
for Jesus here.
All right,
let's pay close attention.
So in verse two,
it says that he had been fasting
for 40 days
and 40 nights
and that of course
he was hungry.
Just imagine him,
like, you know,
unlike Adam and Eve
in their lush garden
able to eat from any tree
they want around them
except for just that one.
Jesus here is all alone.
He has no partner.
He's in a desert wilderness.
He's starving
and perhaps even threatened
by wild animals,
all right?
40 days is a long time.
This is no joke.
His body is probably
shutting down.
His muscles are probably
atrophying.
He's probably just sitting
there still
trying to preserve energy,
right?
His vision is probably
going blurry.
He probably can't think
as straight as he normally does
and it is precisely
at this point of weakness
that the devil strikes,
right?
And again,
try to pay close attention
to what the actual temptation
is here.
Read with me,
verse three.
The tempter came to him
and said,
if you are the son of God,
tell these stones
to become bread.
Now, did you catch that?
The temptation here
is not just doing
a magic trick
in order to break one's fast
and eat some bread.
Jesus' sin here
isn't breaking
his keto diet
and making some carbs
for himself
out of stones.
The devil
was questioning
his identity
as the son of God.
The devil
was questioning
God's words
spoken from the heavens
about Jesus
at his baptism.
He was tempting Jesus
to doubt
his father's words
by saying,
if you are
the son of God.
The tempter
was using
the same method
on Jesus,
the second Adam,
as he used
on the first Adam.
You can't trust
your father's words.
You can't trust
his declaration
of your identity.
You can't trust
that he loves you.
You need to confirm it
with other outside proofs.
And Jesus,
the proof
is the self-serving
transformation
of these rocks
into bread.
And you know,
I think for some of us
that Jesus is
fully God.
You know,
it makes it hard
for us to sympathize
with the reality
of his temptation.
But you know,
Orthodox Christianity
has always said
that Jesus is
not just fully God,
but he is fully man
and therefore fully tempted.
Like truly tempted
in every way
just like us.
As the apostle writes
in Hebrews chapter 4,
we do not have
a high priest
who is unable
to empathize
with our weaknesses,
but we have one
who has been tempted
in every way
just as we are,
yet he did not sin.
So we have to understand
how tempted
Jesus actually
was here.
Imagine,
just imagine,
this is the Son of God,
right?
From all eternity,
he has always been fulfilled
in the presence
of his Father.
And yet now he's become human
and now he's hungry,
lonely,
feeling insecure,
maybe even on the brink
of death.
And in one sense,
the tempter was right,
right?
The Son of God
is not supposed
to be hungry.
No child of God
is supposed to be hungry,
right?
But if we follow
this logic apart
from the rest
of what God says,
you could start
to wonder,
well,
am I actually
a child of God?
Does he really love me?
Or is my Father
just not able
to truly take care of me?
This is what Satan
was trying to introduce
into the mind
and the heart of Jesus.
You cannot trust
the power
and authority
of your Father's Word
at your baptism.
You cannot trust
his love
and his care.
You can only trust
and believe
in the power
and authority
of your own words.
So speak,
Jesus.
Speak,
he says,
and let's see
if you really are
the Son of God.
Speak your own words.
Exercise your own authority.
Serve your own ends.
Feed and provide
for yourself
if you are
the Son of God.
I mean,
surely the Son of God
has authority
to do so, right?
And who's it gonna hurt?
Doesn't your Father
even want this for you?
It's a pretty smart
and subtle strategy,
right?
The same strategy
used, again,
on Adam and Eve
and also on all of us.
I mean, really,
how many of us
have entertained
these similar thoughts?
Tempted in times
of need
and desperation
to question
whether or not
we are children of God
loved by our Father.
Tempted to take
our own lives
into our own hands
and to stop trusting God
for our daily bread.
Maybe we don't tell
rocks to turn into bread,
but we do have
various tricks
of our own,
don't we?
Maybe we,
instead of Sabbathing,
we take that extra shift,
pick up that extra
side hustle.
Maybe we withhold
our generosity fib
on our tax returns
all to make that bread,
right?
This was Jesus' temptation
and it's a temptation
common to all of us,
the temptation
to doubt
that we are children
of a good,
loving,
caring,
and capable Father.
It's the same temptation
as always,
the temptation
to distrust God,
the temptation
that fractured
all of creation's relationship.
with its creator.
But the good news
about Jesus,
the second Adam,
is that unlike
the first Adam,
unlike all the rest of us,
he didn't believe
this lie
about his own identity
or about his father's love
and care
and capability.
No,
even when his circumstances
made it seem like
his father's words to him
might possibly be untrue,
he believed.
He entrusted his whole life
to his father's words.
Jesus had been soaking
like a sponge
in the scriptures
and every time
the devil poked,
scripture dripped out.
Reciting from the divinely inspired
Hebrew scriptures,
Deuteronomy chapter 8,
Moses' words to Israel
in the wilderness,
verse 4,
Jesus answered,
it is written,
man shall not live
on bread alone,
but on every word
that comes
from the mouth
of God.
Even after 40 days
with no food,
even on the brink
of death,
Jesus trusts
that he is his father,
he is his father
in heaven's beloved
and well-pleasing son.
He trusts
that somehow
his father
will provide him
with his daily bread
and that ultimately
his father's word
will sustain him.
But now the devil
doesn't give up so easily,
he launches into
a second temptation
basically saying,
will you, Jesus?
Like,
will you really live?
Look at verse 5.
Then the devil
took him
to the holy city
and had him stand
on the highest point
of the temple.
If you are
the son of God,
he said again,
throw yourself down
for it is written,
he will command
his angels
concerning you
and they will lift you up
in their hands
so that you will not
strike your foot
against a stone.
The devil sees
Jesus' faith,
his conviction
that he will live
by the word of God
so he takes the words
out of God's mouth
and he uses scripture
itself to tempt Jesus.
Satan basically says,
okay,
you believe you'll live
by every word
that proceeds
from the mouth of God,
how about this word
from Psalm chapter 91?
Let's test it.
Let's be good
empirical scientists,
right?
No offense to the scientists
in this room.
Don't you want to see
if it's true
is what he says to Jesus?
Don't you want to see
if it's true?
Now if you want to look
at Psalm chapter 91,
it's on page 480
in your pew Bibles,
but you'll notice
that it's a psalm,
it's all about
God's protection.
Whoever dwells
in the shelter
of the Most High
will rest in the shadow
of the Almighty.
No harm will overtake you,
no disaster will come
near your tent
for he will command
his angels concerning you
to guard you
in all your ways.
They will lift you up
in their hands
so that you will not
strike your foot
against a stone.
But very interestingly,
the verse Satan omits,
the verse right after
this passage
that he quotes
is verse 13
if you want to take
a look at that.
It says,
you will tread
on the lion
and the cobra.
You will trample
the great lion
and the serpent.
Now remember,
ever since the fall,
a war has been waged
between the people
of God
and the serpent.
And what did God say
as soon as they fell?
He said,
the offspring of the woman
will crush
the head of the serpent.
So Satan is saying
to Jesus,
alright,
let's do this.
Throw yourself down.
Let's see if God
will protect these feet
of yours
that are supposed
to crush my head,
that are supposed
to trample me.
Come on, Jesus.
Let's go for it.
Let's test it out
right now.
Let's test out God's word.
Go for it.
Let's do this.
Let's make a show of it.
Then you and me
and everyone at the temple
will really know
whether God's word
is true.
Whether you are
God's beloved
and well-pleasing son.
Whether you are
the son of God.
Whether you actually live
by every word
that comes
from the mouth of God.
But Jesus
will not take the bait.
Verse 7.
This time citing
Deuteronomy chapter 6,
Jesus answered,
it is also written,
do not put the Lord
your God
to the test.
Jesus says,
I know what Psalm 91
says, man.
And I already believe it.
I don't need
to test it.
I don't need
to manipulate God
or to force his hand
to assure myself
of his loving care
and his loving power.
Besides,
who are we
to demand proof
from God
that what he says
is true?
It's silly.
And I mean,
what would even
constitute proof?
How many loaves
of bread
would Jesus need
to turn stones into?
Or how many loaves
of bread
would Jesus need
to transform?
Or how many times
would he need
to throw himself
off the temple
and be rescued
by the angels
for him to really,
really be sure,
right,
that God's word
was true?
How many times?
You know,
when I was talking
to this grad student
from Cal,
I asked him,
do you even know
what it would take
for you to believe
these things
that you say
are hard for you
to believe,
just like you believe
the things
in your science books
and your history textbooks?
I asked him,
how do we even define
what a fact is?
How many scientific experiments
does it take
to make something
a verified fact
and get it
into a scientific textbook?
And is that
scientific textbook
then infallible?
How many experiments?
A thousand?
A thousand one?
A thousand two?
A thousand three?
Or how many eyewitness accounts?
Or how much
archaeological consensus
does it take
for something
to be a verified fact
within a history book,
right?
At the end of the day,
the highest standard
of truth,
it has to be
something that's
self-attesting
by its very nature.
And this is how
Jesus saw
the word of God.
This is how
Jesus saw
the scriptures.
For Jesus,
God's word
wasn't a hypothesis
to be tested,
but the ultimate
standard of truth.
And God's word
to him was that
no matter what
anyone else said,
no matter what
his circumstances
seemed to be like,
you are my beloved son
and with you
I am well pleased.
And Jesus took that
to the bank
and he lived by those words
from his father.
And you see,
this is what
got Jesus through
all his temptations.
He believed God's word.
He was utterly
convinced of who
God said he was
by faith.
And the question
for us is,
do we believe?
Do we have faith
in who God says
we are?
For those of us
who are tired
of falling into
the same temptations
again and again
and again,
maybe for you
it has to do
with your eating habits
or maybe it's
your sex life
or maybe it's
your laziness
or maybe it's
your overworking
or your greed
or maybe it just
has to do with
how you treat
and view
and think about
others in your life.
Maybe with disregard
or malice,
whatever it is
that tempts you,
the solution
is not simply
trying harder.
It's not merely
a matter of
better technique
or self-mastery.
The solution
is coming to grips
with who God
says we are.
You know,
I might not look
like it,
but every week
I go to this
exercise class
at 24 Hour Fitness
and it's called
Body Pump
and I exercise
with a bunch
of middle-aged
moms and senior
citizens
and I used
to go to
the class
out in Oakland
on High Street
and the instructor
was great.
He was really good
at inspiring us
and for some reason
he used to call me
Richard.
I don't really get that.
It's not relevant.
But anyways,
he was great
at pushing us,
inspiring us
and he would often
say this.
He would say,
come on athletes,
come on athletes
and I'd be like,
yeah,
I'm an athlete.
Extra burpee.
Extra squat,
right?
And you know,
like,
I was able to overcome
physical limits
that I thought I had
by believing
who he said I was.
An athlete,
right?
Well,
how much truer
is what God says
about who we are?
When Jesus leaned
into who exactly
God told him he was,
he overcame
the most tempting
of temptations.
The only kinds
of people
who can overcome
temptation
is those
who believe
the word of God.
It's those
who believe
what God says
about who
they are.
Specifically,
that they are
children of God,
loved,
well-pleasing
before their
father in heaven.
A father so willing
to declare that
he rends the heavens
and speaks it
in front of everyone.
But now I say this
knowing full well
that for some of us,
this is precisely
the problem.
This is a huge problem.
I've sat with
enough of you,
tears running
down your cheeks,
desperation in your eyes,
hopelessness there.
I've sat with enough
of you to know
that even for those
of you who want
to believe,
who want to believe
in the God
of the scriptures,
who want to believe
that there is a
father in heaven
who loves you
more than you
could ever imagine,
I know that this
can seem impossible
for many of us
to believe.
Like prodigal children
who just can't seem
to believe
our father's words
of welcome home,
who can't seem
to put that ring on
or put that robe on
that he so wants us
to have,
who can't seem
to take a bite
of the fattened calf,
right,
who can't seem
to enjoy the party
that our father
wants for us to enjoy.
And while I continue
to pray that the spirit
comes upon you
and cries,
Abba, Father,
in your hearts,
just as he cried,
Abba, Father,
in Jesus' heart
at his baptism
when the spirit
ascended on him
like a dove,
I just want to encourage
you to continue
leaning in.
Draw near to God
and he will draw near
to you.
This is a promise
from God's word.
It's a promise
from God's word.
And if I could just
give you one more reason
to lean in
and draw near,
could I just draw
your attention
to this final temptation
of Jesus?
Look with me
in verse 8.
In verse 8,
Jesus is taken
to a high mountain
and he's shown
and offered
all the kingdoms
of the world
in all their glory.
if he'll just
bow down
and worship
the devil.
And notice this time,
Satan doesn't say,
if you are
the son of God.
Because he probably
knows that
Jesus' faith
is rock solid
in his own
God-given identity.
So Satan,
who Jesus calls
the ruler
and God
of this world,
he tempts Jesus
one last time
saying,
okay, fine.
Okay, fine.
You are the son of God
and thus you will
one day
inherit all the kingdoms
of the world.
This is all
going to be yours
at the end
of the age,
Jesus.
But hey man,
I've got a shortcut
for you.
I can give it to you
right now
if you'll bow down
and worship me.
And this must have been
the most tempting
temptation to Jesus
because you know
what this offer was?
It was the offer
of Jesus'
final and rightful
inheritance
yet without
suffering.
Yet without
the cross.
Satan offers
to Jesus
the crown
without the crown
of thorns.
The mountaintop
experience
without having
to go through
the valley
of the shadow
of death.
The kingdom
without the cross.
And man,
see the thing
about temptation
is that we aren't
tempted to eat
out of toilet bowls,
right?
We are tempted
by good things,
right?
Bread is good.
Security from
angels is good.
All the kingdoms
of the world
and their glory,
that's good.
And not only that,
but Jesus as the
son of God,
man,
no one has
more right
to all of these
things than Jesus,
right?
And no one is
less deserving
of suffering
than Jesus,
right?
But do you know
what Satan
was subtly offering
to Jesus
when he offered
him the kingdom
without the cross?
He wasn't just
offering Jesus
the kingdom
without the cross,
he was also
offering Jesus
the kingdom
without its citizens.
The kingdom
without us.
Satan said,
take your
inheritance now.
Come into
your own
glory now.
But if Jesus
did so,
how could he
bring many
sons and
daughters
into glory?
How could he
make fellow
brothers and
sisters
partakers
in the kingdom
of life?
How could he
pay for our
sins and
remove our
curse
without the
cross?
And see,
this is the
gospel.
That when
Satan
offered,
fine,
be the
son of
God,
take your
kingdom
without your
cross,
all you have
to do is
bow.
Jesus said,
no.
Away from
me,
Satan,
for it is
written,
worship the
Lord your
God and
serve him
only.
And Jesus
said,
and I intend
to do that.
I intend
to,
even if it
means hungering
in the
wilderness and
dying upon a
bloody cross.
I choose to
suffer and I
choose to die
not in spite of
being my
father's beloved
and well-pleasing
son, but
precisely as
the son of
God,
precisely as
a child of
God.
And verse
11 says,
the angels,
they came,
they came to
minister to him,
not by his
command,
but by his
father's.
His father's
word was
true.
And another
day would
come again
in his life
when he
could have
commanded
legions of
angels to
deliver him
from his
Roman cross.
But no,
even unto
death on a
cross,
he continued
to put his
faith in
the word of
God,
spoken from
the heavens,
declaring who
he was,
a well-pleasing
and beloved
son of God.
And rising
again,
he was
vindicated,
declared once
and for all
to be the
son of God
in power
to all
the world.
And friends,
this is the
victorious story
of the son of
God,
who against all
odds trusted
what his
father said.
And this
can be our
story too.
This can be
our victory
too,
if we
will just
trust what
this father
in heaven
says about
who we
are.
You can
be a child
of God.
Yet to all
who received
him and
believed in
his name,
he has given
them the
right,
it says,
to be
children of
God.
Let's come
home.
Let's come
home to him.
Let's believe
who we are
in Christ.
And then and
only then will
we conquer.
Then and
only then will
we be
delivered from
the schemes
of the devil.
Do you
believe who
God says
you are?
Do you
believe?
He wants
you to know
you can be
my child,
the one in
whom I'm
well pleased,
the one who
I love,
the one who
I give
everything for.
And we
know this
here because
of what Christ
has done.
Will you
pray with
me?
God,
would we
be so
convinced of
what you
say to
us?
Would you
make us a
people of
the word?
Would you
make this
church a
church that
is committed
to the word
of God?
Not as some
intellectual
exercise,
but because we
know that we
cannot live by
bread alone,
but by every
word that
comes from
your mouth.
Lord,
show us
how much
we need
your word.
Show us
how much
we need
to hear you
say that
you love
us,
that you
care for
us,
that you
are good.
God,
make us a
people of
your word.
Reading it
daily,
joining in our
scripture reading
plan,
memorizing it
together,
meditating upon
it day and
night so that
we might be
like trees
planted by
streams of
water which
yield fruit
in season and
whose leaves
do not
wither.
Make us
those kinds
of people.
Make us
like your
son.
The eternal
word become
flesh,
poured out
for us,
that we
might know
you and
love you
and serve
this world
with power
and in
faithfulness.
Do that,
God,
here we pray.
In the name
of Jesus,
amen.