We'd love to hear from you. Message us here.
Our latest episode ventures into the heart of Jesus' ministry, where, immediately after His baptism, He confronts the devil's wiles for 40 days. We uncover the essence of Jesus' obedience and the profound example He sets, as He, guided by the Spirit, engages in this first act of servitude and spiritual warfare.
This journey through scripture reveals the thin line between temptation and sin, a topic we dissect with the clarity of James' teachings and the comfort of John's promises. We traverse the challenges of personal desire, the birth of sin, and the redemption found in confession. Moreover, we extend a hand to those wrestling with their own wilderness trials, offering a prayer for strength and assurance that they're not alone. Join us as we seek understanding and solace in the midst of life's fiercest battles, inspired by the steadfastness of Jesus' commitment to the Father's will.
We'd love to hear from you. Message us here.
Our latest episode ventures into the heart of Jesus' ministry, where, immediately after His baptism, He confronts the devil's wiles for 40 days. We uncover the essence of Jesus' obedience and the profound example He sets, as He, guided by the Spirit, engages in this first act of servitude and spiritual warfare.
This journey through scripture reveals the thin line between temptation and sin, a topic we dissect with the clarity of James' teachings and the comfort of John's promises. We traverse the challenges of personal desire, the birth of sin, and the redemption found in confession. Moreover, we extend a hand to those wrestling with their own wilderness trials, offering a prayer for strength and assurance that they're not alone. Join us as we seek understanding and solace in the midst of life's fiercest battles, inspired by the steadfastness of Jesus' commitment to the Father's will.
Mark. Chapter 1 is where we're at. Alright, so the Gospel of Mark. We're not that far into it and we're definitely not going fast. We'll be in verse 12 and 13 today. There's no rush. This morning I had a flashback to my early acting career. I don't know if you had an acting career Fifth grade.
Speaker 1:I was Herb the Verb in the school play and Herb the Verb is a man of action. I know that's hard to believe that I would be a man of action, but Herb the verb was and I was Herb the verb. He's busy all the day through. He walks, he talks, he whistles, he does something else and he does whatever you do. And you know I sang. I sang a solo in that play. It was pretty amazing to be Herb the verb sang. I sang a solo in that play. It was pretty amazing to be heard the verb. But the reason why I bring it up is thank you, son, thank you. The reason why I bring it up is we see Jesus in the book of Mark. He like Herb, much better, much better than Herb the verb.
Speaker 1:Jesus is a man of action in the book of Mark. That's brilliant. That's who he is. He serves, he loves, he saves. And Mark has a very special purpose. To zero in on those actions of service, we considered Mark, chapter 10, verse 45, where Jesus himself says For even the Son of man did not come to be served, but to serve and to give his life a ransom for many. That's a good theme verse for this book of Mark and we see that Now.
Speaker 1:Last week we saw John the Baptist the baptizer preparing the way for Jesus and, like a bolt of lightning, there Jesus comes on the scene and is baptized. That was last week, notice, kind of backing up a little bit notice. And immediately after this is verse 10, I'm sorry. Immediately coming up from the water, jesus saw the heavens parting and the spirit descending upon him like a dove, and the voice came from heaven saying you are my beloved son, in whom I am well pleased. So that's how it all ended last week. As Jesus is baptized, he hears the voice of the father You're my beloved son, I'm well pleased in you. He sees the spirit descending upon him like a dove and and however that looked and whatever that exactly meant, we saw that Jesus here is being anointed for the ministry that was ahead, anointed for the ministry that was ahead that the son would be obedient to the father and, in the power of the spirit, be led out to serve and to accomplish the will of the father. So, however you want to see that he's charged, we could say he's ready to do what the father has called him to do. Now, what did the father call him to do? Well, that's what we see here in verse 12.
Speaker 1:The first active ministry for Jesus the son in verse 12, immediately the spirit drove him into the wilderness and he was there in the wilderness 40 days, tempted by Satan, and was with the wild beast and the angels ministered to him. So the first order of business here is really battle, battle, battle, battle. Like many of the battles that we have, jesus was driven to the wilderness to battle the devil. We see here Now check it out Verse 12, the word immediately. Mark uses this word a lot, in fact it's got to be one of Mark's favorite words. Immediately shows that intensity, as Jesus has been. Again, the spirit has come upon him for this ministry. Immediately he goes out and you picture here I think you can picture a boxer Right, something I've never done Right, never even gotten to a fight right. But you know, you picture that boxer and they're doing that, you know, in the corner, just shadow boxing and all this energy built up. You see Jesus there. All right, let's go. And he gets in there, immediately, driven by the spirit, into the wilderness. Now, he didn't drive him in a station wagon or minivan, that was the closest thing to a joke I could find for this morning. The spirit drove him through his heart, through his passions. It was a calling there we could see, his first calling was to the wilderness and it's this idea of pushing, prodding. It was an intense drive that Jesus had to go into the wilderness.
Speaker 1:Now, some of you have dealt with cattle, right, and some of you, and you know, you know that idea of prodding them. They don't just naturally go where you want them to go, you prod them. Now, it depends on how stubborn they are, how much you have to prod them. In some ways you can just clap, right, did that wake you up? You can just clap and the cow goes oh, my goodness, you know starts trotting off. Whichever way is opposite of that clap, you know, sometimes it's, you know, an actual prod, right, you know, and the, the, the animal, feels that that prodding and says well, I don't want to go that way and starts to trot off the way that you want them to go. But that's kind of the idea here, that Jesus was prodded by the Holy Spirit and Jesus immediately went. Now he's not stubborn in that prodding, he just somehow I don't know somehow feels and knows the Spirit's leading, understands the Spirit's leading and does the will of the Father. That's a good way to go when God prods our hearts to do what he's told us to do.
Speaker 1:The author of Hebrews Hebrews 10, verse 7, says this puts these words in Jesus' mouth from Psalm 40. It says Behold, I have come in the volume of the book that is written to me to do your will, o God. So the son looked at the father's call in this way I want to do everything that the father tells me to do. Good way to go about life, good example here. And Jesus immediately is driven, prodded into the wilderness by the Spirit.
Speaker 1:Something to notice here about the call of God. Now file this away. Something to notice about the call of God. It's not always pleasant, right? Oh, the call of God would be wonderful. You know, god's calling me to Hawaii. I don't know if that would be my ultimate place, honestly, but it sounds like it should be right. You know a wonderful existence, a wonderful call. Maybe the call is to the wilderness. Now we look at it. You know, and some of us like the idea of a desert. You know we have mountain people, beach people, desert people who go. I like the desert, the desert. You know flowers and the color and the tones of the sand. But check it out. In this world the desert was not a nice place to go. The desert was never seen as a nice place. The wilderness, it was desolate. That's actually what this word means here Deserted places. Jesus was prodded to go to the deserted places and tradition and thought of the day was that evil spirits lived in places like graveyards. Evil spirits lived in places like graveyards, in pagan temples and in deserts. Right, that's really the way they saw it. So being called to go out to the wilderness here by Jesus, it's not a happy thought, necessarily, but it was where the spirit was prodding him to go, was prodding him to go.
Speaker 1:It's important that we understand that God leads us places into situations in our life often that aren't pleasant, aren't always the happiest place. I was thinking about what my boys used to come back from school and they had a teacher who had a saying. The saying was you know when they were just kind of you know, when the class was kind of goofing off, the saying was this ain't no holiday inn, right, and I would get that every day from school. And I said it again this ain't no holiday inn. And that's true. School is no, it shouldn't be a holiday inn. But life is not the holiday inn either. Life is hard and we don't need to wallow in that, but that's the truth. And here it's not a vacation for Jesus, but it is his calling, it's what God, the Spirit, is telling him go into the wilderness. And so Jesus does Notice, again, verse 12, first word, immediately. Again verse 12, first word immediately.
Speaker 1:Jesus is driven into the wilderness, a place of testing, a place of loneliness. It can be hard, but we can see that good things also come from those trials and from those deserts, the deserts of life. We've all been there, right, not always pleasant, in fact never pleasant. Those times of trial and testing where I can say, in the desert, in the wilderness times of life, you feel like the water is up to here, right, right above your nostrils, and you're just treading water. It is an awful experience. It's a kind of thing that makes your heart beat faster, your stomach kind of do backflips, but it's strange At the same time. It can be, as Charles Dickens said, the best of times and the worst of times. It can be the absolute worst of times, where you just don't think you can go on.
Speaker 1:And then, in some strange kind of way, it's that place where you actually meet God like you never had before, because there's nothing else to hold on to. And I would say it over and over again I don't ever want to go to the wilderness, I don't want to go back to wilderness experiences, I don't want to go through wilderness experiences. I don't want it. But there is something sweet to know that God was in that wilderness experience with you and you felt it like never before. So this is the call that Jesus has in verse 12. And it is a call to confrontation with the devil himself.
Speaker 1:Temptation notice verse 13,. He was there in the wilderness 40 days, tempted by Satan, and was with the wild beast. So when we think of temptation here Jesus was tempted we think of our own lives. We think about temptation to sin. We think about what James says let's turn so we don't fall asleep here. To James, chapter 1. You can hold your place in a mark, but let's turn to James, chapter 1. James, chapter 1, verse 14.
Speaker 1:James talks about this temptation in our lives and he says Each one is tempted when he is drawn away by his own desires and enticed when desire has conceived. It gives birth to sin, and sin, when it is full grown, brings forth death. Now James gives us the process of temptation, and it's it's, it's subtle, isn't it Right? He says there, first, desire. We're led away by our own desires and, enticed, our own passions, our own lusts lead us away. This is temptation, we know it, right. And whatever that temptation is, the temptation to you is probably going to be different than the temptation to me. Is the temptation to you is probably going to be different than the temptation to me, right? But it hits that desire and that passion in our heart and we're brought in, we're enticed by it. Now, that's not a sin, right? It's not a sin to be tempted.
Speaker 1:Jesus was tempted in ways stronger than we can even understand. I think Jesus was tempted. We're tempted by this world around us, and yet it really comes down to it, though, notice, desire has conceived, it gets into our heart, it gets into our life and then it comes out in our actions. We know how it goes. We're tempted to do what God's told us not to do. We're tempted to want things that God's told us we don't need. And there it gets into our heart but then it leads to our actions. However that comes out, whatever act we do, the lies we tell, the way that it comes out in our mouth and in our life. That temptation gets in there and it conceives and then it gives birth to sin, actual active sin. But then sin notice, good for us to understand when it's full grown it brings forth death. The wages of sin is death.
Speaker 1:Now you can take that all the way to the extreme and say sin will lead to hell If not dealt with. The Bible promises us that sin will lead us to hell. One sin will lead to hell because the wages of sin is death. But there's a way that this death comes out in our own lives, even as people who have a relationship with God Check it out. We give into sin and attitude, even, and action and it kind of kills our relationship with God and it kind of kills our relationship with God. There's a closeness that should be there, but it's not Now. It's not God's fault, it's our fault when we lie, when we do these things that we just we feel like we're separated from God.
Speaker 1:We sense are the wonderful truth that God throws in though. The wonderful truth that God throws in though 1 John 1, 9, promise, if we confess our sins, he's faithful and just to forgive us our sin and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. The enemy would always tell us, when we sin and when temptation gives death in our life, that that's it, it's done. But God promises we confess, we admit God, you were right, I was wrong. He's faithful and just to forgive us, cleanse us from all unrighteousness. What God wants is to bring us back in close and say here we are, let's move on, you know, and the relationship he wants to restore it. That's a wonderful thing. But it's important for us to understand in our own temptation that temptation will always, if we don't deal with it, if we don't run away from it, if we don't put it down, it'll lead to death in our relationship with God, death in our life, death to relationships with others. The consequences for sure.
Speaker 1:But here that temptation is not exactly the same as our temptation, the temptation that Jesus is dealing with back in Mark, chapter one is dealing with back in Mark, chapter one. This temptation, sure, it involves sin for Jesus, but it's also testing, and that's kind of what this word temptation could also mean. It could mean that he was tested, that he was proved. And you remember, mark doesn't give us this information here, two little verses. Mark doesn't go into all the details. The other gospel writers, matthew and Luke, at least they give us all the details of what that temptation looked like, that Satan, the adversary himself, came to Jesus and tempted him with certain passions. Right, jesus hadn't eaten for 40 days. And then we're told the obvious. And then he was hungry. Right, that makes sense. Right, you don't eat for 40 days, you're hungry.
Speaker 1:And Satan comes to Jesus and he says well, since you're the son of God, why don't you make these stones bread, do it? That's not a big deal. Make them a donut. Right, we've got donuts in the back. You can picture that Jesus make these stones into donut holes that you can eat and take care of yourself. And Jesus there takes that really simple temptation for him to serve himself.
Speaker 1:Now, do you know, if Jesus had given into this, his first miracle would have been self-seeking If he had turned these stones into bread. His first miracle would have been self-seeking If he had turned these stones into bread. His first miracle would have been for himself. But yet the Son of man didn't come to be served, but to serve and to give his life a ransom for many. So Jesus says no way Satan. Deuteronomy it says man shall not live by bread alone. And Satan then attacks him and says well, we know, if you're the Messiah, that God won't let you bash your toe against a stone. So he takes him up to the top of the temple and he says throw yourself to the ground. I know God, the father, will take care of you and everybody will believe in you. What a wonderful show that would be. And Jesus returns with scripture Don't put your God to the test.
Speaker 1:Well, satan comes back with one more temptation. You know what? All these kingdoms of the world? They belong to me. Now, that's a strange thought, because in some way, when Adam sinned, he forfeited this planet and the rule of this planet over to Jesus. Now I mean to Satan, when Adam sinned. You know, I don't quite understand all of that, but he is the prince of the power of the air. And Satan there says if you'll just bow to me, worship me, I don't care just a little bit of it. Just bend the knee a tiny bit, I'll give you all the kingdoms of the earth. You can be king right here and right now. And Jesus of course says no way, worship God only.
Speaker 1:And the temptation was real for Jesus. It had to have been real for Jesus. I don't understand how it worked, but there we see Jesus' humanity, not just seeing it there, but understanding it In Hebrews 4.14,. You can always turn there. Hebrews 4.14. You can always turn there. Hebrews 4.14. The author says Seeing. Then we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, jesus, the Son of God. Let's hold fast to our confession Now check this out in verse 15.
Speaker 1:For we do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weakness but was in all points tempted, as we are yet without sin. Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace that we may obtain mercy and find grace in our time of need. So check it out. The author of Hebrews says this is important stuff that Jesus was tempted, that Jesus had his flesh pulled on by temptation. Because we can look at him, check it out. We can look at him and go what a great high priest. He knows what it's like to be human. Now again, I don't know how that really looks for God in flesh to be on earth and be experiencing temptation. I don't really know how that works, but it was without sin. And as we look at him, we go. God, you understand what I go through. You understand how my desires and my passions are pulled on. God, you know what it's like. And it says there because of that, we can come boldly before the throne of grace, so gracious to us that we can come to him anytime we want. Say God, I'm struggling, I'm really having a hard time here. God, I don't think I'm going to make it. We can come because he's shown us so much grace in all these things. Now check it out. This was Jesus first calling to face off with the devil in a way that we probably can't understand there in the wilderness, but it brings us great comfort.
Speaker 1:Let's look on here, mark, chapter one, verse 13. And he was with the wild beasts and the angels ministered to him. He was with the wild beasts. Now check it out. Mark doesn't say a lot. I mean when you compare him to Matthew and Luke. On this, mark doesn't say, he doesn't say much at all, but what he does say, he said that Jesus was with the wild beasts. Now why does he give us that information? I have no idea, I really don't know. But we know that Mark isn't wasting words, because that doesn't seem to be what Mark does. He points out he was with the wild beasts. Now, I could apply this. I could apply this in a few different ways. One is that he was with us right Now.
Speaker 1:You know, we're not animals, but we sure do act like animals sometimes when we're at our worst, don't we? Nebuchadnezzar? I mean, you ever look at your own life and you go well, that was man. I was acting really foolish right there, the way I talked or the way I just lost it, but I was a little more like an animal than anything else. You know, they go, I agree. Well, then there's Nebuchadnezzar, right In Daniel, chapter four, and Nebuchadnezzar, he's humbled.
Speaker 1:Oh, he's humbled big time. Nebuchadnezzar is a very proud person, he's a self-made guy Right, and and God warns him through a dream Things are going to get ugly for seven years. You're going to be humbled. Well, how is he humbled? Daniel chapter four he had the attitude of an animal for seven years and in history even kind of nudges at this a little bit that a king did go kind of crazy for a time. And for seven years Daniel chapter four Nebuchadnezzar goes around like an animal, eating grass, naked in the fields.
Speaker 1:He just loses his mind. His, his fingernails grow out like claws and there he is. You know, somebody comes to visit the king. I'd like to talk to King Nebuchadnezzar. He's not here right now. And there's Nebuchadnezzar off in the field going oh, look grass, you know. And it's like huh. And it says that after the end of seven years Nebuchadnezzar came to his senses, looked at his hair and his claws and and where he was eating grass, you know. And he's like what in the world has happened to me? Acting like an animal, god humbles him. And he says now I know that God can put down anybody he wants to. He can humble even the most proud person. And Nebuchadnezzar comes to his senses. But check it out, let's just be honest.
Speaker 1:There's a lot of times in our lives where we see ourselves in sin. Our attitudes, our actions, we go. I'm not really acting any better than an animal at this point, and you go oh, that's kind of bad. You know, jesus is here with the wild beasts. Maybe A way to say even at our worst, jesus is right there with us. Maybe, maybe not. We see, here the word became flesh and dwelt among us to sympathize with our weakness.
Speaker 1:Perhaps, though, mark was drawing a contrast between the desert and the garden. The garden where our best guy, adam, sinned. Notice the contrast. Adam and Eve sinned in the garden. Think about it for a second. They really didn't have to work, the only work that they had. There's no weeds in the garden, there's no thorns.
Speaker 1:By this point, their work was just harvesting fruit, just eating whatever they wanted. There was only one tree out of the entire garden that they couldn't eat from, so they had everything that they wanted. Their relationship with one another was perfect. It doesn't seem that there was any arguments between Adam and Eve. They were not fallen exactly at this point. So family life is pretty good.
Speaker 1:Their relationship with God couldn't have been better that Adam spent time in the cool of the day, walking with God, just enjoying life, and in that perfect world, adam threw it all away, and that's the way we are, of course, in our perfect world where we have everything that we need. Sometimes we just throw it all away for something really lousy. That's not worth it. We can do that. But then here's Jesus. He's in the wilderness. He hasn't eaten for 40 days and 40 nights. He's tempted by the devil and he stands strong. Maybe this wild beast thing is a comparison, a contrast for where we fall and where Jesus stood strong. Maybe, maybe, though I think maybe it was for those early believers, the early church. You'll remember time in the early church was simple, but it wasn't really safe. Was it was simple but it wasn't really safe. Was it About the time that Mark is writing?
Speaker 1:Things start to get really ugly for the church. King named Nero comes around and he begins to persecute and kill Christians. He was imprisoning them and he was killing them for sport. They were brought into the arenas and there they would be wrapped in animal skins and thrown to the wild beasts. This was a common occurrence in Nero's day for the early believers and as, of course, they were devoured by these wild animals, the crowds would cheer. Not a whole lot different than our entertainment, I'm sure. And yet think about it, this was about Mark's time. In writing. This is where these Christians were at, and he said wild beasts and they go. Christians were at and you said wild beasts and they go.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I could think of that. I could think of the wild beasts, wilderness experience, having to run away for your life I could think of that. And here maybe it's just a reminder that in our wilderness experience, should you face the wild beasts, jesus was there with the wild beasts, he was with them and angels came and ministered to him. So after he goes through his trial and his temptation there, with flying passes, with flying colors, the angels came and ministered to him. Maybe some angel food cake, right? I don't know. He's ministered to by angels and it's maybe that reminder, right, because even in our comfortable world here we have trials, we have wilderness experiences, you have wild beasts that you're facing. That Jesus is there with us.
Speaker 1:Maybe they would be reminded of Shadrach, meshach and Abednego there to go back to the book of Daniel again, in Daniel chapter 3, that even though they went through the fire, the fiery furnace, there was one like the Son of God that appeared in there with them. I think Jesus, jesus was with them through the fire. Jesus is with us in the wilderness. Jesus is with us when there's wild beasts, and that is a great comfort. That even at our very worst, god is with us. That even when we sin God, when we were still sinners, christ died with us. That even when we sin God, when we were still sinners, christ died for us there at the cross. Again we're reminded of that love. It's not when we were good or had it all together, but it was at our worst. God loved us. What a comfort to know that he's with us, goes through our wilderness with us. He loves us.
Speaker 1:So, god, I know life can be a wilderness and yet there's so many blessings too, so many blessings in our life, and we really do have a lot of comfort in our life, comfort in our life. You provide for us and give us family and friends and all these things. We're not alone. But, god, I know there are times that we go through things and I know that some of us are even going through it now Wilderness, wild beasts and difficulties. And, god, it's where you've led us in our life and I know that your heart is not to destroy us, but your heart is to prove us and test us and grow us that we would know you more, god.
Speaker 1:I pray for my friends that are really going through it, that are really going through it, whether it's health things or family things, job things. God, you know. God, thank you that you're with us even now. God, I pray that you'd help them to know God, you'd give them great comfort, that they would really see your hand in their life. You would lead and be with them. God, comfort and support them through this time. God, thank you that you do. One thing we know you can't do is be unfaithful. So, god, help us not just to know these things, but help us to know them in our hearts as we just look to you this week to lead us and be with us. In Jesus' name, we pray Amen.