Stronger: A Come Back Story

"Then Jesus returned from the Jordan, full of the Holy Spirit, and was led by the Spirit in the wilderness ² for 40 days to be tempted by the Devil. He ate nothing during those days, and when they were over, He was hungry. ³ The Devil said to Him, “If You are the Son of God, tell this stone to become bread.”
⁴ But Jesus answered him, “It is written: Man must not live on bread alone.”
⁵ So he took Him up and showed Him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time. ⁶ The Devil said to Him, “I will give You their splendor and all this authority, because it has been given over to me, and I can give it to anyone I want. ⁷ If You, then, will worship me, all will be Yours.”
⁸ And Jesus answered him, “It is written: Worship the Lord your God, and serve Him only.” ⁹ So he took Him to Jerusalem, had Him stand on the pinnacle of the temple, and said to Him, “If You are the Son of God, throw Yourself down from here. ¹⁰ For it is written: He will give His angels orders concerning you, to protect you, ¹¹ and they will support you with their hands, so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.” ¹² And Jesus answered him, “It is said: Do not test the Lord your God.” ¹³ After the Devil had finished every temptation, he departed from Him for a time.

¹⁴ Then Jesus returned to Galilee in the power of the Spirit, and news about Him spread throughout the entire vicinity. ¹⁵ He was teaching in their synagogues, being acclaimed by everyone."
Luke 4:1-15

Good Morning Beloved,

What an incredible honor to have all of you here today!
Thank you for joining us.

Right now, we are in the middle of what feels like, of total global chaos. With the rise in crime and violence. The political unrest. The social and economic issues. The quarantine. Countries around the world have been at unrest, with protests, locked downs and shelter-in-place laws. Face masks disputes. Is there anything the world isn't divided on?
When will it all end?

In a short period of time, the world has gone crazy!

However, for some, namely us Christians, it helps to realize that we are not alone. As a matter of fact, our Lord, Jesus Christ himself, was under a 40 day 'self-quarantine'. Yes, I know biblically, we call it the 40 days in the wilderness where he was tempted by the devil. But, think about it, wasn't Jesus actually in isolation? Separated from the rest of the world?

It's no secret that there are certainly no lack of opinions and viewpoints regarding the quarantine. Everything from government conspiracy, violation of Constitutional right, divide and conquer.
So, who is really responsible?

This quarantine was ordered, not by government, but by God himself. During these 40 days Jesus experienced the most extreme form of social distancing. For 40 days and 40 nights he encountered no other humans.

This took place in the wilderness, most likely near the Wadi Qelt, the Valley of the Shadow. This is a long path that extends from Jerusalem to Jericho and it is in the center of what is called the Judean wilderness. This path runs along a deep valley with steep walls. To this day it is a lonely desolate place where you would never want to spend the night alone there.

It was here, or close to here, toward the end of the 40 days of fasting, where Satan sought to tempt Jesus and disqualify Him as the Savior of the world.

So what was Jesus doing during that time? This was a time of prayer, planning and preparing for the launch of Jesus’ earthly ministry. Think of it as a 40 day strategic planning session with the Trinity in the wilderness. For much of the time it is most likely Jesus was praying, planning and getting ready for the three and a half years of ministry that lay ahead.

Open with me your Bibles, to Luke chapter 4, for our message today, Before we take a deeper look, examining this incredibly rich text, we have been blessed with, allow me to read. Follow along with me please. Luke 4:1-15

"Then Jesus returned from the Jordan, full of the Holy Spirit, and was led by the Spirit in the wilderness  for 40 days to be tempted by the Devil. He ate nothing during those days, and when they were over, He was hungry.  The Devil said to Him, “If You are the Son of God, tell this stone to become bread.”
But Jesus answered him, “It is written: Man must not live on bread alone.”
 So he took Him up and showed Him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time.  The Devil said to Him, “I will give You their splendor and all this authority, because it has been given over to me, and I can give it to anyone I want. If You, then, will worship me, all will be Yours.”
And Jesus answered him, “It is written: Worship the Lord your God, and serve Him only.”  So he took Him to Jerusalem, had Him stand on the pinnacle of the temple, and said to Him, “If You are the Son of God, throw Yourself down from here.  For it is written: He will give His angels orders concerning you, to protect you,  and they will support you with their hands, so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.”  And Jesus answered him, “It is said: Do not test the Lord your God.”  After the Devil had finished every temptation, he departed from Him for a time.

Then Jesus returned to Galilee in the power of the Spirit, and news about Him spread throughout the entire vicinity.  He was teaching in their synagogues, being acclaimed by everyone." 

So how in the world did Jesus survive a 40 day quarantine in the wilderness, without food and water and come out even stronger?
Allow me to tell you how: He realized that God was in complete control.

Take a look with me at the first two verses and this will become clear. Here we see that God controls His servants, both in the situation they are in and timeline in which they're under.

Let's take another look at verses 1 and 2, "Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, left the Jordan and was led by the Spirit into the wilderness, where for forty days he was tempted by the devil."

God controls His servants. Say that with me, God controls His servants! Luke uses the phrase "led by the Spirit," however, Mark 1:12 uses the phrase "the Spirit drove." Allow me to read this to you, from Mark 1:12-13.

"Immediately the Spirit drove Him into the wilderness. He was in the wilderness 40 days, being tempted by Satan. He was with the wild animals, and the angels began to serve Him."

The Greek word is an action word, "ekbállo," "ek" which means "out." "Ballo" meaning "to cast, drive, throw”…So it means to drive out, to cast out, to throw out. The Spirit of God literally drove Jesus into the wilderness.

Let me ask you a question: Have you ever had that deep sense, a strong conviction that God wanted you to do something? It wasn’t just an inkling but a divine directive that you knew in the core of your soul was God?

In Romans 8:14-17, we are reminded, "All those led by God’s Spirit are God’s sons. For you did not receive a spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you received the Spirit of adoption, by whom we cry out, “Abba, Father!” The Spirit Himself testifies together with our spirit that we are God’s children, and if children, also heirs—heirs of God and coheirs with Christ—seeing that we suffer with Him so that we may also be glorified with Him."

We must constantly be in communion with the Spirit to get our marching orders. Why? Because God is in control of His servants! Sometimes, He gently leads us toward His will. Other times, He drives us!

Where am I going with this? We must stay controlled by the Spirit during this time of quarantine and shelter-in-place so that he can bring us to where he wants us to go.

God controls His servants and He controls their situation.
"…into the wilderness where…he was tempted by the devil."
Jesus controlled Jesus’ the setting was the wilderness and His situation was being tempted by the devil. But God was in charge, completely and totally in charge! He knew that during this time the evil one would be attacking His beloved son and tempting Him to sin.

Now, I know there are those that believe Satan didn’t really think that Jesus would sin, but that he was merely going through the motions. However, I believe this is utter foolishness! Remember, this was the same Satan thought he could take over heaven and throw Jesus out of the throne. This is that same period of time, when Satan would seek to win in the last battle before his finally cast into the Lake of Fire, forever.

I believe he thought that he may be able to get Jesus to sin and if Jesus sinned He would no longer be the spotless sacrifice, He would no longer be able to save humanity from sin. But God controlled this situation! Yes, He allowed Satan to do this. He didn’t prompt Satan to do it but he allowed it.

In the same way, I don’t believe that God causes evil, however, at times, He allows it. He allowed this pandemic. He’s allowing this global economic meltdown and I believe, He will use it to advance his Kingship and kingdom in ways that the world has never imagined. I believe, He wants to use it to advance His rule in our hearts like never before in the history of mankind!

God does not cause pain, pandemics and problems, but He uses them for His glory in ways that we can never imagine. God controls the situation! Luke 4:1, "....led by the Spirit."
And He controls the timeline in which the situation occurs! Remember, Luke 4:2? ...."for 40 days." 

Now, I know, the next question is, "So what’s the timeline for the Coronavirus?" I have no idea! However, during the Spanish Flu, the epidemic of 1918, it lasted 2 years. And, it killed between 50-100 million people globally. Oh, by the way, the worst of the epidemic was packed into a 3 month period in the Fall of 1918.

What if the worst of this pandemic lasted 3 months, from September through the end of December?
Are you prepared for that timeline? Are you ready to receive what God wants to teach you during this time?

Do you really believe God is in control of this situation? Are you letting Him control you during this time?

Jesus realized that God was in complete control. Secondly, He resisted the relentless temptations of the Devil!

Now, the Surface Temptations are obvious temptations to everyone.
Hunger, and cravings: "…tell this stone to become bread." Jesus was on a 40 day fast and Satan attacked Him at the end of that fast and He was hungry.

Now, let's look at that scenario in our day, "turn these stones into Olive Garden bread sticks…"
The cravings represent physical hungers like food, drink, drugs, sex, whatever. And, obviously, we want to avoid gluttony, which  let's face it, it can be really hard during this time we are so close to our refrigerators and pantries! We want to avoid lust, porn, getting drunk and getting high. I have to say, its more than a coincidence that liquor stores and marijuana shops have been deemed as essential businesses during this time!

But we must fight the temptation for physical cravings!

 
We are certainly living in a time of doing whatever you, do whatever pleases you! The moral decline in our culture has become the "norm." As it was the days of Noah. As we watch the downward spiral of our society today, we realize that the deteriorating moral values in our nation, the divorce rate, abortion, pornography, drug addiction, child abuse, crime, violence, drive-by shootings and the terrorism that plagues our world, identity theft to name just some of what we see occurring.

How is that different from the world today? Let's turn to Genesis 6:5, to find out: "When the Lord saw that man’s wickedness was widespread on the earth and that every scheme his mind thought of was nothing but evil all the time, the Lord regretted that He had made man on the earth, and He was grieved in His heart. Then the Lord said, “I will wipe off from the face of the earth mankind, whom I created, together with the animals, creatures that crawl, and birds of the sky—for I regret that I made them."

Beloved, God always sends a warning before the judgement!

Let's turn the prophecy of what is to come, in Revelation 14. Turn your Bibles to Revelation 14:6-12.
Follow along as I read.

"Then I saw another angel flying high overhead, having the eternal gospel to announce to the inhabitants of the earth—to every nation, tribe, language, and people. He spoke with a loud voice: “Fear God and give Him glory, because the hour of His judgment has come. Worship the Maker of heaven and earth, the sea and springs of water.”

A second angel followed, saying: "It has fallen, Babylon the Great has fallen, who made all nations drink the wine of her sexual immorality, which brings wrath."

And a third angel followed them and spoke with a loud voice: “If anyone worships the beast and his image and receives a mark on his forehead or on his hand, he will also drink the wine of God’s wrath, which is mixed full strength in the cup of His anger. He will be tormented with fire and sulfur in the sight of the holy angels and in the sight of the Lamb, and the smoke of their torment will go up forever and ever. There is no rest day or night for those who worship the beast and his image, or anyone who receives the mark of his name. This demands the perseverance of the saints, who keep God’s commands and their faith in Jesus."

With that in mind, let's look at control. Control. 

In Luke 4:5-7, we see the second temptation is one of control. The text tells us, "So he took Him up and showed Him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time. The Devil said to Him, “I will give You their splendor and all this authority, because it has been given over to me, and I can give it to anyone I want. If You, then, will worship me, all will be Yours."

Satan offers Jesus all the kingdoms of the world if He would just bow down and worship him. Talk about control! Satan was offering him the rule of the fallen world right there and then. But Jesus refused! Instead, we see that "And Jesus answered him, “It is written: Worship the Lord your God,

and serve Him only."

How many times do we want control, especially now? We want to leave our homes. We don’t like being told by the government that we must shelter in place, that we must stay at home or 6 feet away. We want to have control over whether or not we wear a face mask. We want to control our financial situation. We want to control the way we educate our children at home. We even want to control the way others respond to us!

Believe me, Satan will tempt us with control. He will try his best convince us that we are in charge or try to convince us to try to take charge. To do what is against the will of God! This is even an ongoing challenge for me. I speak in directives, even when I’m not in charge. That’s how I preach the Word of God, its how I order food. I can speak all I want, but I'm not in charge!
Because God is in control!

When my son was a child in elementary school, he was in charge of the school crosswalks for a time. They gave him a brightly colored belt and a little badge. Now, true, not true, but I heard that he used to use that little badge to pretend he was in charge of nearly everything, the hallways, the bathrooms and the playground too. If this is true, it was purely a power trip and it’s a good thing his teachers never found out about it, or me, until years later.

What's the point? Satan wants to convince us that we all deserve a little badge to try to be in control. But let me assure you of this, we are not! We are not in control! God is, as then, in total control.

Finally, Satan attacks Jesus with the third and final surface temptation, "The devil led him to Jerusalem and had him stand on the highest point of the temple. "If you are the Son of God," he said, "throw yourself down from here."

The southwest corner of the temple, according to many scholars, was called the "pinnacle of the Temple." This is likely where Satan tempted Jesus to throw Himself down from, it is a frighteningly high point, that created a 450-foot drop down to the valley below. So, essentially it would be the equivalent to standing on top of a 45-story building today and being dared to jump.

How many of you have ever dove off something higher than you probably should have? Now, how many of you did it because a friend, or a group of friends were daring you to? Maybe it was jumping off the high diving board or from the top of a cliff into a lake below? Perhaps they were even chanting, "Jump! Jump! Jump!"

I remember once, when I was in my youth, hard to believe eh? Yes! I was young once! Anyway, a group of teenagers met at the swimming pool, one the teenagers looked to me, and dared me to jump. There were a number of others, who began shouting, "Do it! Jump! Jump! Jump!" Finally, despite the fear I held inside, I gave in, ran toward the end of the diving board and jumped. The problem is, I can’t swim!

Now, I don’t want you to worry, I didn’t die. But I did flail my way to the bottom of the pool, never to jump again. But the point is, there was something about the crowd chanting "Do it! Jump! Jump! Jump!" that is hard to resist!

The same is true with temptations you face. Though we may want to jump on the bandwagon of voicing our opinions, shouting with those of the world, being negative online toward others who disagree with our very correct and valuable opinion. Or maybe yours is worry, or becoming so consumed with social media popularity, getting more and more followers and posting whatever it takes to get it. Whatever it is, we must resist the temptation of Satan!

With each and every occurrence, of destroying property, or someone posting negative comments and opinions, inappropriate photos on social media, it’s like they are chanting, "Jump! Jump! Jump!"

Like what Satan was chanting to Jesus. He was reminding Jesus that all the crowds in the temple would see him jump and see the angels rush to save him from being crushed and they would believe that he was the Messiah.

Which of these three temptations are the hardest for you to resist, especially at this time of quarentine? Lockdown? Is it cravings, the control or the crowds? Like Jesus, we must resist the urge to give into these surface temptations. And realize that, underneath these surface temptations, there’s usually, a Core Temptation!

What was the core temptation that Satan attacked Jesus with? His core temptation was that of His identity! Two of the three times Satan tempts Jesus he begins by saying these seven words…"If you are the Son of God…."

How is Satan attacking your identity during this time? During this pandemic? During this time of Civil unrest? As a pastor…I’m not traveling, I'm not sharing the Gospel in the same ways as before! I'm stuck at home, just like the rest of the world, it grates on your nerves, it infiltrates your thoughts.

Satan can whisper in my ear, lie after lie, trying to confuse my primary calling and my secondary calling. Now, I want to clear that statement up, my primary calling, is that of a child of God and servant of the King. My secondary calling is that of an preacher.

Satan tries to confuse all of us with that same lie of identity. Who we are is rooted in whose we are, not what we do. Maybe Satan is attacking you by questioning your ability to provide for and protect your family. Maybe you have lost your job, your income has vanished  as a result of this pandemic and you are wrestling with questions of identity as a result.

But Jesus knew who He was, and whose He was! He knew that He was loved. In Luke 3:21-22, the chapter before his wilderness temptation, now, I personally believe, that to truly understand where we're going, we must first understand where we've been. I know, that's not a popular opinion in today's culture, and your not here for what I think. So, instead, let's look at what the good Dr. Luke tells us, "When all the people were baptized, Jesus also was baptized. As He was praying, heaven opened, and the Holy Spirit descended on Him in a physical appearance like a dove. And a voice came from heaven: You are My beloved Son. I take delight in You!"

In Closing...

I want to challenge all of you today! I want to charge you with knowing who you are! Knowing whose you are! And most importantly, I want to challenge you to remember, that regardless of what the world around you is chatting,  you are loved by God because you are in Christ.

And that brings me to my second question, which is this, do you know that you are in Christ? Have you stop to realize that God loves you and it is only your sin separates you from Him? Do you understand that our sins could never be removed by our good deeds? Do you believe that Jesus died on the cross to pay the price for your sin and that he rose from the dead three days later? Are you ready to put your faith in Jesus Christ, to forgive you for all of your sin and give you the gift of eternal life right now? This life will soon come to an end, but preparing for eternity must start now and it will last forever.

If you don't know Jesus as your Lord and Savior, I invite you to reach out to me today!

And now may the Lord bless you and keep you;

the Lord make His face shine upon you,
And be gracious to you;

The Lord lift up His countenance upon you,
And give you peace.

Now and forever, in Jesus' name
Amen

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