Jesus Went There
Notes
Transcript
The Preacher’s Notebook: The Collected Quotes, Illustrations, and Prayers of John Stott The Spirit of Jesus Can Live in Me
The Spirit of Jesus Can Live in Me
Themes: Holy Spirit
“It’s no use giving me a play like King Lear or Hamlet, and telling me to write plays like that. Shakespeare could do it; I can’t. And it’s no use giving me the life of Jesus and telling me to live a life like that. Jesus could do it; I can’t. But if the genius of Shakespeare could come and live in me; then I could write plays like that. And if the spirit of Jesus could come and live in me, then I could live a life like that.”
—William Temple
Almighty God, You have called Your Church to witness that in Christ You have reconciled us to Yourself. Grant that by Your Holy Spirit we may proclaim the Good News of Your salvation so that all who hear it may receive the gift of salvation, through Jesus Christ, your Son, our Lord, who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever, Amen.
And when Jesus was baptized, immediately he went up from the water, and behold, the heavens were opened to him, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and coming to rest on him; and behold, a voice from heaven said, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased.” Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil.
This is an interesting turn of events. A big beginning, followed by what looks to be an unfortunate series of events. After the grand finale of Chapter 3 - God the Father declaring Jesus’ pedigree and esteem, and the Holy Spirit coming upon Him to establish that He is the Lord’s Anointed - the Messiah - the scene immediately transitions from the muddy Jordan to the barren wilderness where Jesus will face His first challenge as the True Israel.
We pray, as Christians, to be delivered from the evil one, not to be put into his cross-hairs. What is God doing here with His beloved Son, and why is He doing it? Make no mistake, Jesus is not God’s beloved Son because of His obedience, He is beloved because He -the Word of God - is God’s Son. As such, He occupies the same space that Adam occupied before the Fall, the space that Adam lost because he sinned, not only for himself, but for all of his offspring.
Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned— for sin indeed was in the world before the law was given, but sin is not counted where there is no law. Yet death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over those whose sinning was not like the transgression of Adam, who was a type of the one who was to come.
So death reigned before the Law was given through Moses, and death continued to reign after the Law was given through Moses. The Law was unable to deliver us from death, no matter how hard we tried to use it for that purpose. Later in Romans, St. Paul would say about Moses’ assessment of the Law:
For Moses writes about the righteousness that is based on the law, that the person who does the commandments shall live by them.
Eternal life, gained through the Law, requires eternal obedience. James, the brother of Jesus, points this out in his epistle:
For whoever keeps the whole law but fails in one point has become guilty of all of it.
It has been taught that Jesus’ baptism marked the beginning of “the Great Exchange” described in 2 Corinthians 5:21
For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.
Jesus knew no sin - John the Baptist knew that - yet Jesus insisted on receiving John’s baptism of repentance for the remission of sins. The Words spoken by the Father and the appearance of the Spirit were as much a vindication of Jesus’ innocence as they were a means of identifying Him to John. Only to Him did the sky respond to a baptism in this manner. Only Jesus had the declarative judgment rendered, “I am delighted in Him.”
Now Jesus goes to live out what His Father has declared and what the Spirit has equipped, to walk in the paths of righteousness for the sake of God’s Name. Just like all of us, Jesus must do so, not in isolation from the Devil, but as His target.
And after fasting forty days and forty nights, he was hungry. And the tempter came and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, command these stones to become loaves of bread.” But he answered, “It is written, “ ‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.’ ”
After forty days - forty days in which, Mark writes in summary that “He was with the wild animals.” Jesus had no human companions to encourage Him, and He suffered the degradation of hunger. Some have actually died from trying to emulate Jesus in this instance, and there is no indication in Scripture that we should do so in an effort to achieve Christlikeness. In fact, in response to the question later of “why don’t your disciples fast,” Jesus said that they had no reason to since He was with them.
Notice also that the devil does not approach Jesus until after the 40 days were completed; this could be because he was hindered before that point, or it could be that he was waiting for what would be an opportune time. It is interesting that some teach that fasting makes you spiritually stronger, yet the devil sought this time point to tempt Jesus. At least as it pertains to the body, fasting does not strengthen you, and there is no promise from God that it will do so as it pertains to the Spirit. It will help as a spiritual discipline, and it will help you to focus your prayer and meditation time upon the Lord if you couple your fasting with prayer and meditation upon God’s Word.
Finally, Jesus’ words are not saying that eating or other bodily activities are bad, insofar as they are part of life and are according to God’s will. Gluttony is a sin. Providing food and drink to your body so that you can fulfill your vocations is not. Acting independently of God’s will, which submitting to the will of Satan is by definition, is a sin. Doing those things which enable you to fulfill your vocations in a God-pleasing way is not. How do we know the difference? Simple, in the words of King David “the sweet psalmist of Israel:”
How can a young man keep his way pure? By guarding it according to your word.
Jesus applied that song to His rebuke of Satan’s prompting:
But he answered, “It is written, “ ‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.’ ”
Two more times, the devil tried to get Jesus, the New Israel, to follow in the footsteps of the Old Israel, to act independently of His Father’s will, or presumptuously prove to Satan that He was the Son of God by putting “the Lord to the test.” It is one thing when God told Israel, “Try me and see;” it is a different thing when the encouragement comes from the enemy of God’s people!
Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory. And he said to him, “All these I will give you, if you will fall down and worship me.” Then Jesus said to him, “Be gone, Satan! For it is written, “ ‘You shall worship the Lord your God and him only shall you serve.’ ” Then the devil left him, and behold, angels came and were ministering to him.
Jesus was able to see through the Devil’s lies and tricks, and He knew Himself and who He is. He had no need to prove anything to the Devil. In His humility, His confidence lies in His intimate knowledge of the Father and His knowledge of Himself.
If you know that you are a child of God, you have no problem with Satan’s efforts to separate you from the Love of God. His attacks will drive you back to your strong tower - the name of the Lord. When you stumble, His Word will lift you up as you meditate upon Him. in your triumphs, which are nothing more than the Holy Spirit working in you both to will and to do for His good pleasure. In your baptism, God said the same thing that He said to Jesus at His: “This is My beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased.”
You aren’t going to recapitulate Jesus’ epic struggle against Satan in the Wilderness; you don’t need to, because that battle is already won. Satan lost to Jesus Christ; there is no turning back from there. We do not add to Jesus’ righteousness with our own. No, we rest in Him, and share in His conquest over sin, the flesh, and the Devil. We rejoice in the Lord always,instead of trying to beat Satan at his own game of enticing us to come out of the Lord’s secret place, out from under the shadow of His wings, His exceeding great and precious promises. Promises like 1 Peter 3:21
Baptism, which corresponds to this, now saves you, not as a removal of dirt from the body but as an appeal to God for a good conscience, through the resurrection of Jesus Christ,
or Romans 10:9
because, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.
These promises are rooted in Christ, because of Who He is - the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. Don’t worry about who you are - it just doesn’t matter, because you are not your own; you were brought with a price - His precious blood!
And the peace of God that passes all understanding will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus our Lord, Amen.