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Last week we started our Christmas series that we have entitled “The Son.”
Our Christmas celebration involves a lot of things that we enjoy, but the one things that we enjoy.
Family time.
Many of you here, no doubt, are family from out of town.
Or, you have family time set aside during the holidays.
We decorate with lights on our houses and trees in our living room; gifts under the tree and Santa down the chimney.
But, all that is just cultural.
It’s part of society celebrating a Christmas spirit that they see on the Hallmark channel.
Christians understand that the real reason for celebrating is the son in manager.
The reason we celebrate that son is that Jesus is the, the son of God, the promised Messiah, who has come to save his people from their sins.
It is important to think that the child is wrapped in swaddling clothes.
But, that is not really the main point of this text.
The main point is that God has come wrapped in humanity to be our savior.
So what we discovered last week is that our identity as Christians is that we are sons and daughters of God is anchored in Christ’s identity as son of God.
We are children of God because Christ is the son of God who fulfilled all the requirements of sonships.
Now by faith we are in Christ and therefore, sons and daughters of God, adopted into the family of God.
Just as a quick review.
We saw last week that there were some failed sons of God in the OT.
Adam, Israel, and David are all called sons of God.
But they were all failed as sons.
Jesus fulfilled sonship so that we can be sons and daughters of God.
Last week, we looked at Christ’s sonship and its implications from the infancy narratives.
Today, I want us to think about his sonship and its implication for us from his baptism and wilderness experience in ;)
When we look at the baptism of Jesus, we typically get caught up in the question, “Why did Jesus have to be baptized?”
After all, he never sinned.
Of course, Jesus answered that question to John in v.15, “it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness.”
John’s baptism was one of repentance, so he modeled for us that a life of a believer following Christ would be one of repentance.
We understand that.
But that is not the major focus of this text.
The major focus of this text is that the Holy Spirit descends on him as a dove and the Father speaks a declaration over Christ:
I want you to notice what happened to Jesus immediately after his baptism.
Matt.
4:
Two out of three these tests that he was subject to were tests and challenges to his sonship.
One scholar said, Jesus was first attested by God as son before he was tested by Satan as Son.
First Test:
Matt.
4:
Matt.
4:5-
Second Test:
Of course, Jesus passed these tests.
We will look at those temptations more in just a little while.
Butt for now, I want to note that this is not the first time that we have seen this water to wilderness scenario by on called a “son of God.”
Remember from last week that Israel is called a firstborn son.
We see the water to wilderness experience with Israel.
God delivers his firstborn son by delivering them through the waters of the Red Sea and then taking them through 40 years of testing of which they rebelled and complained constantly.
They failed as sons.
So what Jesus is doing is fulfilling sonship in a way that Israel failed.
So, let’s take a look at these texts.
And what implications does Christ’s successful sonship have for our relationship with God.
I. God’s love for believers is based in his unique love for his son.
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Notice what the Father declares when Jesus comes up out of the water after his baptism.
Matt.
3:
He doesn’t just say, “This is my son.”
But, he uses an adjective to describe his son.
“This is my beloved son, in whom I am well pleased.”
Of the eight occasions where the adjective ‘beloved’ is used in the Matthew, Mark, and Luke, all of them apply exclusively to Jesus as the Son of God.
So the Father loved the son with a unique love and the Father is completely pleased with the Son.
Because the Father loves the son uniquely, he loves us believers in Christ, those who find our identity in Christ uniquely.
+Do you mean to tell me that God loves the believers differently than he loves the lost?
Well, God certainly loves all the world, teaches us that.
But there is no doubt that God loves his children uniquely, because he loves us with a love that he has for his son.
In Christ, we are his children.
*Those of that have children have a unique perspective to be able to understand this.
If you are a parent, I know you love kids, but you don’t love any kids like you love your own.
I love your kids, but I’m not going to save up for college for them.
I’m not going to buy them their first car.
You’ll do that for your own kids, and I’ll do that for mine.
There is just something unique about the love you have for your children.
God has unique and focused love for his children.
29 Are not two sparrows sold for a penny?
And not one of them will fall to the ground apart from your Father.
30 But even the hairs of your head are all numbered.
31 Fear not, therefore; you are of more value than many sparrows.
Matt
Sparrows are worth almost nothing, yet he pays close attention to them.
It’s easy to make a joke about it to being very hard for God to count the hairs on some of us.
But that’s not what this is about.
It’s about being so close to us that he can actually count the hairs.
*From time to time, Misty braids AvaGrace’s hair.
It takes a while and a good bit of work.
Misty has to be very close to AvaGrace and extremely focused for her hair to turn out well.
Now think about this, how close do you have to be to count the hairs on someone’s head.
That’s how close God is to you.
He takes special focus and special care of his children.
You are beloved because you are in Christ.
II.
God’s acceptance of us is based in the obedience of his son.
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The temptation of Jesus was a challenge of who he was.
They were challenges to Jesus’ identity.
Would he be a son of God that would succeed in being perfectly obedient to the Father.
Would he achieve all righteousness, like he said at his baptism, so that those of us with faith in him could be counted righteous.
Or would he fail in his sonship like Israel did as a son.
His first temptation was after 40 days of fasting.
He was hungry.
And the tempter came and tempted him.
Matt.
4:
This is not the first time that Satan has offered food to someone to get them to deny the Father’s will.
Remember Adam in the garden?
Adam and Eve were living in perfect relationship with the Father.
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