Mark 1:12-13

December 4, 2022

In the Wilderness for Forty Days

Part 1

Anointed by the Spirit, our Champion steps onto the scene of battle. His battle will be fierce and dark, and He will suffer much, but He will gain the victory for those whose sin He bears.

In those days, Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee, and was baptized by John in the Jordan. And when He came up out of the water, immediately, He saw the heavens being torn open, and the Spirit descending on Him like a dove, and a voice came from heaven, you are my beloved Son with you, I am well pleased. The Spirit immediately drove Him out into the wilderness. And He was in the wilderness, forty days, being tempted by Satan, and He was with the wild animals, and the angels were ministering to Him. Now, after John was arrested, Jesus came into Galilee, proclaiming the gospel of God and saying, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand, Repent, and believe in the gospel.” So, the expression that Mark uses here that the Spirit immediately drove Him out into the wilderness is really gives us the sense that Mark wants us to see the temptation of Jesus falling immediately upon the heels of the baptism of Jesus. Now, if we were studying in Mark's gospel, (I'm sorry), Luke's gospel, chapter four, we would see there that Luke tells us that that Jesus returns to Jerusalem before going into the wilderness for this temptation. But not Mark doesn't narrate it that way. Not that that's not how it happens. But instead, Mark wants to communicate to us this idea, this firm idea that Jesus immediately right upon almost coming up out of the water and hearing the words from heaven, immediately, He then goes into the wilderness for this period of temptation. So, this, this anointing of the Spirit is the last thing that happens, the declaration from heaven, and then the temptation in the wilderness. So, this reminds us of another anointing, of an anointing of another king, in which He also immediately then goes into the field of testing, or the field of battle. Because what all this is, is this is the story of our Champion, verses 12 and 13. These are the this is the story of our great Champion of the one who fought and won the battle that we lost, fought and won the battle that we never could have won. And so,, this anointing of the Son to go out and do this battle in our place reminds us of another anointing from First Samuel chapter 16. We spoke about this last week. First Samuel 16, David is also anointed by the Spirit. And we were looking last week at this anointing of the Spirit upon the human Jesus to empower Him, to enable Him to do the ministry that God has called him to do, that God has set him apart to do. And so, in a similar way, David was anointed by the Spirit in First Samuel chapter 16 and verse 13. Samuel anointed him with the oil and the Spirit of the Lord rushes upon him, there's once again that sort of violent language of the supernatural, breaking into the natural so, the Spirit rushes upon David, he's filled with the Spirit, he's empowered to do the work that God has for him, which is to rule over Israel. And then right after that, the next story is―Goliath. Take a look at your notes. And for Samuel chapter 17, and verse four, the next thing that we see is this man, Goliath of Gath steps into the scene. And so, this is immediately upon the anointing of David for his tasks for his role that God has called him to. So, if you take a close look at the Scripture references there for Samuel chapter 16, verse 13, is the anointing and the filling of the Spirit, the equipping by the Spirit, and then chapter 17, verse four―which is only a few verses later―now this man, Goliath is here. So, there's the anointing, there's the empowering, and then there's the battle. There's Goliath. And here's David who steps out onto the battlefield to do just as Jesus was doing, which is to be the Champion of His people. His people were cowering in fear, and no one would go out and fight Goliath, and the Philistines were such scary people. And here comes David to say, what is this? We are the army of the Lord, the battle is the Lord's. And then so, David goes out, and he fights this battle, and he defeats the foe, he defeats the enemy. All of that is teaching us about the Champion who is to come, the Champion who would fight our great battle―the battle which we lost―we'll get to that in just a minute. But the battle that we could never have won, our great Champion comes to fight that battle for us. So, this all reminds us of David, who's teaching us about this. David, who was himself anointed, and then goes immediately onto the field of battle and immediately defeats the foe of the people of God. And so, this champion has been raised up to be the champion of God's people, and he's pointing us, of course, to our great Champion Jesus, who will fight this battle for us. So, this battle, this verse 12, and verse 13, this is all about this, this climactic battle. And it's a battle that has been brewing for centuries upon centuries. Because if we all remember our Bibles, we know how the story of our Bibles unfolds. From back in Genesis chapter one, we remember the creation in the fall. And then in Genesis chapter three, we remember those words, when God the Father pronounces the curse upon the serpent, and he curses the serpent, and then He says―I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between her seed and your seed. Or in other words, between her descendants and new. In other words, God says, I will put enmity between you and the seed of the woman, the seed of the woman, being the people of God, the holy remnant of God's people. And so, God says, It's me who does this, I put the enmity. Enmity is just a word that just means, being in a state or condition of being enemies. I will make enemies of you, and the seed of the woman. And so, this explains perfectly for us what's happening here in the wilderness. This is the result of the enmity between the serpent and the seed of the woman, who is now we know to be Christ. This battle, though climatical, is not ultimately climate climactical, not even in the Gospel of Mark. We’ll see the battle rages throughout the gospel, it'll come to a greater climax at the end of the gospel, and then there's even an even greater climax coming. But up to this point, this is the greatest battle in this enmity, this condition of being in enemies, between the serpent and the seed of the woman. And so, this explains what we see here in verses 12 and 13. But it actually goes further than that. This explains for us everything that we see in our world. You ever look at your phone, or read the news, or, or read a newspaper, or hear about what's going on in the world around us, and say to yourself―What in the world is happening? You ever say that? What in the world is going on? There's such foolishness and craziness and violence and murder, and rape, and war. All of that is explained, if we know our Bibles, we're not surprised by that, because Genesis three, verse 15, tells us this is what's going on. God says, This is me. I put enmity between the serpent and the seed of the woman, and we who are the people of God, the seed of the woman, we are in that condition of being enemies with the serpent. And so, this explains everything that we see in our world around us―the the great hostility, the violence, the murder, that just never seems to stop. All of this was told us in Genesis chapter 15, when God says, I will put enmity between the woman, the seed of the woman and the serpent. And so, this is what our Champion is stepping out to do here in verses 12 and 13. These two short, briefest of verses, the Spirit immediately drove Him out into the wilderness in order to go and to do this battle. So, let's take a look here at verse 12. The Spirit immediately drove Him out. So, that's, of course, the same Spirit that just alighted on Him in the previous passage. The same Spirit that comes down, to anoint Him with power, to anoint Him with the Spirit, that anointing by that same Spirit, this is the same Spirit that now drives Him out into the wilderness. Or in the King James, it uses the word driveth, or drove in our English standard. Drove Him out into the wilderness. So, now this Spirit wants Him to go into the wilderness and, actually the word here is to drive Him into the wilderness. This reminds us first of all, of another, driving into the wilderness back in Leviticus chapter 16. We talked about this again last week. But last week, as we talked about Jesus going under the waters, being submerged, immersed into the waters of the sinfulness of the people. Remember how we related that to the scapegoat of Leviticus 16. That procedure that took place on Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, that day in which all the sins of the people were confessed. And the high priest, put it placed his hands on the head of the goat, confessed the sins of the people, and that that goat then symbolically or ritually you could say, bore the sin of the people. And so, in the same way, what that's pointing us to is what Jesus does under the water. Jesus goes under the water. He's immersed in the sinfulness of the people, and just like the goat symbolically became the bearer of the sin of the people, so, now the Lamb goes under the water to point to the day on the cross where He will become in reality, the sin of the people. But then there's yet another connection, because as the people come and they confess their sin, and then Jesus is submerged in the, into those waters of confession. So, also the priest confesses the sin of the people on the scapegoat. But after that, remember what happens is―the goat is then driven into the same place into the wilderness. Same word is used there―driven into the wilderness. So, here we have the Lamb of God, going under the waters of the confession of the people, and then being driven into the wilderness, pointing us back to Leviticus 16, where the Scapegoat―the sins of the people were confessed over the goat, and then the goat was driven also into the wilderness―so, we see that connection there. The goat, of course, is teaching us of the Lamb of God who is to come who will become the sin of the people and He, Himself be driven into the wilderness. But let's think about this word that that Mark uses driven, or driveth in the King James, or drove Him. It’s a forceful word. It's a word that speaks to us of another imposing their will on someone else. When you drive someone out, you sort of get the idea that the person being driven out, or the one, or the thing being driven out didn't want to be driven out. But the stronger one imposed their will on them. And so,, it's the word ‘ekballo.’ And it's just a compound word in the Greek, the word ‘ballo,’ which means to throw, and ‘ek,’ means out―to throw out. And so, literally, what this means is to throw out, or to cast out. It's a word that Mark uses some 17 times. And usually he's going to use it most often, to describe what Jesus does to demons―He cast them out. And so, we see in just a few verses, and chapter one, verse 34, we're going to see this same use here―He healed many who are sick and with various diseases and cast out many demons. Or just a couple of verses later, verse 39―He went through get all throughout all of Galilee, preaching in their synagogues, and casting out demons―same word there. And the other gospel writers, Matthew and Luke, will also use the same word to describe what Jesus does to the demons, who live in people, who have possessed people, so, to speak. So, it's a forceful word and speaks of casting one out, or throwing one out against their will. Matthew also uses the same word to also speak of throwing out in other senses. For example, when Jesus, remember the instance where He cleanses the Temple, and throws the people out, throws the money changers out? Same word there. So, when we think about this word, describing Jesus and Jesus being sent into the wilderness, and Mark is going to use this word that is most often used in this way of casting out against one's will, then we think about this, and it becomes a little bit problematic, because it speaks to us, of perhaps, maybe Jesus not wanting to go to the wilderness, and the Spirit imposing the Spirit’s will upon Jesus, to drive Jesus into the wilderness. And that becomes extremely problematic. Because Christ, never for one instant, had a will that was opposed to the Father. Never for one moment, did the will of Jesus ever misaligned with the Father. Even in the Garden, before His arrest and crucifixion, Jesus would say the Spirit is willing, but the flesh is…weak. Not unwilling, not opposed, just weak. So, Jesus never needed to be coerced by the Father to do any of the Father's will. Jesus lived to do the Father's will. So, we think about this, and we immediately arrive at a place in which it just does not work to think of Jesus being driven against His will into the wilderness. But here's what we see. We also see that this word is used, not the majority of times, but sometimes it's used to speak of a casting out or a sending out in a different sort of a sense. So, in chapter one, Mark 1:34 and verse 39, we saw how Mark used that word to describe what happens to the demons. Well, just a couple of verses later in verse 43, Mark uses the same word this way―and Jesus sternly charged―the context here is the man who was the leper who was just cleansed―Jesus sternly charged [the man who was just cleansed of leprosy] and sent him away, same word. So, the word also has a different manner of casting out, or putting out because Jesus certainly did not send out the man He just cleansed from leprosy in the same manner that He sent the demons out of the people that He cleansed. That's, it's two different ‘sending outs’ there. So, we put this together and here's what Mark is trying to say. Mark is not trying to say that Jesus was sent into the wilderness against His will. In fact, what Mark is saying is the opposite. What Mark is saying is that Jesus' will was so, conformed to the Father's, that when the Spirit desired Him to go into the wilderness, Jesus saw that as so, compelling, so, necessary, that to Him―remember, Mark is telling this from the perspective of Jesus―that to Jesus, it’s as though the Spirit is driving Him there. It’s as though He has no choice. If this is what the Father desires of me, then this is what I will do. There is no other option. This is the sense that Mark is trying to get across to us―that Jesus saw the father's desire as so, impelling upon Him, so, compelling of His nature, that Mark―from the perspective of Jesus―literally describes it as the Spirit drove Him into the wilderness. That's what Mark is saying. So, it's the opposite of this idea that Jesus, against His will, was sent into the wilderness. Instead, it’s saying that Jesus’ will could not have been more aligned with the Father's will. And so,, the Spirit here, drives Him into the wilderness. Remember from John chapter five and verse 30, what Jesus says, I do nothing of my own, I seek not my own will, but the will of Him who sent Me. So, this Spirit immediately notice, again, this just the pace of all this, the Spirit immediately drove Him out into the wilderness. So, now as He goes into the wilderness, we begin to see one of the greatest contrasts in the gospels, probably the greatest contrast in Mark's gospel, and that's the contrast between the waters of the Jordan and the wilderness. Because the scene that we just left, so, radically, and so, abruptly, the scene that we just left was a scene of incredible peacefulness. Here are the baptismal waters, where the Son has just come up out of the waters. And here's the Spirit, the very embodiment of peace in the Dove, who comes and rests on the Son. And here’s this voice from heaven, this affirming, encouraging remember last week, we talked about just the affirmation of the Father, this voice from the from the heavens that declares―You are my Son, you are loved. And you please Me. And then Mark just wants to draw this starkest of contrast, this most abrupt of changes from the peaceful, encouraging mountaintop waters of the Jordan, to now the wilderness. So, begin to put into your mind, a picture of the wilderness. And what takes place here is probably vastly different from the depictions that you probably saw in your Sunday school books and the paintings that you may have seen. So, put out of your mind forever, this image of Jesus with curly blond hair and bright blue eyes, and lily-white skin, just sort of kneeling by the rock and just gazing up into heaven with His hands crossed and a beam of sunlight shining down on His face. Because in the wilderness, what you now need to picture is the pit of evil. What you need to picture is the demonic, the playground of the demonic, so, to speak. Dark, hideous, evil. This the backyard of Satan, so, to speak, is where Jesus now goes. The place, in and of itself, nearly devoid of life. The only thing that lives there are scorpions and snakes, no vegetation, very, very little water, dry, acrid, dusty. Not in any way, an inviting place at all. And Jesus now goes into this place in which He will be stepping into the darkest of darkness. He will be stepping into the viper pit, so to speak. So, this is not a serene little scene of Jesus sitting off by Himself meditating in the wilderness. This is Jesus being subjected to the fiercest temptations that the enemy, that the prince of darkness can throw to Him. So, as He goes into the wilderness, He's going now into this place of preparation, because the wilderness in the Scripture is a place of preparation. We saw that last week, we saw that last week was a place of preparation, the people come out to the wilderness to be prepared for Messiah. That's what John's message is―prepare for Messiah. And so, in the wilderness is where the people come to confess their sin to be prepared for Messiah to come. Likewise, it's also a place of preparing for Jesus, because Jesus there in the wilderness―the part of the wilderness where John is and the crowds are―that is a place in which He is anointed for His work. So, it's a place of preparing for both Jesus and the people. But now Jesus is being sent to a, if you will, more desolate, more isolated, more secluded wilderness, to be further prepared for what lies ahead of Him. And throughout the gospel of Mark, the wilderness is going to be portrayed to us as a place of preparation. Take a look with me and Mark chapter one and verse 35―rising very early in the morning, while it was still dark, He departed and went out to a desolate place, and there He prayed. So, Jesus even prepares for the day by going into a desolate place into a wilderness type of place. So, Mark says―He was in the wilderness now for forty days. Mark does not tell us that He fasted, but Matthew and Luke both tell us that He fasted the entire forty days. So, He will be here without sustenance, without food for forty days. And of course, we immediately recognize this forty, time-frame period of forty, as something with great Spiritual significance. We know of many instances in the Scripture in which a period of forty―forty days or forty years―was a time of special preparation. We think of Moses who was with God on the mountain for forty days, or Moses who for forty years, was being prepared in the wilderness, to go into Egypt and say to Pharaoh to let my people go. Or we think of Elijah, the forty days as He was preparing to meet God on Mount Horeb. Or we think of the forty years in the wilderness as the people of God were prepared to enter into the Promised Land. Or we even think of Jesus in Acts chapter one and verse three, that for forty days, the risen Jesus was with the disciples, preparing them for His departure and the coming of the Spirit. And so, this forty day timeframe is something that just immediately resonates with us, because we know that in the Scriptures that oftentimes there's period of forty days, and what that signifies for us is there's a preparation that's taking place. And so, Jesus is in the midst of this preparation time for forty days, in which He is fasting for this forty days, you can just imagine the weakness, the weakness of His body, the physical weakness that He would have incurred in this time period. Luke chapter seven, Jesus describes Himself, He says that, what people are saying about me is I'm a drunkard and a glutton. So, Jesus could eat, and Jesus could go to the dinner parties and everything. But at the same time, nobody fasted like Jesus. So, for forty days, now, the human Jesus is going to be without sustenance, and He's going to be weak in body and weak in strength. And you know, what happens to your soul to your spirit when your body is tired, when your body is hurting, when your body is weak. Doesn't that also weaken your soul and weakens your spiritual strength, your spiritual resistance. And so, this is the state that Jesus is now going to be in for this time of testing, this time of preparation that is ahead of Him. So, the Spirit immediately drove Him out into the wilderness, verse 13, and He was in the wilderness forty days being tempted by Satan. So, what now commences is this battle between strong men. The Bible teaches us of this battle between the strong men, and Mark is one that really wants to focus on this, this battle between strong men. And so, the way that Mark describes it to us through the Gospel is that there's a strong man, but he's an illegitimate strongman. And he has come and he's an illegitimate king. He's an illegitimate prince, he's an illegitimate ruler. But now a stronger Man is coming in order to do battle and to defeat the strong man and cast him out, because the stronger Man is the legitimate king. And so, Mark will carry that theme. He'll sort of carry that context throughout his gospel. Let me just kind of show us how he's going to do that. Just take a look at verse 21. This is the first miracle, in Mark's gospel. The first miracle is the healing of the man with unclean spirit. So, take a look at just how Mark sets this up for us to think of this as a battle of two strong men. The illegitimate strong man―Satan―who set up an illegitimate kingdom, but now he's coming up against the far stronger Man. So, verse 21, day went into Compendium, and immediately on Sabbath He entered the synagogue and was teaching and they were astonished at His teaching. He taught them as one who had authority. There you go, authority. He's the legitimate one. He's the legitimate ruler, the legitimate, strong man. His teaching had had authority, verse 23, and immediately there was in their synagogue, a man with an unclean spirit. So, here the illegitimate strong man comes into the holy place. You see the battle here, the lesser strong man Satan if you will, who has now read his ruling in the life of this man and it's being manifested in this unclean spirit that he has, he comes into the holy place into the domain of the stronger man. And so, he comes into the synagogue and he makes this scene, verse 24, what have you to do with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are the Holy One of God. But Jesus rebuked him saying, “Be silent Come out of him.” And the unclean Spirit convulsing him crying out with a loud voice came out of him. They were all amazed, and so, that they questioned among themselves, saying, what is this a new teaching with authority, He commands even the unclean spirits, and they obey Him. Now, that sort of thing is going to follow through the whole gospel, this idea that there is a kingdom here, and that kingdom is wrong. It shouldn't be here. It's a cruel, evil taskmaster. But he is here, and he has possessed people. And he has caused sickness and death and destruction. But the real King is here, the real strong Man is here, and He's going to cast out the strong man. Take a look at the parable that Jesus is going to tell in chapter three and verse 27. But no one can enter a strong man's house and plunder his goods, unless he first binds the strong man, then indeed, he may plunder his house. So, this is what Jesus is here to do. And this is what He begins doing, in chapter one, verse 12, and 13. He begins binding the strong man. Take a look at what John says in First John three and verse eight, the reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the works of the devil. And so, this is what Jesus begins here this work of binding the strong man.

Part 2

The Second Adam's test, though far harder, was the same test: Will You believe, trust, and obey what God has said?

The Spirit drives Him out, drove Him out into the wilderness, and He was in the wilderness being tempted by Satan for forty days. So, we said earlier, that the same Spirit is the Spirit that compels, that that impels Him, so, to speak, to go into this period of temptation. And so, the same Spirit is expressing, He’s expressing to Jesus, the will of the Father, it is the Father's will, that Jesus would then enter into this time of extreme, extended testing and trials. So, Jesus is in the will of the Father when He goes into this period of testing and trials. Which says to us that the same God who divinely orchestrated what took place at the Jordan River, is the same God who sends Jesus into the desert. What happened at the at the Jordan, what happened at the Jordan―the anointing, the Spirit, the voice from heaven―all of that was just as much the will of God, as Jesus is going into this period of extended, radical temptation and trials. So, Jesus's time of temptation is not the result of the displeasure of His Father. Jesus is not being tempted and tried, Jesus is not suffering, so, to speak, as we'll get to that a little bit, because of His Father's displeasure. The Father is just as pleased with Jesus as He ever was, in fact, He's more pleased with Jesus now. So, this is not the Father's displeasure, the Father is not saying, “I'm just not happy with my Son, let me let me sort of whip Him into shape a little bit.” It is the Father's pleasure, it is the Father's will, as He sends the Son into this time of tempting. So, the so, the Father is going to send Jesus into this time of tempting, and Jesus will be tempted, we'll talk a little bit about the temptation that He undergoes. But He'll be tempted. And it's important for us to see where the temptation comes from, and who organized the temptation. So, the Father is never depicted as the One who's tempting Jesus. But nevertheless, the Father is the One who arranged the circumstances. The Father is the One who orchestrated the situation for Jesus to be tempted in. It's crystal clear in the passage, it’s crystal clear from the other Gospel accounts. It is the Father who sent Jesus into the wilderness. Yet it is not the Father who tempted Jesus. We read from James's epistle, James chapter one and verse 13. “Let nobody who's being tempted say that God's tempting me, because God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does God tempt anyone.” So, no temptation comes from God. But it's important to see that God sovereignly arranges the circumstances of our temptation. Why? Because He uses that temptation for our good. He uses the evil that comes against us for our good. So, He orchestrates the circumstances, the situation―think of Job, Remember Job? God organize the circumstances. But God didn't do the tempting. The same thing with Jesus―the Spirit sends Jesus into the wilderness. But the Spirit is not doing the tempting. The Father is not doing the tempting. No one is ever tempted to evil by God, God cannot tempt anyone to evil. But He sovereignly arranges the circumstances in which He allows the Tempter to do that, and then uses that for our good, just as He's using it for Jesus's good here. Okay. So, Jesus goes in by the will of the Father to be tempted under these sovereignly designed circumstances. Now, it has been said some scholars have looked at the early church and they have concluded that this Roman Church actually had a little bit of―hold on, do your seat―prosperity gospel. You know, sometimes we think of the early church in sort of overly, I don't know, romanticized ideas of the early church. The early church was an incredible example for us, because they were so close to the beginning of the church, and the apostles―the founders of the church―the apostles were still there. So, the early church is an incredibly valuable thing for us to look at. However, the early church―like us―was made up of sinners. So, the old church was not perfect. And one of the things that some scholars have seen in the Roman church is that there was a little bit of a tendency to what we would think of as a prosperity gospel, meaning this you remember a few weeks back, where we talked about the situation which Mark’s writing this gospel. It’s the situation in which the persecution under Nero has exploded. And this is the most violent persecution that the church had experienced up until that point. This is the time in which Peter was crucified. This is the time in which Christians were being hung up on posts and lit on fire, soaked in tar, and lit on fire, they were being thrown to wild animals, persecution was rampant. And so, there is some evidence that there were some Roman Christians who believed that Jesus could deliver them from this persecution―which of course He can. But there was some evidence to believe that, or for us to think that, that the Roman church, to a certain degree thought that Jesus should and would deliver them from this persecution. So, Mark may be writing this to them with the intention that they were to see―your Master wasn't delivered your Master with the forty days. And so, if your Master submits to this, then we follow in His steps. So, there's a sort of maybe a little bit of a correction, a little bit of rebuke to the Roman church to say―no, to be a follower of Jesus doesn't mean that everything just gets made all right. And it doesn't mean that when, when the thing right in front of you look so, dark and so, grim, that you're to expect that Jesus would just deliver you from everything unpleasant. So, they are in a very, very unpleasant time. And I think perhaps Mark wants to say to them―take confidence. Your Master has been there. He's been there. He endured this on your behalf. And yes, this is not pretty, this is, this is not pleasant. But Your Master has been there, and He will carry you through. So, perhaps there's some of that going on, as well. So, this is all being orchestrated, because Jesus, of course, Jesus is the second Adam. So, if we think about what's going on here, it's all going to make perfect sense for us, there was the first Adam. First Corinthians 15 tells us that there was the first Adam, the first Adam was the one who underwent this trial. And he failed it, he failed it spectacularly. And then the Scriptures tell us that Jesus is now the second Adam, or sometimes called the last Adam. And so, the first Adam undergoes his trial in the garden. And he fails it so spectacularly. He and his helpmate, cast the entire human race into this condition of sinfulness. They spectacularly fail their test. Now, God has orchestrated these scenario, this scenario to show us the here now the second Adam, He's going to undergo the same test, but He's not going to fail where the first Adam failed. So, this second Adam, and isn't it? Isn't it just beautiful? How, remember how the Mary sees the risen Jesus? And she even mistakes Him for the gardener? She says, aren't you the gardener? And we think back. Oh, yeah. Adam was the gardener. So, here's the risen Christ, the second Adam. He is now the true Gardener. Adam, the first Adam was put in the garden to tend it and to care for it here, the second Adam is now placed into the same trial, the same test as the first Adam. So, now let's, let's kind of compare their test and let's contrast these two tests. So, the first Adam, he underwent his test in the lushest, the most comfortable of circumstances. The Garden of Eden in which he had every food available to him. His belly was full. He lived in this garden and there wasn't a dry, acrid sort of place. He was put here to tend the vegetation and to care for the garden that God had created. And in this garden, he had all the food at his fingertips. He had all the companionship at his fingertips, because remember, that God had created the special helper for him, “Bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh.” And she was made to be the perfect companion the perfect helpmate. So, he had perfect companionship. Do you know how much easier it is to go through a trial with someone―with someone who supports and understands? So, here's Adam, in the most comfortable conditions, all the food he wants full belly, perfect companionship, Adam and his wife were sinless. And so, they enjoyed a sinless relationship, giving one another perfect support and perfect companionship. And then Adam’s test was one simple command. One simple command―don't eat of that tree. So, now let's compare this to Jesus' test. Jesus’ test didn't play take place in a garden. Jesus’ test took place in the wilderness with no vegetation, no life. Jesus didn't undergo His test with the full belly, Jesus underwent His test with an utterly empty belly, no food for forty days. Jesus’ test wasn't one simple command, it was keep the entire law of God we'll talk in just a minute about His temptation, but His command was keep the entire law of God perfectly. Furthermore, Jesus didn't undergo His test with companionship. He didn't undergo His test with a perfect helpmate. In fact, He underwent His test with no one. He was utterly alone, utterly lonely. This is what Mark means by He was there with the wild animals. His only companionship was the hostile wild animals. So, contrast this now to Adam. Adam is in the garden, also with the animals, but the animals for Adam are a help. They are perfectly submissive to him, he is exercising dominion over the creation, and the creation is serving him willingly. Now, the second Adam undergoes His tests, and the only animal companions he has, are the hostile wild animals, the ones that are trying to kill Him, the scorpions, that are trying to sting Him, and the snakes that are trying to bite Him. And furthermore, here is the Son of Man, denied of all companionship, the One who perfectly loves the image of God in other people. Have you ever thought about just how much Jesus would have enjoyed being with people, as the one who perfectly loves the image of God and others? Jesus must have been so lonely. Here, in complete and utter solitude, undergoing His test, but where the first Adam failed, the second Adam will not fail. But here's where the two tests are the same. Because both of those tests had the same, exact, identical purpose. Remember, Adams test? “Did God really say that you can't eat of any tree? Did God really say that?” Well, no, He didn't. Exactly. Here's what He said, well did God really say that? His test was: Are you going to believe and trust and obey what God said? Jesus’ test is the same. Mark wants us to read this account, seeing, reading it in such a way that the last words ringing in Jesus' ears were, “This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.” Now Mark doesn't relate the exact details of the test to us, Matthew and Luke do, in fact, Mark doesn't even tell us how Jesus fares, he just says Jesus was tempted. But Matthew and Luke relate to us the details of at least some of the temptations. So, still ringing, still vibrating in Jesus's ear still, echoing off the distant mountains are the words, “This is My beloved Son in whom I am well pleased.” And here comes the temptation, ”If you were the Son of God, You wouldn't be hungry. If You were the Son of God, You’d turn these stones into bread. Because if you really were the Son of God, what Father would want His Son to be hungry? What Father would want His Son to endure such a thing as this”? If you were―you see how they're the same test? Will you believe will you trust and will you obey what God has said? Where the first Adam failed, the second Adam will not fail.

Part 3

Our Champion's suffering for His people was not just during the hours of crucifixion.

So, He's tempted by Satan for forty days, that word Satan literally means adversary. So, ‘diablos’ is the word translated devil. That means slander, or accuser. The word translated ‘Satan’ means adversary. And this is this is who he is, he is he is the champions adversary. And so, He's been tempted here for these forty days. Now, Mark uses a grammatical structure that tells us that what Mark intends for us to understand is not that there, He's fasting for forty days, and He's really tired. He's really hungry, He's really weak. And then at the very end comes this test. What Mark wants us to see is that the entire forty days were constant, constant testing, constant temptations. So, what about these temptations? Because we really need to kind of get at―Jesus is God―could He really be tempted? Could Jesus have sinned? There's a question for you, could Jesus have sinned? He's God. And the only answer to that is absolutely. The human Jesus absolutely could have sinned. If not, then it was not a real temptation. It was a farce. And this is not a farce, this is the real deal. So, this temptation―let's try to get our arms around…Hebrews 4, verse 15, tells us that our High Priest has been tempted in every way that we have, yet without sin. Now, when the writer to the Hebrews says that, he doesn't mean to say that Jesus has been tempted exactly as you have, identically to you. What he intends to say is that Jesus’ is temptation fully encompasses all of our temptations, and far, far more. Because the temptation that Jesus encountered for forty days here―in fact, for His entire life―the temptation that He encountered here, is not exactly like our temptation, there's some differences. And there's some key differences to understand. But it's also a temptation that, if I could use the word infinitely, stronger than what we face. So, when we're tempted, we know what happens as we're tempted, right? I would trust that everybody here is thought well enough about your temptation to sin, that you've kind of thought about how that works in you, how it is that you're tempted, and why temptation is a difficulty for you. And so, here's what happens in our temptation. When we are tempted to sin, there is something outside of us, either the enemy, or the world around us or both, and they make some sort-of appeal to a fallen desire in our heart. Isn’t that how temptation works with you? That something in the world or something from the demonic maybe, is appealing to something in your heart, some sort-of desire, some sort-of fallen desire, and it's saying, “Take me, indulge in me, have me.” And that's how temptation works. In fact, that's what the Bible teaches us. Look at James chapter one, verse 14, and 15. “But each person is tempted (when are we tempted?) when he is lured and enticed by (what?) his own desire.” So, there's a desire in our heart. And our enemy is aware of these desires, and the world in which we live, lives and breathes these desires. And so, those enticements they come to us, and they speak to us, and they say, “Wouldn't I be fun? Wouldn't this be enjoyable? Can't you just indulge in this? Oh, this would be so good, this would be so, nice. This would be so, gratifying. This would be so, helpful.” And that appeal comes into a heart that deep down in there―wants, it has a desire for it. And then James says in the next verse, when that desire is acted upon when the temptation is given into, then it sort-of culminates, it sort-of brings to fruition the sin that causes death. And that's how James explains it. So, that's how temptation works with us. We have a fallen heart, a fallen nature, fallen desires. And there is an enticement outside of us that appeals to that. And it says―act on this, indulgent in this, give in to this. Now, when we come to Jesus, the problem that we face is―well, Jesus had no fallen desires. Jesus was sinless in every way. That doesn't mean that Jesus was just sinless in His behavior. It also means that He was sinless in His desires, He had no fallen nature. He was like us in every way―except sin. So, Jesus did not live His life fighting against the desire to get drunk, because He didn't have that desire. He was the only righteous Man, He was the only one without sin, and sin Scripture teaches us is also our desires. So, was it really a temptation for Jesus to be tempted by this demonic force here, this Satan in his in his cronies, wasn't really a temptation if Jesus didn't have those fallen desires, and this is where Jesus temptation is not exactly like ours. But if we think about this, His temptation was far, far greater than ours. Let me try to explain. Take a look at the back of your notes here. And here's just some things that show us how Jesus, what Jesus endured in the wilderness is far greater than any of us ever endure in our temptation. For the first thing, Jesus was under constant and direct attack from the Prince of Darkness himself, not any of his cronies or lackeys. You know, we often say, don't we, that Satan is trying to get us to do this, or we're under attack by Satan. And we say that because the Bible uses that language. First Peter five says, First Peter five calls Satan, our adversary. But you know, Satan is not omnipresent. Satan is a creature, he's a created being. He is not the Spirit of God. Satan cannot tempt all people at once―like the Spirit in dwells all of His people at once―Satan can't do that. And so, it actually be kind of thinking quite highly of ourselves to think of ourselves as the object of Satan himself attacking us. I doubt any of us have ever been under the direct attack of Satan himself. That's not to say that when we are under demonic attack, that it’s not right to say it's under Satan's attack, because it's all under his direction and under his goals. But that is to say, when Jesus was attacked in the wilderness when He was tempted in the wilderness, He was attacked by the Prince of Darkness himself. For forty days, day and night. We're never told this, but I believe it's entirely reasonable to believe that it's not just the Prince of Darkness himself, only. But every demonic being that he could recruit to help him. This is the prize. Jesus is the prize. If the prince of darkness can bring Him down―we all understand what that means. And so, for forty days and forty nights, Jesus is under the most direct attack of the Prince of Darkness himself, and every available help that the prince of darkness can recruit to his side. All of them attacking the Son of Man with vicious vengeance, no mercy, day and night. I doubt Jesus slept much at all for those forty days. Can you just imagine―the hunger the weakness, the beating down sun, the tiredness and the demons? “Curse God, curse Him, just curse Him, curse Him, curse Him, curse God!” Never-ending. “Blaspheme His name, blaspheme Him!” He is under the most direct attack, day and night. Forty days. Also, number two, Jesus’ temptation was never weakened by a single moment of surrender. Do you know that when you resist temptation, does your temptation just sort-of give up? Isn't it true, that the more you resist, the longer you resist, the greater that temptation becomes? Now there may be seasons in which it sort-of slacks off and then comes back later, but doesn't it come back stronger? Jesus never acquiesced one bit. So, Jesus experienced the full force of the strongest temptation the enemy is capable of. None of us have ever experienced the full force of any temptation. Why? Because none of us have resisted indefinitely like that. All of us are sinners, all of us have acquiesced. And that acquiescence brings sort-of, at least a temporary relieving of the temptation. Jesus never again. So, Jesus is the only one who's experienced the full, 100% force of everything that evil had to bring against Him. Number three, Jesus’ temptation knew no limits. Do you know that your temptation is limited by your limited human capabilities? In other words, it's not a real temptation to any of us to be tempted to do something that we know we're not capable of doing. You can't tempt me, in a real way, you can't really tempt me to go and wastefully spend my family's money on a new sports car. That's just not a real temptation, because I know I can’t do it. I mean, they would, if I went to the sports car store they'd laugh at me. So, that's not a real temptation. You can't―here's an example I've used before maybe you've heard it―I can't be tempted to impress everybody in the room by levitating two feet off the floor. Not a temptation, because it's not in the realm of possibility. And so, we're not really tempted by that which is not possible for us. Jesus' temptation knew no limit, because His power knew no limit. There was nothing outside of the realm of what could be temptation for Jesus because there was nothing outside the realm of possibility. Furthermore, the Scriptures teach us that sin is not just action, sin is thought. Take a look with me at Colossians chapter three and verse five. Paul says, “Put to death therefore what is earthly in you: sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire.” And even before that―passion, what's passion, but inflamed desire? Okay, so, Jesus teaches us that lesson in Sermon on the Mount about lust, He says, “You have committed adultery when you have desire in your heart.” So, we sin, we are capable of sinning, just by having an evil desire that we don't act upon. Now, when we act upon an evil desire, then we compound the sin. But we can have an evil desire―Paul says put those evil desires to death because their sin, Jesus says, “You've sinned in your heart when you've desired someone wrongly.” Jesus―one moment of a fallen desire would have cast Him into a pit of sinfulness. One instant of wanting this to stop. One instance of wanting to be outside the Father's will. One moment of thinking a low thought of His Father, one instant. All Jesus would need to have done would be to desire it. Remember what the Centurion said to Him in Luke's Gospel? Luke chapter seven. Can you do something about my servant? My servants dying? Okay, take Me to him. You don't need to go. All you need to do is say the word. And Jesus says―he gets it. What does that mean? That means all Jesus needed to do was want it. Was desire the servant to be healed, and he would be healed. All Jesus would have had to do in the wilderness would be to want something sinful. Instantly, momentarily. Can you imagine the barrage, forty days, day and night? And never once sinning in thought, or desire? Oh, the barrage against Him was so merciless, so inhumanly difficult, Which is why the Scriptures tell us of His suffering. Look at Hebrews chapter two and verse 18. The writer to the Hebrews describes Jesus's time of temptation as suffering―for because He himself has suffered when tempted. Jesus suffered so immensely for those forty days. You know, we know Jesus suffered on the cross. And we know He suffered in those hours leading up to the cross. But have you ever thought about Jesus's suffering in the wilderness? Oh, how He suffered. Just imagine if you can. Do you know what it's like to sort-of have that thought, that passing thought―blaspheme God? You know, when something goes really wrong, something just really, you don't understand something just really get you. And that thought hits you―to blaspheme God. And you know how distasteful and unwanted that thought is. That is a thought popping into our mind, into the mind of someone who―I don't know how to make the comparison―but compared to Jesus maybe has a miniscule tiny amount of righteousness in us. Think of just how difficult, how painful it is, for us to have that thought when something happens, and it just hits into our mind, to curse God. Jesus is the perfect Son of God, the only righteous One. Day and night―curse God, curse God, blaspheme God, curse Him! Curse Him! Can you imagine the torment of His soul, to hear that, to be subjected forty days and forty nights to the hideous demonic―curse Him! Curse Him! He doesn't love You, You're not His Son, He cares nothing about You! He's left You out here, curse Him! The spirit of Job's wife, right? Curse God and die. Can you imagine the torment of His soul? Mark describes Him here as with the animals, with the wild animals. And I think that Mark puts that in there, we said earlier as a point of connection to help the Roman believers to bolster their confidence in what they're going through. But I think they would have made a connection to Jesus here. Because the Roman historian Tacitus tells us that that's what the Romans were doing to the Roman Christians, that they were wrapping them in animal skins and throwing them to the animals. What do you think they would have thought when they heard―our Master, He was with wild animals too, He was with the wild animals to just like us. But do you see how perhaps they would have been just so, encouraged to hear, He's been here. He's been here. Oh, the suffering! The animals are here, not to, not to be as they were for Adam―to first add them to the support, the ones who are under his dominion, who are there to perfectly help him. They're here as His enemies. They're here just as an illustration of just how lonely this was. Imagine once again, the Son of Man, who perfectly loves the image of God in other people, being subjected to just such solitude and such loneliness, in the hardest, the most difficult of times that He has yet to endure. Mark also says that He was ministered to by the angels. Now that might give us sort-of a nice little, warm-hearted feeling that these angels are coming into ministering to Jesus. I don't think that's what Mark meant. I think that this is just one more humiliation for Jesus, to now be beholden to the angels He created. That's what the writer to the Hebrews says, “We see Jesus, who was for a time made a little lower than the angels.” These perfect sinless angels that He created, now they have to serve Him. Now they have to minister to Him. The word there's ‘deacon,’ they have to ‘deacon’ to Him, in order for Him to make it through this. Can you imagine the humility of the Maker of the heavens and the earth having to be served by angels, having to be ministered to by angels? Oh, the suffering, the suffering of the Son of Man to willingly subject Himself―remember, the Spirit didn't have to change His mind, or convince Him. This is the Father's will. And the Son said, if this is the Father's will, nothing can stop Me from doing this. Now one last thought for us, and then we're done. And that thought is this: Just to remind ourselves―if one failure had occurred in these forty days, think for just a moment, where we would be. The entire human race would be utterly hopeless. All of humanity would be without hope for eternity. There would be nothing for us save damnation, and the full deserved wrath of God, had the Son of Man tripped or faltered in the smallest way over these forty days of testing. Our eternity, in one sense, hung in the balance. In another sense, it was never in question, though, was it? Because He is the Champion, and He comes to defeat that which we had no chance of defeating. He came to destroy that which sought to do nothing but to destroy us, to destroy the people of God, the seed of the woman. But here's our champions stepping on to the arena, onto the stage, and this will lead us directly into next week: Proclaim the Good News.