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Introduction: The Gift of a Church Plant

Well, good morning. It is great to be here. As Kenny said, we started as a church eight years ago so it is a joy to be back in a new church. It brings me right back to the days when we first started at Grace Claremont over at Grassy Lake Elementary School. It is an incredible gift. There’s a certain gift that new churches have that, as the church becomes more established, you have to work harder to grab hold of. I just want to remind you of that gift. I can remember a few months in, I got up at the very beginning of the service to do the announcements, and announcements can be very formal, it’s very professional. I got up, and there were three people seated as the service began. I went, I can either act like there are a lot of people here, or I can just look at Abel, Cynthia, and Katie and tell them what we have going on this week. I ended up doing that instead. I had to wrestle early on with why I was doing what I was doing and where worth and value came from as a church. Jesus just threw in front of my eyes at that moment the challenge. Do I find my worth, value, and significance in how many people are here? Is that who I’m doing this for? Or am I doing it for an audience of one to be faithful to him and allow him to be able to build his church?

I was faced with that early on. One of the things I felt early, as a church plant, was the unique gift which every person who came had a missional edge to them. You know that this church rests on your shoulders, right? You’re not bringing somebody to this huge show with these programs and systems that are just gigantic and massive and incredible, and you can bring all these people to it. No. You know that you and your relationships and your ministry with where you are, with your neighbors, your family, your friends, your coworkers, you’ve got to go bring the gospel to them. That missional edge is what’s going to bring them to Jesus and ultimately to this church as it continues to grow. And that, friends, is a tremendous gift. Because as a church grows, there’s a tendency for a church to begin to become focused on the maintenance of the church and on how those systems and programs can draw people in and lose the fact that the greatest power a church has is spirit filled and empowered members acting as ambassadors on behalf of their King in their lives. That’s the missional edge of the church. Always has been, always will be. A church plant has an incredible gift to know that so particularly. So it’s wonderful to be back here in that setting again. It’s something that even this year at the Grove, we’re trying to remind ourselves that we are the ambassadors. We’ve been entrusted with the message of reconciliation. Paul says, ‘for us individually, as members, then to go’. That’s the mission that we have. It’s wonderful, and it’s great to be able to be here and preach. 

A Greater Picture of Who Jesus Is

Last night, Kenny sent me a video of his daughter, Letty. She challenged me last night. She said, ‘Here is what I want to hear in the sermon. ’ ‘Pastor Caleb, I want to make sure you cover these four things. Strollers, princesses, mermaids, and koalas.’ And friends. It was as if she were reading my notes.

This is really what I had hoped and had already written down. Before she even said that, I said, Here’s my hope. My prayer today is that we can have a greater sense of who Jesus is. My kids, I’ve got three kids. They’re eight, six and three. At the end of a long day at Disney, you know what they do? They are exhausted. And my three-year-old, he doesn’t want to take another step. He falls into that stroller as we carry him home. And friends, is that not what Jesus does for us when we are tired, when we can’t take another step, when we fall into his arms, he then carries us home. He’s the true and greater stroller as we rest in him. And when we rest in him and believe in him, do you know what we become? We become sons and daughters of the King. Do you know what a daughter of the King is called? They’re called the Princess. And our identity and our worth is not like how Disney paints princesses based on how we look or our marketability. No, our worth and our value is in our union to the King. Our union in Christ as we are now co-heirs with him and this king.

Some people may think that he was part God and part man. Kind of like a mermaid is part fish and part man. No, no, no. This king is fully God and fully man, as we trust in him and we cling to him like a koala clings to an eucalyptus tree. We cling to Christ as we look to him. Amen. Let’s pray and let’s end the sermon today. It is a joy. Letty, I mean, again, that was already in there. I don’t know how the Spirit moves in mysterious ways. 

But in all seriousness, my hope for today is singular. And it’s not dissimilar from some of that stuff, but it is singular. That is, that we would have a greater picture of who Jesus is, what he’s done for you, and that your affection for him would grow. I know you’re going through Hebrews right now. The name of the sermon series is, Don’t Stop Believing. The point of Hebrews is, the author is pointing out all these ways in which Jesus is better and greater than all these things in the Old Testament. He is the greater prophet. He’s the greater priest. He’s the greater sacrifice over another greater tabernacle. He’s better. He’s better. He’s better. So while we’re not in Hebrews, Matthew here in his gospel is making the same argument. He is pointing to the Old Testament and saying, Jesus is better than Israel. He is the greater Israel. That’s his main point. Here is when we will rest and see what Jesus has done for us, in what ways he is the greater and better Israel. So let me pray one more time, and then we’ll jump in.

 Lord, thank you for your grace as we gather here today. Would you help us now as we come to your word? Would you open our minds to be able to see and comprehend its truth? Would you open our hearts to embrace its beauty? And would you open our hands to be able to take hold of and cling to his commands. We love you, and we need your grace now. We know that you will give it. We pray this in Christ’s name. Amen.

The Active Obedience of Christ

If you were facing your own death and you could write a letter to a friend, what would you write? In a note to someone that you love, knowing your death was imminent? What would come to your mind? J. Gresham Machen was a Presbyterian theologian and scholar in the late 1800s, early 1900s. He was a professor at Princeton Seminary and would later found Westminster Theological Seminary in 1929. As he faced his death, he wrote a note to a friend that had just 13 words. Here’s what came to his mind. January 1, 1937. He dictated this final telegram and said this. “I’m so thankful for the active obedience of Christ. No hope without it.” It’s a bit of an odd thing to come to your mind there as you come to the end of your life, isn’t it? Some of us may be scratching our heads. What does he mean by the active obedience of Christ, and why is that on the forefront of his mind as he faces death? 

Well, the act of obedience. Theologians have often categorized Jesus’ obedience in two ways. His active obedience is passive obedience; his active obedience being the ways in which he positively obeyed all of God’s laws and righteous expectations, never once sinned, and actively obeyed. So not only did he not sin, but he always obeyed. This is active obedience accruing then, this purity, this spotlessness, this righteousness. His passive obedience on the cross is when he received the sin of all those who trusted in him, and the judgment and wrath of God was poured out on him on the cross. So it was passive, not in the sense that he had nothing to do with it, but that he received that. There was an act of obedience whenever he obeyed. So why again would that be what comes to his mind? 

R.C. Sproul, pastor here in Orlando for years and years, author and theologian, would describe it like this, “The grounds of your justification, the grounds of your salvation, are the perfect works of Jesus Christ. We are saved by works, but they’re just not your own.” We begin to see that as Christians, we need not only for our sins to be forgiven, but we have to be perfectly righteous to be reconciled to God. In order to have a relationship with him, to enter into his kingdom and live forever. We have to be a perfect, spotless, obedient child of God. And we’re like, oh, I can’t do that. If you feel that gnawing weight of expectation, that sense of helplessness, oh, you’re right. In that place, then, we need to see the great gift of the gospel that Jesus has given us. This is where we get to our text in Matthew chapter four, as Jesus enters the wilderness and is tempted. Here’s the main point of this text: that in this fight against sin and temptation, Jesus stands, even though we’ve all fallen. 

That’s the main point from our passage today. Matthew, chapter 4, verses 1 through 11. I want to walk through this in three different sections. First, we’re going to look at verse 1, and we’re going to see Jesus picks a fight in verse one. Second, we’re going to see Jesus in the fight in verses two through ten, that’s where we’ll spend the majority of our time looking at the nature of these temptations. Then, third, we’ll see Jesus wins the fight. In verse 11, Jesus picks a fight, then Jesus is in the fight, and Jesus wins the fight. That’s what we are going to be walking through today. 

Jesus Picks a Fight

So first, in verse one, Jesus picks a fight. You heard, as Kenny read earlier, this introduction to our text. It is right on the heels of Jesus’ baptism, the beginning of his public ministry as he’s been affirmed by the Father. This is my beloved Son, with whom I’m well pleased. He’s anointed by the Spirit as the Spirit descends like a dove on him. Then he enters this public ministry. This is now the first act that Matthew records as Jesus enters into this public ministry. There can be a temptation, I think, to read this text as though it’s a temptation of Jesus and we’re kind of on the edge of our seats. What’s going to happen? Who’s going to win? Satan comes at a very opportune time. We see in other Gospel accounts, he had fasted for 40 days and 40 nights without food. He drank water, but he hadn’t eaten for 40 days and 40 nights. He’s in the wilderness. Prime time for Jesus to fall. And now Satan shows up. He’s so clever. Is Jesus going to make it? Is he going to be able to withstand temptation, to withstand the accusation of the great accuser, the deceiver? 

Friends, if we read this passage in that tone, I think we’ll have missed the tone of the text. Verse one gives it to us. Jesus was not on his way to another town, cutting through the wilderness on his own, and he was ambushed by Satan. Look again at verse one. 

“Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness.”

This is right on the heels of his baptism. His entrance into public ministry, in which Jesus publicly associates himself with sinners. This was the point of his baptism. He has been led by the Spirit into the wilderness. God is like, okay, this is where I want you to go. Now, why would he go into the wilderness? Well, we don’t have to ask that, because we see the purpose there in the rest of verse one. He’s led by the Spirit into the wilderness. Why? Here’s the purpose statement: 

“to be tempted by the devil.”

 So we’ve got to make sure we understand here. Jesus is led by the Spirit into the wilderness for the purpose of temptation. He was not aimlessly walking along and out comes Satan trying to tempt him and get him to fail God in his foreknowledge. In his divine will at the very beginning of his ministry, he goes, first things first. You’ve got to go and face the enemy that my people can’t defeat. You’ve got to go into this temptation. You’ve got to go and face temptation. You must stand where my people have fallen. 

Friends, we have to make sure that we do not confuse, in this passage, who is the hunter and who is the hunted. Jesus is the one here who’s on his way as our great champion to defeat our enemy. It’s the first act of business for him as the Messiah. You see, even how Matthew is showing us something so particular here. If you flip back a couple of chapters to chapter two, you’ll see in verse 15 that he’s referencing when Jesus had to move down. When Mary and Joseph had to take the young Jesus to Egypt and live there until Herod died. Matthew goes, Yes, this happens. So the prophecy might be fulfilled. Out of Egypt I called my son. What Matthew’s doing here is connecting the Son there in the Old Testament reference to Israel. Now what Matthew’s doing is setting up this parallel between Jesus and Israel. See, Israel was called out of Egypt, led by Moses out of slavery. They then walked through the waters of the Red Sea and were led into the wilderness. That was their path and their journey. But what happened to them in the wilderness? They failed. Over and over and over and over again. Now you look at Matthew’s Gospel and you see in chapter two, here now is Jesus led up out of Egypt. What happens in chapter three, through the waters of baptism, and now in chapter four, into the wilderness. Matthew is structuring his gospel. So the reader might see that in all the ways that God’s son, Israel, in the Old Testament failed his greater son, the greater Israel, the true Israel, would stand. Going into the wilderness, He would then stand. Jesus picks this fight. This is not accidental. He was looking for a fight. 

Jesus In the Fight

So this is what we see here in verse one. Now we see Jesus in the fight, verses two through ten. There are these three temptations that Satan brings. Jesus is hungry. I mean, he hadn’t eaten for 40 days. I haven’t eaten for 40 minutes, and my stomach starts to grumble a little bit. He’s hungry. It says here in verse 2, that’s exactly what it says, He was hungry. So then the tempter approached him and said, if you’re the son of God, tell these stones to become bread. I want to stop for just a second. It’s a little bit of an odd temptation, isn’t it, on its own? What would even make that so sinful? You’re the Messiah. You created the stones, just make them bread. You’re hungry, get a snack. It’s not a big deal. But Jesus, what we’re going to see throughout this, especially in these first two, they are a little bit harder for us to see. Jesus’s response, I think, will help us see the nature of what Satan’s trying to do.

See, it’s hard to see in the temptation, which is just what Satan does. If temptation were easy to spot, it wouldn’t be hard to resist. But often he disguises the temptation. So we go, this isn’t so bad, is it? And we step into it without seeing the hook that’s set inside the bait. Jesus sees through it, though, and what’s his response to turning these stones into bread? He says, no. Verse four,

“It is written, ‘Man must not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God’.”

Now, here’s a good tip when reading or studying your Bible. When you see the Old Testament referenced, go back to that reference and look around at the context to see what is going on. 

In my Old Testament, references are bolded. Sometimes it’s slanted, sometimes it’s set off in quotations or italics, whatever it might be. It’s going to help import the meaning of how the New Testament author is using it.

The First Temptation

So Jesus here answers this, and he’s quoting then, from the Old Testament. He’s quoting Deuteronomy 8. What we’ll see here is that Satan, in his temptation, this first one, is he’s pressing on Jesus this question. He’s looking at Jesus and going, Will God really come through for you? That’s the temptation. He’s guising it in the sense of like, hey, you’re hungry, just turn these into bread. Underneath it, though, here’s the temptation, will God really come through for you? Can you trust him to provide? Just take matters into your own hands. Jesus sees through it. And he quotes again, Deuteronomy 8. What’s the context of Deuteronomy 8? Here’s verses 1 through 3 of Deuteronomy 8. God’s telling the people in Israel: 

“Carefully follow every command I’m giving you today so that you may live and increase and may enter and take possession of the land. Swore to your ancestors, remember that the Lord your God led you on the entire journey these 40 years in the wilderness so that he might humble you and test you to know what was in your heart, whether or not you would keep his commands. He humbled you by letting you go hungry. Then he gave you manna to eat, which you and your ancestors had not known, so that you might learn that man does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord.” 

See, the Israelites had gotten out of Egypt. They’re in the wilderness, and they’re going, we’re hungry. I don’t know if God’s going to give us food. We at least had steaks and food back in Egypt. I wish we could just go back there. God begins to provide for them, right? But first, he lets them go hungry. Did you hear that? In Deuteronomy 8? He lets them go hungry so that he would see and test to know what was in their hearts, whether or not they would keep his commands. He gave them manna, this bread from heaven that he provided every single day for them. When they woke up, there it was scattered on the ground. They had to go and collect it. They couldn’t store it, it would spoil overnight. But God provided for them the next day. That manna was a picture of God’s provision. God wanted them to know, hey, it’s not food that you can gather on your own that causes you to live. It’s on my promises, my faithfulness, every word that comes from my mouth, you can trust me to provide. You don’t live on the bread that you can make yourself, but on every word that I’ve given you. Trust in my provision. 

Jesus hears in Satan’s temptation this, this hook to go, Can you really trust in him to provide? Just do it yourself. Just bypass the process. He won’t give you what you really need. You’ve been waiting too long for him to provide for you. You just have to fend for yourself. Now we’re starting to hear the nature of that temptation, which begins to hit home in our lives. Do you ever feel that way? Do you ever hear the voice of the accuser in your life going, Is God really going to be able to give you what you need, what you really need. You’ve been waiting so long for him to provide for you. Just fend for yourself. Take matters into your own hands. You can’t trust him to provide. Will God really come through for you? And often we listen to that voice. Or maybe we’ve been waiting a long time for a relationship, when waiting for children, or when waiting for a new job. Waiting for your body to stop hurting all the time. Waiting for your brain to stop hurting all the time. Wanting depression, anxiety to be something you never have to think about again. Friends, whatever it may be, our waiting can lead to our grumbling. You’ve got to see part of what God may be doing in your waiting is humbling you and revealing what’s in your heart. Did you hear that? Deuteronomy 8? Because in his grace, he wants to show you that he is all you truly need. You can truly trust him to provide. He wants you to find true contentment in him, trusting him in all he does. Despite what you may have, having him is enough.

Jesus knew he didn’t need bread. He had God. What a temptation. Will God really come through for you? Jesus stands, even though we’ve all fallen. He knows the answer is yes. God will come through. He doesn’t have to misuse his powers, the Messiah, to sidestep the provision of the Father in a way that’s inconsistent with his mission. Instead, he trusts and he stands where we have all fallen. 

The Second Temptation

Second temptation, Satan then turns, pivots. He goes, okay, let me take you to the holy city, take you to Jerusalem, verse 5. And let’s stand on the pinnacle of the temple. And you’re looking down over this ravine, looking down deep, then off the side of the temple. And he says,  

“If you’re the Son of God, throw yourself down.”

 And then look at what Satan does. He quotes scripture, you see that? He quotes Psalm 91. And he says, 

“Look, it’s written. “He will give his angels orders concerning you, and they will support you with their hands so you will not strike your foot against a stone”.” 

Now, here’s what’s amazing. Satan only knew Scripture. He knew that Psalm 91 rightly applied to the Messiah. He had a good understanding of biblical and systematic theology. He knew that it was pointing to him. Now, what he did, though, was twist the meaning and misapply it. And again, Jesus knows exactly what Satan is trying to do. And he answers and responds. In verse seven, he says, 

“It’s also written, do not test the Lord your God.” 

Just a brief aside, you notice every single one of Jesus’ responses to the temptations is what? It’s the Bible. Every single one. Jesus didn’t need to do that. I think part of what he’s doing here is an example for us, to show us how to be able to stand in the midst of temptation. Because he’s Jesus, the second person of the Trinity. He is God. He sneezes, and it comes out in red letters. But yet he answers with scripture, I think, to show us then the importance of hiding that word in our heart. To know God’s word and respond to it. So Satan here quotes Psalm 91. Hey, just throw yourself off the temple here. The angels will catch you. That’s what they’ll do for the Messiah, support you with their hands. You’re not going to strike your foot against a stone. You’ll be fine. Jesus responds, Oh, no, do not test the Lord your God again. You see, this is a reference to the Old Testament. This comes from Deuteronomy 6, verse 16. 

“Do not test the Lord your God as you tested him at Massah.” 

So then, as you’re reading it, you look back at that, and then your mind asks the question, well, what happened at Massah? What did they do there? How did they test God there? Well, this is a reference back to a story in Exodus 17, verses 1 through 7. Israelites were walking through the wilderness. They had nothing to drink. So first temptation, they got hungry. This temptation, they got thirsty. And as they are walking through the wilderness, they continue to complain. The people complained to Moses, Give us water to drink. Moses replied and said, Why are you complaining to me? Why are you testing the Lord? But the people thirsted there for water and grumbled against Moses. They said, Oh, Moses, why did you ever bring us up from Egypt to kill us and our children and our livestock with thirst? Oh, I just wish again. Yeah, I mean, there was the whole slavery thing in Egypt. Oppression and injustice, but at least we weren’t thirsty. Oh, man, I wish we could be back there. Why did you bring us out here? Us, our kids, our livestock. Sounds like Dumb and Dumber. We’ve got no food, we’ve got no water, we’ve got no jobs. Our pets’ heads are falling off.

The Israelites in the wilderness are just complaining. They’re grumbling. Listen to how Moses responds. This is just if you put yourself in Moses’ shoes and you’re like, dude, we just walked through a sea a second ago. You remember that God miraculously led you out of slavery. He saved you, he redeemed you. Look at what Moses says. Moses cried out to the Lord, What should I do with these people? It’s so good. Oh, man, in a little while, they’re going to kill me. They’re going to stone me. So God tells Moses, again, You see God’s compassion. You see that he’s slow to anger because God doesn’t get annoyed with them. What’s he do? He tells Moses, Go on ahead, take your staff, hit this rock. When you hit the rock, I’m going to cause water to come out. I’m going to provide for you. You can have as much as you want now. In the New Testament, this is crazy. This again doesn’t have anything to do with the sermon. It’s just so good. In the New Testament, in First Corinthians 10, he says that the rock was Christ. That’s so good. 

All right, keep going. So Exodus 17, verse 7. Moses then named that place Massah. So this is what we see. This is where this was referenced. Because the Israelites complained and because they tested the Lord, saying, Is the Lord among us or not? That was the test. They grumbled and complained, and they said, God has left us. We’ve got no water, therefore God’s not with us. They grumbled and complained, and that was the nature of the test. So here again, Jesus cuts through the noise of Satan’s temptation, the guise of the Messiah, the Messianic Psalm of 91, and he goes, no, I know what you’re doing. Set behind the bait is this hook. That’s really asking this, is God really there for you? Jump off this temple and we’ll see. Is he really there for you? Is the Lord among us or not? It was the nature of the test. It was the nature of the temptation.

 The Israelites didn’t believe that God was still with them because they were struggling.They required miraculous protection and provision in order to believe that God was really there. Friends, have you ever walked through a difficult time in your life and raised a grumbling voice to God, saying, If you would just end this, just remove me from this situation, then I’ll know that you’re real and that you care for me? I put it this way. Have you ever equated your comfort with God’s care? Meaning if you struggle, if you suffer, then God must not care about you. He must not be there. Jesus knows the true meaning of Psalm 91. Psalm 91 is a promise to God’s people and ultimately a fulfillment of the Messiah of Jesus. The promise of Psalm 91 is not that God will keep you from the storm, but that God will keep you in the storm and through the storm. That’s the promise of God’s protection. Not that he will never allow you to go through difficult moments. But that in every fire, he’s there beside you. In every flood, he’s there beside you. In every valley, he’s there beside you. Not only is he beside you, we see in Psalm 23, he’s in front of you, leading you through it as our good shepherd.

This is the promise that God has given to us. It’s a promise not to keep you from the storm, but to keep you in the storm. Oh, what a temptation! Is God really there for you? Jesus stands even though we’ve all fallen, and he knows the answer is yes, God’s here. I don’t need to throw myself off the temple to know that, to see that. I don’t have to test him. He is among us. He doesn’t need miraculous proof or easing of suffering to know the Father’s there with him and for him. He doesn’t need to test him because he trusts him.

The Third Temptation

The first temptation is pressing on whether or not Jesus trusted God’s provision. Here he is pressing on whether or not he trusted in God’s presence. Third temptation. Satan then turns, and now he goes right to the heart of it again. 

“Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their splendor. And he said to him, ‘I will give you all these things if you will fall down and worship me.’ Then Jesus told him, ‘Go away, Satan, for it is written, Worship the Lord your God and serve only Him.’” 

Now there’s some debate over whether or not this is physically that Satan took Jesus to a mountain, or if it’s more of a vision. I tend to think it’s in a vision because there’s not a mountain in Israel that you go to the top of and see all the kingdoms of the world. So I think this is a vision similar like Daniel 7 or some of Paul’s visions, where here Jesus and the devil go up to this high mountain and they’re looking at all the kingdoms of the world. Here’s what he says, Hey, I’ll give you all of these if you just fall down and worship me. So what’s happening here? Jesus responds with scripture, Worship the Lord your God and serve only him. This is his response. You’ll notice, too, that each of these responses comes from within three chapters of one another. Deuteronomy 6, 7, and 8. So I don’t know if you’ve ever done a Bible reading plan before. Started in Genesis, like, okay, this is going. Okay, you get Leviticus. It’s like, oh, man, okay, this is a lot harder. You get to Deuteronomy. It’s like, this is just the same thing as Leviticus. But look at the utility of Deuteronomy, that when Jesus is tempted by Satan, it’s Deuteronomy chapter six, and then two references from chapter eight that he goes, Oh, I’m going to hold on to these to fight this temptation. All of God’s word it’s profitable. It’s breathed out by Him. It’s useful. Even Deuteronomy, especially Deuteronomy.

And so he responds. He says, Worship the Lord your God and serve only him. Here’s what Satan is doing. I think we went through the Book of Daniel last year in our church. In Daniel, Chapter 7 is this monumental chapter that really all the apocalyptic literature in the Bible is based on. Really, in a lot of ways, the book of Revelation is an exposition of Daniel chapter seven, some commentators have noted. And in it, you have this incredible vision where these four beasts that rise out of the ocean, this little horn that pops up, that’s worse than all of them. Then this incredible moment where all these beasts that are representative of these kingdoms of the earth are cast into this river of fire. Then here comes this One, like a Son of man, coming on the clouds. That image, One like the Son of Man on the clouds, is referenced in Revelation. We see this to be Jesus. And this One, like the Son of Man, comes to God himself, the Ancient of Days, whose hair is white, seated on this throne. There’s this exchange from the Ancient of Days and the One like the Son of Man. And this One, like the Son of Man, is given all the kingdoms of the Earth. He’s given dominion, and authority and power is given to this One, like the Son of Man. This is the promise to the Son of what he will receive. 

So what Satan is doing is coming to go, hey, I can give you the same thing. I’ll give you all the kingdoms of the Earth, all the dominion, all the authority, all the power. But my way is going to be so much easier. It doesn’t involve a cross. It doesn’t involve suffering, doesn’t involve judgment and wrath. All you’ve got to do, small little caveat, just bow down and worship me. It’s a lot easier. Oh, and friends, I think what Satan is doing here, we see how masterful he is. What is the moment of greatest anguish for Jesus in his life here, where he is sweating drops of blood in the garden of Gethsemane before the cross? What is his prayer in that moment that’s causing him so much anguish? Oh, God, if it is possible, let this cup pass from me. Not my will, but yours be done. That cup was an image we see in the Old Testament as the cup of God’s wrath. He knew what lay before him on that cross. Not the physical torment of the Roman judicial process of a crucifixion, but on the spiritual reality that he is the representative of sinners. He was going to go stand in their place and take on their sin and absorb on their behalf the just and righteous wrath of God. He was going to drink that cup down to the final drop.

Friends, this is the reality of what we see on that cross in three hours. How this is possible, I don’t know. We’ve got to feel the weight of what happened on that cross in those three hours. Jesus suffered more than any sinner ever will in hell. As he took on the judgment of God for all those who’ve trusted in him. He paid it all, and he took that cup. As he thought about that reality, as he thought about that cup, he began to sweat drops of blood, knowing this was the path. This is the way to redeem my people. This is the only way. And yes, glory and kingdoms are on the other side of it, but it goes right through the cross, and it causes incredible anguish. Satan knew it. Here at the beginning of his ministry, he said, Listen, let’s just bypass all of that. No drops of blood. No cups of wrath. Just bow down and worship me. And he gets right to the heart of the great anguish of Jesus himself. 

Friends, we’ve got to understand how deceptive Satan is. How well he knows human nature and our hearts. He knows the nature of the temptations that are going to get us. We have to make sure we are rooted in happiness and satisfaction in Jesus and holding on to the promises of his word to be able to stand against it. It sounds like a roaring lion. If we think we can just walk out here on our own in the midst of the battle without any help, we are very, very ignorant. So he comes right at it. Doesn’t this help us make sense, too? If this was the nature of Satan’s temptation, this third question, as he comes to Jesus, he asks this: Does God really have good plans for you? Look at the pain in front of you. I can give you all this stuff, and it’ll be a whole lot easier. Does he really have good plans for you? Doesn’t the nature of that temptation make more sense in a later account in Matthew’s Gospel? 

If you’ve grown up in church, you may have heard this. Matthew 16. Jesus begins to point out to his disciples, it’s necessary for him to go to Jerusalem and suffer many things from the elders, chief priests, and scribes, and be killed and be raised on the third day. So he’s telling them, hey, I’ve got to die. You know what Peter does? One of his disciples, Peter, took Jesus, the second person of the Trinity, God incarnate, the One who made and created all things, who sustains all things, who holds all things together by the word of his power, and he took Jesus. Peter began to rebuke him. Way to go, Peter. Wonder how that’s gonna turn out for you. Here’s what he says. Oh, no, Lord, this will never happen to you. You won’t die. You won’t have to suffer. You won’t have to do this. And here’s Jesus’s response. He turned and told Peter, ‘get behind me, Satan.’ I don’t know if you ever read that and were like Jesus, a little bit of an overreaction there. Like Peter, he doesn’t understand it all. He’s looking at his friend, his rabbi, and thinking, I don’t want you to die. No, no, no. Far be it from me, Lord. I will stand by your defense. You’re not going to have to do this. 

Why does Jesus respond so harshly? See, it’s the same nature of this final temptation of Satan. You won’t have to die. There’s got to be another way. There in the voice of Peter, Jesus again hears that voice of Satan in the temptation. You can have the kingdoms without the suffering. You can have the dominion without the pain. You can have the crown without the cross. Does God really have good plans for you? Jesus knows that the answer is yes. He can’t sidestep God’s plan and purposes so he can avoid the hard and necessary parts. 

Friends, do you ever try to avoid the hard and necessary purposes of God in your life to try to bypass what God has for you? You think, I don’t think this is good. I’ve got some better plans here to get to my desired destination. Or do we trust him, even in the suffering, even in the pain, to know that he still has good plans for us? Jeremiah 29:11. A verse Christians love to put on a coffee cup, love to put on a T shirt, love to sell it at bookstores, love to sell on Amazon, 

“For I know the plans I have for you, says the Lord, plans to prosper you.”

Oh, good plans. You know the context of that verse. Jeremiah 21:11. God’s people are in exile in Babylon. But God says, even in exile, I have good plans for you. Because even exile is the good means of trying to reveal in your heart the way that you’d wandered off into idolatry and to bring you back to me. God had been long-suffering. He had been patient. He told them over and over again, Stop doing this. And they didn’t. So finally he goes, all right, in judgment, I’m bringing Babylon to carry you off, to hopefully bring you back to me. Even in his hard and necessary purposes, do we trust him? Well, what a temptation. Does God really have good plans for you? Jesus stands, even though we’ve all fallen. And he knows the answer is yes. He trusts God’s plans. He knows the path before him is laid out by a loving Father, and he joyfully submits to his will. He trusts in God’s provision. He trusts in God’s presence, and he trusts in God’s plans. How often have we fallen? But every single time Jesus stood, He won. He stood where Israel had fallen, in the wilderness. He stood even though we’ve all fallen. He is the true and faithful son of God. He is the better Israel.

Jesus Wins the Fight

 We see finally in verse 11 that Jesus wins this fight. Three things we see that show he wins the fight. First, he commands; second, Satan flees, and third, God provides. You see, up in verse 10, Jesus commands, Go away, Satan. Be gone, Satan. And what does Satan do? He has to obey him. So again, you see the dynamic here. You have Creator versus created being. Jesus created Satan, a fallen angel. That’s the dynamic here. This isn’t yin, yang. Good, evil, light, dark. What’s going to happen? Is he going to make it? This is Creator speaking to his created thing and saying, It’s time for you to go now. And Satan listens. He obeys and he leaves. He has won the fight. Jesus commands it, and Satan flees. The devil left him. 

Then God provides. Angels came and began to serve him or minister to him. That word minister is the Greek word Diaconos, where we get the word deacon from. One of the offices of the church. This ministry, this service, is often used to describe waiting tables, bringing food. I think what happens here is that God does actually provide then. Sending his angels to bring Jesus food. They served and ministered to him here at the end. Jesus trusted in God to provide, and what we see here at the end, Jesus wins the fight. 

Jesus our Champion

So, what do we walk away with in this passage? Well, friends, if you’re here and you’re a Christian, if you’ve trusted in Jesus, you see your champion, go to battle in your place. We’re not as familiar with champion warfare. It’s not a common tactic in warfare today, but it was common here in ancient Israel. It would have been common in the first century. Maybe you’ve seen it in movies. In Dune 2, we see this. The House of Harkonnen and the House of Atreides both send out their champions to fight. Whoever wins, that’s the house that wins. I’m not going to tell you who wins. In case you haven’t seen Dune 2. Who knows? Maybe you’ve seen it in Homer’s Iliad. This is what the great Achilles would do. He’d go out and fight as a representative of Troy. Whoever their enemy is, they’d send their champion out. They would fight. Whoever wins, their victory would be credited to their people. Or in the Old Testament, David and Goliath. That’s what happened. You send out your champions, and they fight. The victory is credited to their people.

Friends, what we see here is the champion of the city of God and the champion of the city of man going head to head here in the wilderness. It is no battle. It is no fight. We see our champion, Jesus, go out on our behalf, and he defeats our enemy. He stands defeating sin, temptation, hell, the grave, once and for all. His victory is then given to us, his perfect righteousness. You see, he doesn’t fall into sin, but he actively obeys, trusting in God, in his protection, in his provision, and in his presence and in his plans perfectly. That record of righteousness we see is then given to every single person who believes in him. So if you’ve trusted in Jesus, here’s what you need to see. Jesus’s obedience here is now been given to you. It’s been credited to you. To use New Testament language, it’s this accounting term, like if you were to write a check and deposit it in your account, those funds get transferred to you. The righteousness of Jesus, his active obedience, his purity, like a check is written to you, and you now have access to it through faith. You don’t earn it, you don’t deserve it. God doesn’t go, man, they’ve been doing a pretty good job. Let me give them a little righteousness. No, it’s. Anyone who believes in Jesus is then given this righteousness in its totality. 

So then, as you stand, Christian, even whenever you fall into sin, remember this reality that you have been wrapped in the righteousness of Jesus, and your standing before God is not dictated by how good you’re doing today. It is dictated by how well he did 2,000 years ago. It has been secured, it is finished, it is wrapped up and kept in heaven for you. That is the hope that you have, and you can rest in that righteousness. 

So we understand the need for our sins to be forgiven. It’s a beautiful thing, lots of songs about it. One of my favorites, It Is Well, I don’t know if you have heard that hymn. I love that one stanza. “My sin, oh, the bliss of this glorious thought. My sin, not in part but the whole. Is nailed to the cross, and I bear it no more. Praise the Lord. Praise the Lord, O my soul.” Oh, our sins need to be forgiven, and that’s what happens. Our sin, not part of it, not the decent parts of it. Our sin, not in part, but the whole, is taken and given to him. Passive obedience. It’s nailed to the cross and I bear it no more. 

But friends, what I hope we begin to see is not just that we need to be forgiven, but we need to become a perfect, spotless, righteous child of God in order to have this relationship with God. And we go, I can’t do that. Friends. Enter Jesus. This is the good news of the gospel. This salvation is not through your self-effort. This is every world religion. Salvation through self-effort. Whether it’s Islam’s five pillars, whether it’s the Eightfold path of Buddhism, or whether it’s Hindu reincarnation. Your salvation is dependent on your effort. Work your way up to God. Christianity is fundamentally different. That it is then given to you even though you did nothing to earn it or deserve it. That God came and he sent his son to die for you while you were still sinners. That’s where he demonstrated his love. Oh, and we rest in that righteousness as we not only have our sin forgiven, but his righteous record is given to us. So were we to rewrite that stanza of It Is Well, it doesn’t flow as well, but we begin to see the importance of this act of obedience as we can now sing. Oh, his obedience, oh, the bliss of this glorious thought. His obedience, not in part, but the whole, is nailed to my life, and I bear it forevermore. Praise the Lord, Praise the Lord, oh my soul. As we see his righteousness given to us, that’s what we walk away with. 

Closing: The Invitation of Christ

Maybe you’re here and you’re not a Christian. Again, I hope you hear the invitation of Jesus. This is the unique invitation of the gospel. I’ll just use his words later in Matthew’s gospel, Matthew 11, that because he has secured your salvation on your behalf, if you would believe in him, here’s his invitation to you: 

“Come to me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, because I’m gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”

You can rest in him if you’re tired, if you’ve been trying to save yourself. Hear the invitation of Jesus to come to him. Again, in the words of my good friend Letty, he can be a stroller to you. If you are tired and heavy laden, come and rest in him. This is the incredible invitation. You have been saved by works, they’re just not your own. That truth should cause a song to start welling up in our hearts. Our hearts, begging our tongues to begin to sing. That’s why so many songs have been written about this very fact. Thanking Jesus and praising him for his unbelievable and amazing grace, this righteousness that’s been given to us. Maybe you’ll start to sing these songs in a different way.

 “Rock of ages, cleft for me. Let me hide myself in thee. Let the water and the blood, From Thy wounded side which flowed, Be of sin the double cure, Save from wrath (passive obedience) and make me pure (active obedience)” 

“Behold him there, the risen Lamb, My perfect spotless righteousness.” 

“When I stand before the throne there dressed in beauty not my own, Then, Lord, shall I fully know not till that day how much I owe.”

“All sufficient merit, Shining like the sun. A fortune I inherit of no work that I have done. My righteousness I forfeit at my Savior’s cross. Where all sufficient merit did what I could not.” 

“No condemnation now I dread. Jesus, and all in him, is mine. Alive in him, my living head. And clothed in righteousness divine.” 

“My hope is built on nothing less than Jesus’ blood and righteousness. I dare not trust the sweetest frame but wholly lean on Jesus’ name. On Christ the solid rock I stand, all other ground is sinking sand. All other ground is sinking sand.”

 “Oh, precious is the flow that makes me white as snow.”

“Praise the Lord, Oh, my soul, praise the Lord. Now and forevermore, my heart confess that Christ is all my righteousness.” 

When that begins to settle down into our hearts, then maybe on that day when we’re facing our death, we may bring to mind this reality. Because then we’ll sing a song like this. Boldly, I approach my Father, clothed in Jesus’ righteousness. There is no more guilt to carry because it was finished upon that cross. So who knows? Maybe one day, as you face your own death, you may write a similar note. I am so thankful for the active obedience of Jesus. No hope without it. Let’s pray. 

God, thank you so much for your grace to us. Would you help us see the finished work of Jesus on our behalf? Would we find rest in him to see that truly it was finished upon that cross. May we rest in him. Trusting in your provision, in your presence, and in your plans, we pray this in Christ’s name, Amen.