It’s easy to think that God is all about blessing us … and sure, He is. But sometimes that path to blessing takes us on a journey through the wilderness … a bit like Jesus.

 

On the Surface

I wonder if I asked you to define success, exactly how would you go about doing that and what does success mean to you? I know that for a long time that success, for me, meant recognition – wealth, what ever I choose to do; being the best and reaping the rewards and then, when I had the rewards spending them in ways that demonstrated that, indeed, I was successful.

Success meant achieving and being seen to achieve and in every way, reaping the rewards.

And that’s pretty much the way of the world. Everything the advertising industry does reinforces that image of success. It’s kind of like a surface thing and by implication, the things that constitute success according to the world’s rules, those outward signs of success – they’re supposed to make us happy on the inside – at least that’s the theory.

I read a book recently by a man called Doug Webster and it’s called, “Under the Radar – Conversations on Leadership”. It’s one of those short books that just blew me away. And over the next few weeks on the programme, we are going to unpack that a little bit to see what the man has to say. He makes the point that some of the most successful leaders he knows; people who have achieved so much are people that you and I will never know.

In a sense they are men and women who followed God’s call on their lives and kind of flew underneath the radar of public recognition, into the hearts and the lives of the men and the women and the children around them. And that sort of leadership challenges our images of success. Inevitably these great leaders are people who’ve been in the wilderness; who have struggled and been vulnerable and allowed God into their lives in the midst of that wilderness.

He challenged me with this statement in his book:

We shouldn’t be surprised that the Bible calls for leadership that the world does not recognise as leadership. We have trouble identifying the “David” type leader whose character and leadership have been forged in the wilderness while caring for the sheep.

Um, it makes you think! I’m going to take you into a story in the life of Jesus, which is a case in point. This week we have started a series that’s called: “Discovering the Hidden Things of God.” You see, I want to go below this surface – I want to go to the deep things of God and inevitably, the deep things of God are hidden until we spend some time in the wilderness. So we are going to spend some time in the story of Jesus time in the wilderness, when He was tempted by the devil.

But before that we are going to go to Matthew, chapter 3, verses 15 to 17 and if you have a Bible, open it up – Matthew chapter 3, beginning a verse 15, because this is a story of Jesus baptism. It’s a pretty spectacular story and it comes immediately before He goes out into the wilderness. Let’s have a read, Matthew chapter 3, verse13:

Then Jesus came from Galilee to the Jordan to be baptised by John, but John tried to deter Him, saying, “I need to be baptised by you and you come to me?” And Jesus replied, “Let it be so now. It is proper for us to do this to fulfil all righteousness.” And then John consented. And as soon as Jesus was baptised, He went up out of the water and at the same moment, heaven was opened and He saw the Spirit of God, descending like a dove and lighting on Him and a voice from heaven said, “This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.”

Now let’s just stop and think about that for a moment. Is that success or what? I mean, you go to be baptised and you’re coming up out of the water and the heavens open up and God speaks, “This is My beloved Son in whom I am well pleased.” Now, God’s saying something here – this Jesus – this Son of God is someone really special. And I tell you what, if Berni was going to his baptism and that happen to me, I’d be thinking, “WOW, I have arrived! I have made it! I am on a fast track to success in the Kingdom of God!” Wouldn’t you think the same?

And if we were standing there, watching this – watching Jesus come out and seeing the heavens open up and hearing the voice of God speaking about Jesus, we would be thinking, “Now there is a Man worth following.” This is exactly the sort of man that you would want to appoint as the head of a dynamic, fast growing, and successful church. He’s got all the outward trappings of success.

Again Webster writes this in his book:

Pastors and lay leaders alike judge success by worldly standards. The allure of great numbers, grand visions, expensive budgets, creative programming but it’s only a matter of time before they become disillusioned with the experts and the consultants and the executives whom they have chosen to run their churches according to a competitive business model.

It has a ring to truth to it doesn’t it? We like things that look and taste and feel and smell successful. And when Jesus came up out of that water and the heavens opened up and God spoke and said, “This is My beloved Son in whom I am well pleased,” He looked and felt and tasted and smelled successful. But in God’s plan there is something more. This baptism of Jesus signalled the beginning of His public ministry.

The first three decades of His life, He spent in a carpenter’s shop in Nazareth – God wasn’t in a hurry. And now He’s about to be launched into public life and we know the story now. We know He had the most amazing, spectacular, powerful ministry. And what a fitting ceremony – what a fitting right of passage? Surely from here; from this spectacular baptism, He goes straight to preaching in the temple or in one of the largest synagogues? Surely from here Jesus is on a fast track to success? But what happens immediately after this stunning baptism?

Let’s pick it up in Luke’s account; in his Gospel. Luke chapter 4, beginning at verse 1:

Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit into the desert, where for forty days He was tempted by the devil. He ate nothing during those days and at the end of them, He was very hungry.

I’d say He was starving! Some fast track! Jesus has this spectacular baptism and now He goes straight into a wilderness experience, to be tempted by the devil; to be starving and bedraggled and alone and vulnerable. This baptism in the Jordan – I mean you couldn’t be further from the wilderness; fresh flowing water, a crowd as public, God shows up. And immediately following that, God leads Him into the wilderness to be desolate and alone, except for the devil who would tempt Him. Some fast track! Some plan, God! What were You thinking?

 

The Essential Wilderness

You see, in this day and age, success is something that we can see on the outside and by and large, people mostly want to be successful – a bit like that time when Jesus was baptised, that we were talking about before. And the heavens open up and God speaks: “This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.”

Now that didn’t happen when I was baptised, but if it had I would have known I was on a fast track to success in the Kingdom of God. But what God did next with Jesus was to lead Him out into the wilderness. God does some odd things sometimes; at least that’s how it feels when we look at them through our human eyes. He doesn’t think the way we do. He doesn’t behave the way we do.

And when we find ourselves in that wilderness; that mismatch of expectations, between thinking, “well, God is about blessing me” and then the real experience of being there in that wilderness – well, that’s hard to deal with; it’s hard to understand – what’s God up to? That’s because in our eyes, success is an outward thing – you see it in the secular marketplace – I tell you, you see it in churches too.

Doug Webster in his book, “Under the Radar” put it this way:

For all practical purposes, the fullness of the Spirit seems to mean realising ones full potential; becoming the kind of person that everyone else wants to follow; being someone who makes things happen; competing to win and being able to prove your success with the numbers. Many popular Christian writers on “leadership” don’t even bother to distinguish between worldly success and spiritual success, because in their mind the two are virtually one and the same.

Well, today – today we are going to draw a sharp distinction between those two and it’s a sharp distinction indeed. Remember earlier we had this picture of Jesus’ baptism in the Jordan River, flowing, life giving water, the crowds are there, Jesus is baptised – we read it in Matthew chapter 3, beginning at verse 13:

And as soon as He was baptised He comes up out of the water and the heavens open up and the Spirit of God descends down on Him like a dove, alighting upon Him and a voice from heaven says, “This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.”

This awesome thing; incredible thing! It’s unique, but look at what happens immediately following that, in Luke’s account. Luke chapter 4, beginning at verse 1:

Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit into the desert; into the wilderness – where for forty days He was tempted by the devil. He ate nothing during those days and at the end of them, He was hungry.

The contrast between those two situations which one follows immediately after the other – it couldn’t be more stark. The Jordan River, crowds, God’s amazing deeds on the one hand and then the desert and the wilderness on the other. It’s so counter intuitive; so “not what we’d expect God to do” but this wilderness was an essential wilderness. See, we expect success to follow success, but God’s plan goes deeper. If we were to discover the hidden things of God then the wilderness – the wilderness is essential.

Let’s have a look at what happens to Jesus. It says: “Jesus full of the Holy Spirit” – something we kind of equate with being charismatic and successful on the outside, but He was filled with the Holy Spirit when He was baptised to equip Him for this time in the wilderness. And out there in this wilderness, the crowds are gone, the audible voice of God is gone, the dove is gone and is replaced by a wilderness and the devil and a hunger and temptation and trial after trial – forty days without food!

And it says, “He was hungry.” Boy is that an understatement! Can you imagine how hungry He was? Hebrews chapter 5, says Jesus learnt obedience through what He had to suffer. And look at who took Him into the desert – you see, sometimes it’s really easy to misread this. It’s like the devil took Him into the desert but that’s not what it says. Read Luke again, chapter 4, verse 1:

Jesus full of the Holy Spirit returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit into the desert.

See this … this was God’s idea; this was God’s doing. In fact Mark’s Gospel puts it this way:

At once the Spirit threw Him out into the desert.

Literally, threw Him out there. In other words, this wilderness was an essential wilderness. It was the choice; the sovereign choice of God at the beginning of Jesus public ministry – a deserted, lonely place. There was Jesus deprived of the help and the protection of others, like a sheep deserted by his shepherd – thrown out there by God Himself, just Him and the devil, to be tempted for forty day while He was starving and weak.

See, God wants to go so much deeper with us that some worldly veneer of success. He’s not interested in our popularity; He’s not interested in how successful we are at work or in our ministry; He’s not interested in other people patting us on the back. No, God has a hidden plan; a deeper plan to forge our character – a character that will stand completely alone in the midst of this earth for His sake; a character that will rely wholly on Him, no matter what the world or the devil throws at us; a character that’s forged in the furnace of the wilderness, ready to be about God’s business.

When we look for a leader; when we look for a disciple; when we look for someone who is following God, are we looking for people who are successful, with a demonstrated track record with a great CV? How often do we ask about humility and endurance and prayer life and trials and character? See, those are the things that God uses to develop a man and a woman on the inside. All the popular self-help books out there describe a trajectory of success but the Bible doesn’t – it marks our lives with the cross of Christ.

God’s choice, as Doug Webster writes in his book “Under the Radar”, is to forge us in the wilderness of solitude not in ivory towers or on dream teams, but on the anvil of loneliness and abandonment and weakness. See, Israel in the first century is looking for a Messiah. They are oppressed by Roman occupation. God through the prophets promised them a Messiah, but Jesus wasn’t who they were looking for.

They weren’t looking for some bedraggled guy who wasn’t much to look at; who wandered out of the desert after forty days of being in the wilderness. They weren’t looking for some man who had been hungry and vulnerable, having been tempted with none of the trappings of success – with nothing to commend Him except this: that in that hidden place He withstood the devil.

In that wilderness, He was alone and hungry and weak and vulnerable and He relied on one thing and one thing alone; the fullness of the Spirit of God within Him to get Him through. And then and only then, was He ready to begin His journey to the cross; then and only then did God release Him to bring the good news to the poor and give sight to the blind and to bind up the broken hearted. And it’s exactly; exactly the same with us.

So often the Lord leads us into a wilderness; an essential wilderness and then, then He seems to deserts us; He seems to leave us all alone, except for this: for each one of us who has placed our faith in Jesus Christ, He has left us His Holy Spirit, in us, the Spirit who will sustain us. The Spirit who in our weakness and vulnerability will defeat Satan and in that place, we discover the hidden things of God.

 

Don’t Be Surprised

Do you know what I think the hardest thing is about this wilderness? It’s that when we walk into it. All of a sudden we realise we are in the wilderness, it surprises and confuses us because we have this expectation that life will always go along swimmingly, wonderful well. You can hear someone talking about it but when it happens to us the pain and the shock, well, we react to that its confusion and hurt and despair. And right then, that very moment, the devil is waiting in the wings to tempt us and it’s those three temptations that Jesus went through that we are going to look at over the next three weeks on the programme. What was the devil doing? why did God let the devil tempt Jesus that way?

You see there’s something special about just resting and listening and realising that it happened to the Son of God as well. I’m going to read you the passages again – the baptism in the Jordan and then when Jesus was led into the wilderness. Just take it in; soak it up. This is what God took His Son through to prepare Him for His public ministry. This is God’s chosen way.

Have a listen, first in Matthew chapter 3:

When Jesus came up from Galilee to the Jordan to be baptised by John and as soon as He was baptised and He went up out of the water, at that moment heaven was opened and He saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and alighting on Him and a voice from heaven said, “This is My beloved Son in whom I am well pleased.” And now in Luke chapter 4, straight after this baptism: “Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit returned for the Jordan and was led by the Spirit into the desert, where for forty days He was tempted by the devil. He ate nothing during those days and at the end of them, He was hungry.

Those places of complete vulnerability are the places where we discover and learn the things of God in ways that we will never forget. I started my Christian walk that way, twelve years ago, right in the middle of the wilderness is where I came to faith in Christ. And it was such a brutally hard time in my life and I discovered the devil was there to tempt me. But it’s the place where God laid down the foundations of my resolve to follow Him and serve Him and honour Him. It’s the place where I fell in love with Jesus in this terrible, bleak wilderness; a place I wouldn’t wish on my worst enemy.

See, the problem in our society is we want people to perform and deliver and to look strong and solid and to have it all together and sure, we want to grow up to be people who are strong in the Lord. But over and over again God prunes us and one of the pruning tools in His hand is the devil and He allows the devil to tempt us. Jesus explains it this way, he said:

I am the true vine and My Father in the gardener. He cuts off every branch in Me that bears no fruit while every branch that does bear fruit, He prunes so that it will be even more fruitful.

As we will see next week, the first temptation that the devil put in front of Jesus was to go it alone. Jesus was hungry and the devil said, “Why don’t you turn these stones into bread?” See, it’s so anti where God wants us to be. He wants us to be a branch in the vine, so close to Him; so close to Jesus and the very first temptation of the devil of Jesus in the desert; in the wilderness, was to say, “Jesus, why don’t you go it alone? Why don’t you end this suffering alone? Why don’t you feed yourself?”

Pruning is never fun! Being in the wilderness is never fun! But the wilderness is a part of God’s plan and even though it never feels like it at the time, and it never feels like we want to be there at the time, He is there every step of the way. This teaching series, “Discovering the Hidden Things of God” as we travel through the wilderness with Jesus, is one of the most important teaching series I believe that we are going to hear this year.

We look at the three temptations of Jesus, what they’re all about and how they show us what the devil’s up to today. And above all what we are going to discover are the hidden things of God; the things that God wants to do in our lives as He goes deeper and deeper and deeper. So I really encourage you to stick with me over these coming weeks as we together, discover the hidden things of God with Jesus, out there in the wilderness.

Sometimes when we’re travelling through the wilderness, hungry, hurting, lonely, it’s the obvious thing to do to, do whatever it takes to end the pain. Logical really, or is it?

 

God Does Some Strange Things

Well, this week on the programme is the second message in a series that I’ve called, “Discovering the Hidden Things of God.” It’s a paradox. God does some really strange things sometimes. Have you noticed that? I don’t know if you have ever had this experience but it seems that it’s during the really difficult times in life – those wilderness experiences – that we seem to learn and to grow and to develop in our character.

And it’s a place and a time that, well, when we are there, we wish we weren’t in it because those wilderness times are painful. God prunes us and purifies us and changes us and makes us so much stronger. He teaches us humility and patience and how to wait on God but when we are there, it’s just never fun. And it never feels good and we always have this sense that we shouldn’t be there and it’s all too hard and what am I doing here?

We began looking last week at this very “wilderness” experience in the life of Jesus Christ. Just before He begins His public ministry, He has this amazing baptism and then God throws Him out into the desert.

When Jesus was baptised, He came up out of the water and at that very moment heaven was open up and He saw the Spirit of God descending down onto Him like a dove. And a voice from heaven said, “This is My beloved Son in whom I am well pleased.

And yet, even though He has this amazing baptism experience, straight after that, Luke’s Gospel – if you have a Bible grab it, open it at Luke chapter 4. Luke tells us:

that Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan, where He was baptised and was led by that same Spirit into the desert where for forty days He was tempted by the devil. He ate nothing during those days and at the end of them He was really, really hungry.

See, it’s a strange thing for God to do. To pick up His one and only Son after this awesome baptism and throw Him out into the desert; into the wilderness where He had no protection, it was hot during the day, it was freezing cold during the night, He couldn’t eat anything, it was a time of complete vulnerability. And it’s in those places; those very places that we discover the hidden things of God.

Imagine. The devil was tempting Jesus for forty days while He was starving. Have you ever wondered about the devil? Why does God allow the devil to do that? Why did God allow the devil to tempt Jesus and why does God allow the devil, still today, to tempt and attack us? Isn’t God all about blessing us? Isn’t God all about leading us into a promised land of an intimate, wonderful and joyous relationship with Him? What role does the devil have to play in all of that? Why does it seem that every time we are in this wilderness he’s out there waiting for us, just as he was with Jesus? Aren’t we supposed to be living a life of victory?

Let’s us just look at that for a moment because the way I see it, when I read God’s Word is that the devil is part of God’s creation and therefore he’s part of God’s sovereign plan. See, God gives us a role to play and He wants us to know who we are and to know about ourselves and to give us this opportunity to learn and to grow and to decide to follow Jesus in our own right. This is what free will is all about. And we find this principle, about why God leaves these things there to tempt us, including the devil, way, way back in the Book of Joshua.

You remember that God promised this Promised Land to Abraham and that Abraham had a son called Isaac and Isaac had a son called Jacob. Jacob had the twelve sons of whom one was Joseph. And those twelve sons became the fathers of the twelve tribes of Israel and they found themselves in slavery in Egypt and finally, after four centuries of slavery, they were a great and mighty nation.

And God calls Moses and does amazing miracles to Pharaoh and to Egypt and finally Moses leads the people out of slavery and out of captivity through the Red Sea which is parted. And then takes them through a journey of forty years in the desert to the Promised Land – a land that was promised to Abraham all those centuries before.

And as you read the Book of Joshua, you see how they cross over into the Promised Land and they take that Promised Land, battle after battle after battle. It was promised to them and yet they don’t take it completely. For example, if you read in Joshua chapter 15 and verse 63, it says:

But the people of Judah could not drive out the Jebusites, the inhabitants of Jerusalem, so the Jebusites lived with the people of Judah, in Jerusalem, till this day.

And actually, when you read this book of Joshua in the Old Testament, which is the book of how Joshua leads the people to take the land that God promised to Abraham all those centuries before. You see this happened several times, there are certain tribes that the Israelites can’t drive out of the Promised Land.

Now that’s really weird because God promises the land to the Israelites so why is it this way? I mean when I was reading through the Book of Joshua just recently it struck me – why does God promise them something and then He leaves this remnant of opposition behind? You see, it’s a bit like us! Jesus promises so much and yet the devil is left behind and sin and temptation are still there. Why is that?

Well, the answer is in the Book of Judges. That’s the book that comes immediately after Joshua. Flip over a few pages, go to Judges chapter 2, verse 22 and it says this:

In order to test Israel whether or not they would take care to walk in the way of the Lord as their ancestors did, the Lord their God had left those nations, not driving them out at once and therefore He had not handed them over to Joshua.

There is a spiritual principle here. It’s God’s way of letting us exercise out free will. It’s the same with the devil out in the wilderness. God takes us deliberately into times of testing. God promised the Promised Land to Israel and yet He didn’t allow them to drive out some of the tribes because He wanted to see whether Israel would follow God or whether they would start worshipping the gods of these tribes and nations that God left behind in that Promised Land.

The reason He did that was in order to test Israel to see whether or not they would take care to walk in the way of the Lord the way their ancestors did. Exactly the same with the wilderness and the devil. God takes us through a time of testing just as He did with Jesus. Notice it wasn’t the devil who led Jesus into the wilderness, it was God Himself.

Jesus full of the Holy Spirit …

Writes Luke, 

returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit into the desert, where for forty days He was tempted by the devil.” This place of hunger and vulnerability and testing and wilderness is the place we discover the hidden things of God. This is where we discover what is really going on in our hearts. This is the place where either we pass the test as difficult as it may seem at that moment and learn and grow and develop in our relationship with Jesus or it’s the place where we fail the test and we have to go round for another turn and round again and round again.

See, that’s the scene! Today on the programme we are going to look at the very first temptation that the devil laid before Jesus – one that I have called, “The Logical Seduction” because this particular temptation makes such enormous sense when you listen to it.

Let’s see what Jesus went through and what we learn about Him and us and God in that place.

 

It Makes So Much Sense

It’s a funny thing but from time to time God does lead us into a wilderness and then it seems, He leaves us there to fend for ourselves. When I think of Jesus out there for forty days in the wilderness without food – I mean He must have been starving – literally forty days with nothing to eat. He would have been feeling dizzy and weak and completely vulnerably. All His natural support mechanisms and His defences were stripped away.

I mean, if that had been me, I’d wonder whether I wouldn’t have been sitting there after forty days thinking, “Alright God, so You told me that You called me and You told me that You had some bold plan to use me to change the world. And You told me that I’m Your Son, so why aren’t You providing for me? Why have You thrown me out here into the desert to starve? And the only person You gave me for company is the devil!” Imagine you are out there in that burning sun, starving, what’s the most logical thing for you to do?

I remember a time when I was training to be an officer in the Australian Army. It was four tough years and on more that one occasion they took us out on survival exercises and we didn’t eat for days. We’d be carrying a heavy pack, a machine gun and ammunition and everything it seemed except food. And they would give you a map and a compass and they’d say, “Look, we can’t get food through to you here,” so they’d give us a new grid reference over the radio and we’d have to navigate twenty five kilometres over hill and dale where they said there would be a food drop.

And you’d get there and there was no food and you’d radio in and they would say, “Oh look, sorry, the truck couldn’t get through there. Here’s a new grid reference” and so we’d have to march thirty two kilometres in a different direction, over hill and dale and this went on for days. And we had no idea when it was going to end and we’d get grumpy and hungry and weak and moral was pretty low and we’d sit there at night. I mean, our stomachs had given up rumbling we were so hungry. A small squad of four or five men and what we’d talk about these mongrels and how could they do this? And let’s walk out to the nearest highway and get out of here.

I look back on that experience now – it was so hard then but it built our characters – it’s something that’s hard to explain. And you know the obvious temptation when you are in the middle of all that is to grumble and complain and to do something to provide for yourself. You know it’s exactly the same when the Lord puts us into the spiritual wilderness.

The most tempting thing under the sun is to provide for ourselves – to seek provisions separate from God rather than relying on Him. To try and end the pain and the suffering as quickly as we can so it’s no surprise that the first temptation of the devil tried to hit Jesus in exactly that spot.

Let’s read it again. Luke chapter 4, beginning at verse 1:

Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and He was led by the Spirit into the desert, where for forty days He was tempted by the devil. He ate nothing during those days and at the end of them, He was hungry. The devil said to Him, “If you are the Son of God, tell this stone to become bread.” And Jesus answered him, “It is written, man does not live by bread alone but by every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord.”

Doug Webster, in his book, “Under the Radar”, writes this:

The popular easy to read books on leadership are of no value out in the wilderness. They are not the kind of books you want to read when you are lonely and suffering. Titles like “Developing the Leader Within You” or “Leadership 101” or “Success One Day at a Time” – they never make good reading in the wilderness. Seminary degrees and graduate programmes may help but they don’t produce leaders. The best networking and mentoring in the world doesn’t compare to the importance of the wilderness experience.

Because what God was wanting to teach Jesus, here in the desert, wasn’t self-reliance. It wasn’t ingenuity or innovation or imagination or invention – it wasn’t the ability to forage on the land – it was none of those things. God threw Him out into the desert to starve for forty days – He was famished, He was weak, He was vulnerable before the devil and the greatest temptation of all was for Jesus to meet His needs in His own strength.

After all, He was the Son of God. After all, He was entitled. I mean, after all why the heck not? He was hungry, He was in need – no one could deny that. In fact, that first temptation probably didn’t feel like much of a temptation at all. It was purely and simply providing for His own needs. And in many respects this first temptation was a logical seduction.

The temptation to meet our needs; even the most acute need of starvation in our own strength, apart from God instead of waiting on God – WOW! That’s a strong temptation – to end the suffering because we can. It happens in our lives.  We are in a situation, perhaps a relationship and it is hurting.

Doug Webster relates the story in his book, when he was pastoring a church and they were all giving him a hard time and his temptation was just to run away; to pack it in; to say, “Look, I’ve had these people. I’m going, I’m going to find another church to pastor. I’m going to find another job.”

But then he went to a man; another pastor who gave him some godly advice that went like this: “As I’ve continued to think and pray, I want to urge you not to be to eager to solve the problems and get rid of the suffering that is coming from a murmuring congregation, and to believe that God knew what kind of a congregation it was when He called you there. That perhaps the pain they inflict is being used to the purpose of a holiness in you.”

See, our view is to end the pain. God’s view is that,

He knows that suffering produces endurance and endurance produces character and that character produces hope and it’s a hope that doesn’t disappoint us because the love of God is poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit whose been given to us.

That’s what Paul writes In Romans chapter 5, verses 3 to 5.

See God in that wilderness was teaching Jesus something – not self-reliance, God reliance. Faithfully waiting in the desert because that was where God had put Him and called Him to wait. And Jesus answered the devil so rightly:

Man does not live by bread alone but by every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord.

God is teaching us to rely on Him and His Spirit within us not to solve our own problems our own way when we are in that wilderness.

 

God At Work in Our Lives

You know the hardest thing about wilderness and temptation is that we don’t expect it. And that’s why we are working our way through Jesus’ own wilderness experience on the programme over these few weeks because God’s Word is an awesome thing. He equips us with wisdom in the good times so that we are ready when the hard times come, which they inevitably do.

Let me ask you a question. What does this first temptation teach us? What hidden jewel of God does it uncover for us? Jesus told a parable in Matthew chapter 13, verse 44. He said:

The Kingdom of heaven is like a treasure hidden in a field, when a man found it, he hid it again and then, in his joy, he went and sold all he had to buy that field.

See, the hidden treasure that the Lord opens up to us through His Word is awesome. Well, what does He want us to learn today? What does He want to write onto our hearts to equip us with His wisdom? Lets look at that temptation again, Luke chapter 4, verse 3:

The devil said to Jesus, “If you are the Son of God, tell this stone to become bread.“ And Jesus answered him, “It is written, “Man does not live by bread alone.

As you read the Bible, over and over and over again you see how God wants us to rely wholly on Him for everything. It doesn’t mean that we become spiritual couch potatoes. Not that, but that rather than racing off and doing things in our own strength and going our own way rather than doing logical thing and ending the pain and the suffering, He wants us to trust in Him.

Out there in the wilderness, when we are hungry and we are weak and it doesn’t fit with our worldly images of success because, you see, we are programmed to succeed. The world says, you know, if you are lying there in the wilderness, vulnerable to the devil, you’re a failure; you’re a wreck; you’re not good enough.

It’s so different to the plan that God has for us. All the people around us are programmed to tell us when we’re not fitting in with their programme for success and at those times we sometimes want to go out and do things in our own strength.

Recently in our ministry, I just felt that we were going through a difficult time. We were working hard and we were tired and yet, in my heart I sensed God leading us to take our programmes into a new country. A huge opportunity, lots of work and my heart is just to grow the reach and … it’s just me. I want as many people around the world to hear the good news of Jesus Christ through this programme, as possible.

But one by one as I pushed the doors, I found that they were shut and at the same time, I was tired and exhausted. I had this wilderness experience. And you know what the logical seduction of the devil is in that place? “Berni, this is God’s work, just go and do it.” And my answer to the devil is, “God’s work is done in God’s strength and with God’s provision.” And racing ahead in Berni’s strength is not the right thing to do.

See, it doesn’t fit with the worldly plan for success – drive, go, do, achieve, succeed, get recognised. You see how easy this seduction is? I know this particular country is going to open up to us and it’s already begun in a small way but it’s not quite God’s timing yet. And I need to listen to Him and not the world – Him and not the devil – to do it in His strength and not my own.

What’s going on in your life right now, where you are tempted to go it alone – to just push ahead – a new job or a new house or a new ministry or a new this or a new that? Or perhaps you’re in a difficult place right now and finding church hard or you are tempted to walk away or you are finding a relationship hard and you are tempted to end the pain by walking away.

Jesus’ answer to the devil was simple and straight forward. He said, “Look, it’s not about what I want or what I need, it’s about Me honouring God in the wilderness.” What do we discover there? What’s the hidden thing of God that comes to light? Well for me, as I look back on all the wilderness experiences that I’ve walked through, the hidden thing that I’ve discovered is God’s faithfulness, when I put my trust in Him.

The hidden thing that I have discovered is that actually, I can make a decision in that wilderness to say, “No, it’s not time for me to run away. It’s not time for me to end the pain. It’s not time for me to turn the stones into bread because I can. It’s time for me to wait on God and let Him provide – ending the pain and ending the suffering and taking the initiative in our own strength, whatever that means.”

Sure, it fits with the world’s plan for success. We may get adulation and slaps on the back from people, but the hidden thing of God is that He is looking for men and women to worship Him with their lives, no matter what the cost, according to His plan no matter what the cost.

And it’s in that place that He readies us for His purposes. Remember Jesus had gone through all this – He had to be in the wilderness to starve, to be tempted by the devil before He began His public ministry. His public ministry was going to be really tough. His public ministry was going to take Him to crucifixion on a cross.

Jesus had to learn obedience through what He suffered in that wilderness. It was God’s plan. It was the equipping time. It was God’s time in the wilderness. And when we turn to God in that wilderness and say, “Lord, what do You want?” Sometimes the answer He gives back to us is, “I’m not finished with you here yet. Wait on Me, wait on Me. Stay in the wilderness. I am a faithful God.”

And that’s when we turn round to the devil and say, “Man does not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord.”

Have you ever chased after something in your life – some project or promotion or relationship … and then after a while, discovered that is was just a mirage out there in the desert?

 

Things are Not Always What they Seem

Things are not always what they seem – have you noticed that? With people, and you know, so often, with God. I don’t know if you do this but sometimes, I think I have God in a box that’s way too small for Him. He just doesn’t fit in the little box that I have for Him because my thinking is narrower than His. So often I’m focused on the small picture when He’s working on a much bigger picture.

I’m focused on how I feel and my needs and He’s focused on developing my character and drawing me closer and pruning me back so that I can blossom. Is it just me or do you kind of relate to what I’m saying? Sometimes I plan on achieving this or that for God and His plan … His plan is for me to wait humbly at His feet. God can be so frustrating sometimes, don’t you think?

People, well each of us is different, we have needs and hopes and ambitions and dreams – even when those things involve God, it’s so easy to go wandering off and leave Him behind. We start pursuing our plan instead of waiting at His feet – waiting for God’s plan.

You know something? The word “wait” is a word that appears an awful lot of times in the Bible and it’s no more beautifully used than in Psalm 5. I’m reading from Psalm 5, verse 3 and, listen if you have a Bible go and grab it and open it up because we are going to spend some time in God’s Word today. Here’s what the Psalmist writes in Psalm 5, verse 3:

In the morning, O Lord, You hear my voice. In the morning I lay my requests before You and wait in expectation.

Invariably, when God’s Word talks about “waiting on God” it means exactly that – waiting with expectation; waiting expecting that God is going to do something. I wonder sometimes whether we are not more focused on becoming achievers; on being self-reliant than on humbling ourselves before God and waiting on Him and becoming God-achievers and God-reliant.

Over these last few weeks and again this week and next week on the programme we are looking at the great temptation – Jesus out there in the wilderness. And there’s such a sharp contrast between this wonderful, spectacular baptism at the beginning of Jesus public ministry and what happens out there in the wilderness.

Let’s read it again this week. It comes from Matthew chapter 3, beginning at verse 13. Have a listen:

Then Jesus came from Galilee to the Jordan to be baptised by John. But John tried to deter Him saying, “I need to be baptised by You and You come to me?” Jesus replied, “Let it be so for now – it is proper for us to do this to fulfil all righteousness,” and then John consented. As soon as Jesus was baptised He came up out of the water and at that moment heaven was opened and He saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and alighting upon Him. And a voice from heaven said, “This is My beloved Son in whom I am well pleased.”

And yet straight after that Jesus is thrown out into the desert. Luke chapter 4, beginning at verse 1 says this:

Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit into the desert, where for forty days He was tempted by the devil. He ate nothing during those days and at the end of them He was hungry.

This is one of the hidden things of God and it’s really important because we start walking around in a wilderness and think, “Hang on God, what are You up to? Where have You gone?”

A wonderful man by the name of Doug Webster in a book “Under the Radar” writes this. He says:

Contrary to the popular notion that links the fullness of the Spirit to worldly success, Luke relates the fullness of the Spirit to Jesus wilderness experiences and stresses Jesus extreme vulnerability in the Spirit before the devil. Jesus, full of the Spirit, is led by the Spirit into the wilderness; a place of testing and utter weakness. There’s a close correlation between the Spirit’s presence and power and Jesus vulnerability and weakness.

Last week, we looked at the first temptation. It was the temptation to turn stones into food – to end Jesus suffering on His own. I mean, He was hungry. He’d been starving for forty days. It seemed logical that He should use the power that He had as the Son of God to turn those stones into bread so that He could end His suffering.

Surely it wasn’t really a temptation? After all, He was famished, but the temptation was to end His suffering in His own strength, apart from God. And so it’s a logical delusion. And Jesus’ answer to the devil was:

Man does not live by bread alone but by every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord.

It was a firm, “no!” to the devil. “I’m not going to end My suffering in My own strength; I will wait on God for My provision.” Isn’t that so contrary to the way the world thinks? “I will trust in God even if I have to starve to death.” It puts paid to any self-reliance.

Now, you might be thinking, “Berni, why are we looking at Jesus wilderness experience and how does it relate to the title of this series, ‘Discovering the Hidden things of God?’” And they are good questions. Well the reason we are doing this is because, as I said at the beginning of the programme, things are not always what they seem. Jesus was baptised, He was led by God into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil and maybe if that was me or you, we would be thinking, “Woe is me”. And there would be crying and gnashing of teeth. “God, why are You letting this happen to me?” Does that sound familiar?

But that’s where Jesus went. He co-operated with God and what God was doing with Him and to Him in the wilderness. He was weak and vulnerable and being tempted by the devil. He knew that it was the Spirit that led Him into the wilderness and not the devil.

That’s not what we expect of God and it’s out there in that wilderness that so often we discover the hidden things of God. When we are under pressure; when there’s trial and there’s temptation. Some days we all wish it was different, but it isn’t. This is God’s way; this is how He does it. God is a subversive God. We want to build cathedrals and churches with programmes for this and that and God. God sometimes wants to draw us into the wilderness and leave us weak and vulnerable because His plans are so much bigger than ours. He’s so much more interested in developing our character and our relationship with Him than He is blessing us with worldly success.

That’s why we are out there in the wilderness with Jesus. We are out there to discover the hidden things of God – the really special things that we discover only when we take up our cross and follow Jesus.

So this week on the programme we are going to look at the second temptation and see what we discover about God and ourselves in the middle of all that.

 

The Second Temptation

Today on the programme we are looking at the second temptation of Jesus. If you have a Bible, grab it and open it up at Luke chapter 4, beginning at verse 5. This is what it says:

The devil led Jesus up to a high place and showed Him, in an instant, all of the kingdoms of the world and he said to Jesus, “I will give You all their authority and splendour for it has been given to me and I can give it to anyone I want to. So if you worship me it will all be yours.” But Jesus answered, “It is written, “Worship the Lord your God and serve Him only.”

Now, the devil takes Jesus – Jesus has been starving – the devil has been tempting Him to turn the stones into bread to end His own suffering which Jesus refuses to do. And now the devil leads Him to a high place and shows Him all the kingdoms of the world and says, “If you worship me I will give all of this to you.”

It’s a huge jump from the first temptation to meet the basic need of feeding Himself with bread to the greatest thing that he could show Jesus – all the kingdoms of the world. When you and I look around at the world today, we can kind of have it all. I mean, the world is sort of very “here and now” we can have it straight away. We have so much; we have TV, the instant reporting of world events, radio is kind of the same; we have movies and entertainment options and computer games and so many people these days are connected to the internet – don’t forget the internet.

The world is so much smaller today than it ever was. And they’ll deliver pornography right to your mobile phone if you want it. And it’s not just in the developed world. I mean, I remember being in a small village in the back blocks of India a couple of years ago – this tiny little village. At least half the people had mobile phones – we are so connected.

No matter where we are or who we are or what our circumstances are, it’s so easy to aspire to worldly success, even, let me say, for people in ministry. You kind of see the beautiful people parading around the successful people in the Kingdom of God and you think, “WOW, I’d like to be like that too.” And maybe a young mum and you have baby teething and you have dirty nappies and you have sleepless nights or you are in some job of some humdrum day after day and you see the successful people; the celebrities and the glitz and the glamour and the wealth and you start desiring those things in your heart – all the kingdoms of the world – in an instant. Have you got it?

The devil led Him up to a high place and showed Him in an instant, all the kingdoms of the world. And he said to Jesus “I’ll give You all their authority and splendour because it has been given to me and I can give it to anyone I want. So if You worship me it will all be Yours,” and Jesus answered, “It is written, “Worship the Lord your God and serve Him only.”

Jesus doesn’t debate the devil’s authority to say this. He speaks to the devil, not with sarcasm but with respect. The temptation to achieve things apart from God – to have success apart from God – even to achieve Christian mission idolatrously, is out there – authority and splendour and the world’s recognition and success, all the comfort and the excitement and the pleasure and the relaxation and the entertainment the world has to offer.

You know much of what’s being said today about the vision of the church seems to fit this second temptation. Take a serious and long look at what’s projected as a compelling vision by so much of God’s church – hype and excitement and delusion and success. Every church seems to have its own personalised and customised vision. Where do you find that sort of thinking in the Bible?

See, this fits right into the second temptation – there seems to be a lot of “second temptation” Christianity going on – Christianity without Christ; success without Jesus. I have to tell you, this is something that I am always on guard over because it’s a temptation.

Here at the ministry of Christianityworks, do we have a strategic plan? Yes, we do. And do we have a handle on what God has called us to do? Absolutely! Our passion is to see millions of lives changed one by one, as we share the Gospel of Jesus Christ, through the media, right around the world. And do we encourage people to get behind what we do? Absolutely!

But there is a line between following hard after what God is doing and somehow getting caught up in hype and spin and propaganda and self-promotion. Each one of us, you and I, are ordinary, every day people. Each one of us, you and I, have a specific role to play, just the one role that God created us for.

Some days we are on the top of the mountain, worshipping and praising, but sometimes we are in those hidden places in the desert of trial and temptation. And there’s such a sharp contrast for me between hype and glamour and success on the one hand and what God says to us through Psalm 5 which we read just before.

In the morning, O Lord, You hear my voice. In the morning I lay my requests before You and I wait in expectation.

Jesus knows that and that’s why He comes back with the sharp and direct answer to the devil:

Worship the Lord your God and worship Him alone.

What a great mission statement. It conquers all of the devil’s “alls” with that little word “only” or “alone”.

See, it’s so easy to worship what we do for God and then leave Him behind. It’s so easy to chase after people’s recognition and leave God behind. I’ve decided there’s something … something so much more important than what I do for God and it’s my relationship with Him. It’s worshipping Him with all that I am.

And you know it doesn’t matter who we are, those quiet places are the places where we worship. When all the light and the glamour and the glitz and all the other people are gone, what it comes down to is whether we worship God with our lives.

And that’s what this wilderness is all about – learning those things – the hidden things of God in a way that we just can’t forget. The devil’s “all” is defeated by Jesus “only”.

 

The Real Thing

A few years back, Coca Cola had an ad on TV with a really catchy jingle. It went, “It’s the real thing; it’s the way it should be.” I don’t know if you remember that but my hunch is it’s God inspired. See, God is heavily into the “real thing”. It’s something that God really, really wants us to have – not Coca Cola – the real thing.

See, what we end up doing is we end up making little gods out of the good things that God gives us. We worship His works and His creation instead of Him. Have a listen. This is a really good passage. Have a listen to how the prophet Isaiah puts it. If you have a Bible, grab it and open it up at Isaiah chapter 44, it begins at verse 13. It says this:

The carpenter measurers the wood with a line and he makes an outline with a marker. He roughs it out with chisels and marks it with compasses – he shapes it in the form of man; of man in all his glory that it may dwell in a shrine. See, he cuts down cedars or perhaps he took a cypress or an oak and he let it grow among the trees of the forest or planted a pine and the rain made it grow. It is a man’s fuel for burning.

Some of it he takes and warms himself – he kindles a fire and bakes bread. But he also fashions a god and worships it – he makes an idol and bows down to it. Half of the wood he burns in the fire, over it he prepares his meal; he roasts his meat and eats his fill. He also warms himself and says, “Ah, I am warm, I see the fire.” But from the rest of it he makes a god – his idol – he bows down to it and worships it. He prays to it and says, “Save me, you are my god.”

They know nothing; they understand nothing. Their eyes are plastered over so they can’t see and their minds are closed so they can’t understand. No one stops to think; no one has the knowledge or understanding to say, “Half of it I used for fuel, I even baked bread over its coals, I roasted my meat and I ate. Shall I make a detestable thing from what’s left? Shall I bow down to a block of wood? He feeds on ashes; a deluded heart misleads him – he cannot save himself or say, “Is not this thing in my right hand a lie?”

Isn’t that a great passage? It kind of really points at how stupid it is to take something physical; whether it’s a piece of wood and we make an idol out of it, or whether it’s a career or whether it’s a car or whether it’s anything else in our lives that we put before God. See, it’s a physical thing – it’s not a god. It’s not something that can save us.

Out there in the wilderness, we discover one of the hidden things of God, when the devil tempts us with what is in the world; all that glossy, sexy, seductive stuff; all the authority and splendour of all the kingdoms – it is such a lie.

Is not this thing in my right hand a lie?

God already gave us all of that stuff you see, it’s already ours. What the devil wants to do is to make us chase after it in a way that’s wrong because in order to have it he wants us to put him before God. And that … that is what the Lord wants us to learn out there in the wilderness and there’s only one way to learn it – to be tempted and to reject the temptation.

Of the Ten Commandments, the very first one is:

I am the Lord your God who brought you out of Egypt; out of the land of slavery. You shall have no other gods before Me.” And the second one is pretty much the same: “You shall not make for yourself an idol in the form of anything in heaven or on earth or beneath it or on the waters below.

You shall not bow down to them and worship them for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, punishing the children for the sin of the fathers to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me but showing love to a thousand generations of those who love Me and who keep My commandments. Do not follow other gods to serve and worship them. Do not provoke Me to anger with what your hands have made,” writes Jeremiah, “then I will not harm you.”

See, God wants us to have the real thing. We turn things of this world into idols. We worship them with our lives. We sacrifice to them with our lives. And God is saying, “No! You want the real thing? You want the real thing? Come and worship Me.” And that’s why Jesus replies to the devil:

It is written, “You shall worship the Lord your God and serve Him only.

That’s what Jesus quotes back at the devil. Nothing this earth has to offer can replace God Himself. You know, I think that you and I will spend the rest of our lives on this earth, learning that. It’s a constant tussle but as we grow, day by day, in the knowledge of God; in the joy of that relationship, it so outshines the cheap imitations that this world has to offer. The cheap imitations the devil tries to wave under our noses. It’s such a compelling delusion; the things he waves under our noses.

The hidden things of God that we discover in the desert; that we discover when we are being tempted by the devil, is that He wants us to have the real thing. That’s what we discover out there in the wilderness with the devil.

And let’s just take that and apply it to our own lives. What are the things that right now, you and I are chasing after, apart from God, which we are putting before God?

They never satisfy, do they? They never really satisfy. And the devil is sitting there and laughing and saying, “I am having such fun tempting them to chase after these things.”

We, like Jesus in the wilderness, need to turn around to him and say, “No, for it is written, “You shall worship the Lord your God and you shall serve Him alone.”

Sometimes, when we’ve been walking with God for a while and the going gets a bit tough, there’s a temptation to think to ourselves, “Well, God, you owe me. Time for you to show up.”

 

Just Remember the Wilderness

Well, welcome to this last message in a four part series that I’ve called, “Discovering the Hidden Things of God”. See the things that God does in our lives, well, they just don’t always make sense. The Apostle Paul writes about the mystery of His will in Jesus Christ. You can read that in Ephesians chapter 1, verse 9.

Often how we feel about God, well, we like to have everything figured out; everything in its neat little box; everything under control, including God, right? We just do! But God tells us about Himself through the prophet Isaiah, that:

His thoughts aren’t our thoughts and His ways aren’t our ways. As high as the heavens are above the earth, so are His ways higher than our ways and His thoughts higher than our thoughts.

God’s plans and purposes for us are often hidden and they don’t make sense all the time to our human understanding. When we go through a difficult time in life we struggle with that. We wail to God; we say, “God, how can you let this happen to me? God, how long will this go on, O God?” Or we rebuke the devil because we should be living in victory; this shouldn’t be happening to us.

And I guess, struggling with those difficult times and trying to understand where God is and what His purpose is and having our reactions – they’re all really normal human responses. And if you read the Book of Job, over and over again he said, “God, why are You letting this happen to me?” And yet, the wilderness experience is an integral part of God’s plan for our lives. Let me say it again. The wilderness experience is an integral part of God’s plan for our lives. Let’s just let that sink in for a minute.

Over these last few weeks we have been spending time in the wilderness; in the desert with Jesus. It’s an amazing kind of juxtaposition or contrast between when He has His public baptism on the one hand and the heavens open up and the dove descends down on Him and God said:

This is My beloved Son in whom I am well pleased.

And then God picks Him up and throws Him out into the wilderness; into this profound, vulnerable experience where He is tempted by the devil.

You see, the problem with this wilderness experience is that it doesn’t fit with our worldly image of success. I mean, if we are in God’s will, shouldn’t everybody be applauding? Have a look. Here’s the account from Matthew chapter 3, beginning at verse 13 of Jesus baptism.

Jesus came from Galilee to the Jordan to be baptised by John but John tried to deter Him saying, “I’m the one that needs to be baptised by You and You come to me?” And Jesus replied, “Let it be so for now. It is proper for us to do this to fulfil all righteousness,” and then John consented. As soon as Jesus was baptised He went up out of the water and at that moment, heaven was opened and He saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove upon Him. And a voice from heaven said, “This is My beloved Son in whom I am well pleased.”

Now just think about that for a moment. Is that success or what? You go to be baptised, you come up out of the water, the heavens open up, God speaks:

This is My beloved Son in whom I am well pleased.

And then straight after that, we pick it up in Luke’s account in Luke chapter 4, verse 1. It says:

Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was then led by the Spirit out into the desert where for forty days He was tempted by the devil. He ate nothing during those days and at the end of them He was hungry.

In Mark’s Gospel, Mark chapter 1, he doesn’t say “Jesus was ‘led’ out by the Spirit”, he says “Jesus was ‘thrown’ out into the desert by the Spirit”.

We spent some time over the last few weeks getting our minds around that. It’s part of God’s plan for our lives that we pass through the wilderness. No, it’s not going to be an air-conditioned bus on the way to a five star resort with a swimming pool. It’s on foot; it’s alone with only the devil there to tempt us. And invariably, you know it’s the things that other people don’t see or understand; it’s hidden away. We travel this path on our own.

I remember listening to a great preacher, Joyce Meyer, speaking once and she said, “You know, people come up to me and say, “You’ve got a wonderful and successful ministry”, and they all say “how wonderful“. And I remember her saying, ”These people have no idea what I have had to go through the trials and the difficulties”. And the people who came against her and the sheer hard work and the endurance. She said, “It was so hard starting up this ministry.”

And I have to tell you, that was such a great encouragement to me because it was exactly the same for my wife, Jacqui and I in, I guess, re-establishing this ministry of Christianityworks. And people don’t have any idea of the trials and the opposition and the temptations that you go through because they are part of God’s plan. Yet you don’t get to see that in my life. I don’t get to see the things that God has you travelling through in your life.

One of our team, Joseph Kebbie in Africa, the things that that man has been through for the sake of the Gospel. People have no idea but today, through his perseverance and effort and faithfulness, millions of people across Africa hear this programme.

See, it happened to Jesus; it happens to you; it happens to me. It’s the same thing, we all have to travel through that. And you know, when these trials and temptations come, it’s a good time to remember this and to co-operate with God.

Over the last couple of weeks we looked at the first two temptations that Jesus was faced with in the desert. The first one was the one that we called the, “logical seduction”. The devil said, “Well, it You’re the Son of God and You’ve been starving for forty days why don’t You turn these stones into bread?” And Jesus was starving; He was famished – it was the obvious thing to do – to end His suffering in His own strength, apart from God. And He responded, “No, I’m not going to do that. ‘Man does not live by bread alone but by every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord.’” He refused to take things into His own hands, apart from God.

The second temptation that we looked at last week was the one that we called, “the compelling delusion”. The devil waves under Jesus’ nose all the kingdoms of this world and he says, “They’ll all be yours if you worship me.” WOW, worldly success and acclamation and all those kingdoms but instead of chasing after that, Jesus says, “No, I will worship God alone. I would rather stay here in the desert starving, than worship the devil and chase after all those worldly things.”

See, these are the hidden things of God. God tests us and we discover what really, really matters. These temptations are all about who comes first – our needs or God. We discover the hidden things; the deeper things in our relationship with Him – being tempted out there in the wilderness by the devil.

That’s what the wilderness in all about; that’s why He takes us there. That’s why He seems to kind of throw us out there and dump us there and let the devil tempt us. God wants to go so much deeper with us than the superficiality of this world.

Well, today is our last day out in the wilderness there with Jesus and we are going to look at the last of the three temptations; a temptation that Douglas Webster in his book, “Under the Radar” calls, “The Great Performance”.

 

Go on – Jump

You know, we all need encouragement and validation. When we are travelling down a certain path in life, it’s great when somehow; people confirm that we are on the right track. Someone looks at the career you have chosen and they say to you, “Gee, you are doing so well at that.” Doesn’t that feel good?

And so often we want God to confirm that we have chosen the right path too. It would be great to have His confirmation; His encouragement but sometimes … sometimes at those times He remains silent. Have you noticed that? Sometimes when I want the Lord to confirm that I’m on the right path, He just doesn’t say anything. And you know, when we are walking in faith, putting it all on the line for God, it would be really nice for Him to show up and whisper, “Well done good and faithful servant. Keep going.” And yet He chooses so often to remain silent and at those times it can be a real wilderness experience.

Why does He do that; what’s going on? Well, as I said before, we like to live life on the surface – recognition and success and wealth and comfort – but God wants to go so much deeper with us, much deeper; way below the surface.

And we saw how Jesus at His baptism, was in the middle of the river of God and then immediately following that He was thrown out into the desert and He was starving for forty days. And today I’m going to look at the third temptation – something that Douglas Webster in his book, “Under the Radar” calls, “The Great Performance”.

Let’s have a read. If you have a Bible, go and grab it. We are going to read Luke chapter 4, beginning at verse 9:

The devil led Jesus to Jerusalem and had Him stand on the highest point of the temple. “If You are the Son of God”, he said, “throw Yourself down from here, for it is written, “He will command His angels concerning You, to guard You carefully. They will lift You up in their hands so that you will not strike Your foot against a stone.” But Jesus answered, “It is written, “Do not put the Lord your God to the test.”

Douglas Webster’s book, “Under the Radar” is a brilliant book. If you can get a hold of it, it is really worth a read. And he puts his finger right on what is happening here when he writes this. He says:

The career path for Christian leaders is marked by the cross. An incentive that doesn’t have much crossover appeal into the corporate world or our post-modern society. Self denial is a difficult concept to translate into today’s leadership literature.

The path leading to the cross is far more humbling than it is heroic, yet all true leaders are led along that path. But the temptation to avoid the path to the cross, by trying to achieve something great for God, confronts us as it did Jesus. We are tempted to escape the cross with our spiritual pride in tact. We want to feel enthusiastic about Jesus whilst avoiding the way of Jesus.

These temptations and in particular this last temptation is to avoid the way of the cross. It’s to say, “Well, I’m going to see if I can get God to dance to my tune rather than me following faithfully after Him.” See, that’s the temptation. You get to a point when you have been walking with God for a while and you get to figuring, “Well, God, You know something? I’ve earned something. I’ve earned some shortcuts. I want You to do a miracle for me. It’s time for You, God, to validate me. It’s time for You to say, “You are heading down the right path, you are special to Me.’”

And so we get to asking God for something – something impossible – not for the right reasons; not because we want to serve Him and bring Him glory but for Him to validate that we’re something special. See, we get it the wrong way around. We want God to start serving us rather than us serving Him. We turn the tables on God. This temptation is about turning the creator/creature relationship on its head and putting us on the top of the heap. And that’s why Jesus names it for what it is, putting God to the test.

You know, growing older is great as long as it involves growing wiser. And wisdom in God’s economy starts and ends with one thing, Proverbs chapter 1, verse 7:

The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, but fools despise wisdom and discipline.

In other words, wisdom is based on a right relationship with God – He is Lord. To believe in Jesus is to follow Jesus – He is not only the truth, He’s the way.

Here’s one of the hidden things of God, in the wilderness that we discover, who we are under pressure, hungry and tired and the devil pulls along side and he tempts us to provide for ourselves or to chase after worldly success or to make God our servant rather than our Lord. These are the hidden things of God we discover in the wilderness. It’s what humility and persistence and prayer is in the wilderness we discover who’s Lord and that’s a special, special time. Let’s have a look at this temptation once again:

The devil leads Jesus to Jerusalem and has Him stand on the highest point of the temple. “If You are the Son of God,” he said, “throw Yourself down from here, for it is written, “He will command His angels concerning You, to guard You carefully. They will lift You up on their hands so that You will not strike Your foot against a stone.”

Where does the devil take Jesus? To Jerusalem; to the temple; to the place where God lives; to the centre of the understanding of who God was and where He was. Up to the highest point, this is spectacular. “You’ve reached the pinnacle, You’re the Son of God. Now, go on, put God to the test. Make God Your servant.” And Jesus answered:

It is written; ‘Do not put the Lord your God to the test.

God wants us out there in the wilderness being tempted by the devil, to have a right understanding of who He is – the King and the Lord of all. And it’s so easy for us to warp that and to morph that so that God is someone who does as I tell Him to do. It’s something, something He lets us discover in the wilderness. What’s more important, success or honouring Him?

 

But Wait – There’s More

I love discovering the hidden things of God and so far in this series we’ve discovered four things. Firstly, the wilderness is an essential part of God’s plan for our lives. Yet so often we fight with it but instead, we need to co-operate with Him as He takes us out there and allows the devil permission to tempt us. And then in that first temptation we saw that, well, it’s not our job to end our suffering in our own strength. It’s our job to rely on God. That’s what the first temptation was all about.

The second temptation was to chase after worldly success, rather that staying out there in the desert, no matter what the cost and honouring God, the compelling delusion. And finally the third temptation that we just looked at before is ultimately about turning the tables on God and to have Him perform a trick, to test Him, to validate who we are.

You know each of these … these hidden things that we discover about God and ourselves, what are they about? They’re about putting God first. He puts us out there in the desert; in the furnace and cleanses us through the fire. John the Baptist put it this way. He said:

I baptise you with water but One more powerful than me will come, the thongs of whose sandals I’m not worthy to untie and He will baptise you with the Holy Spirit and with fire. His winnowing fork is in His hand to clear His threshing floor and to gather the wheat into His barn but He will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire.

See, that’s what the wilderness is about. It’s that fire and the devil is a blow torch in the hand of God, used by Him, the great craftsman, to forge our character.

We should never get the idea that the devil is somehow equal to God. Sort of two equal and opposite forces of good and evil in the universe. No! If you have your faith in Jesus Christ, the devil has to ask God for permission before he can come and tempt you. Look at Job, chapter 1. Look what the devil said to God:

One day the angels came to present themselves before the Lord and Satan also came and the Lord said to Satan, “Where have you come from?” And Satan answered the Lord, “From roaming through the earth and going back and forth in it.” And the Lord said to Satan, “Have you considered my servant Job? There is no one on earth like him – he is blameless and upright; a man you fears me and shuns evil.” “Does Job fear God for nothing?”

Satan replied. “Have you not put a hedge around him and his household and everything he has? Haven’t you blessed the work of his hands so that his flocks and his herds are spread throughout the land? But stretch out your hand and strike everything he has and he will surely curse you to your face.” And the Lord said to Satan, “Very well then, everything he has is in your hands but on the man himself, do not lay a finger.” And then Satan went out from the presence of the Lord.

Satan had to ask permission to go and tempt Job. Satan is God’s creation; he is God’s tool, he is subject to God. And it’s God’s decision to take us out there in the wilderness sometimes and to allow the devil to tempt us. Our decision is how we respond. We can struggle and fight or we can give in or give up or just quietly live through it, as much as it hurts. Each time the devil comes after us with a meat cleaver, standing firm against him. Choosing well will make the devil depart. Look at what happens to Jesus. Luke chapter 4, verse 13:

When the devil had finished all this tempting he left Him until an opportune time and Jesus returned to Galilee in the power of the Spirit and the news about Him spread through the whole countryside. He taught in their synagogues and everyone praised Him.

See He suffered but He withstood and when He withstood the devil fled.

Now, of course he’d return. You see his hand as he swayed the mob, as he thought he had victory when Jesus was crucified. He’ll always return to fight another day, a day when we open a door or a day when we, once again, we find ourselves out there in the wilderness; weak and vulnerably like Jesus. Listen to how James puts it in James chapter 4, verse 7:

Submit yourselves then to God, resist the devil and he will flee from you. Come near to God and He will come near to you. Wash your hands, you sinners, purify your hearts, you double minded; grieve and mourn and wail. Change your laughter to mourning and your joy to gloom. Humble yourselves before the Lord and He will lift you up.

If we humble ourselves and submit ourselves to God and we resist the devil, he will flee from us. If we humble ourselves before God He will lift us up. These are the hidden things of God. He’s not interested in our worldly success; He’s interested in our hearts. He is looking for people to worship Him with a humble heart because it’s in that place that we experience Him to the full. As He purifies our hearts out there in the wilderness, He opens the door for us to draw closer to Him and that is what this is all about. That’s why Jesus said:

Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God.

That’s the end game. That’s what God has for us. That’s where the joy is and that’s what the wilderness is about. When it seems as though God has deserted us, the only person that’s out there is the devil to accuse us, actually, actually in that wilderness, the Spirit of God is there.

And at each turn, at each accusation, at each hurt and loss and pain and hardship, when we quietly and resolutely look the Lord in the eye and say, “You know something Lord? I don’t care what the world throws at me or what the devil comes and tempts me with. I don’t care how lovely and wonderful and tempting all those things look, I am just going to stand out here in the wilderness and wait on You and trust in You and hope in You because You … You alone are my God, You alone are my Lord. I don’t live by bread alone but I live by every word that comes from Your mouth. I will worship You and serve You alone and I will not put You to the test, for You … You alone are my Lord and I will stand completely alone in the midst of this wasteland for You, no matter what the cost.”

When God has us in that place, when we humble ourselves before God and we resist the devil, then God will lift us up. Then God will fill us with His glory and His joy and in that place we will discover the hidden things of God.