Victory

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When you start to think about the evil that exists in this world, it is easy to despair. The problems are just so big, who can solve them? Think of all the corruption and oppression that occurs around the world. It’s a tangled mess where the most vulnerable are prey. It’s astonishing to see how the strong will prey on the weakest and seek to squeeze all they can out of them.

Our church has dealt with the issue of scams. It’s amazing how creative people can be trying to steal. I have helped people deal with this. However, last week, I was almost victim of one. I actually could have lost some money, but the app didn’t work. The evil in this world is relentless.

The problem is not just out there. The battle against evil is waged in our own hearts. And when we look closely at the situation, we see our own weakness. We know we have been often deceived. We find ourselves in a fog and not able to act correctly. We have fallen into sin again and again and been only a few missteps away from disaster. In the face of the relentless challenge of evil in the world, we need a champion.

And that’s what this text teaches us. We have a champion.

The Battle
In the first three accounts of Jesus’ life, we find that immediately after the baptism of Jesus, the Spirit led Him into the wilderness to be tested. It was the guidance and leadership of the Spirit the brought Jesus to battle. In our own lives, we should recognize that after our baptism, the Spirit will lead us into testing as well. We should not be surprised if the Christian life is a battle. We follow in the steps of Jesus.

The similarity between Jesus and the Christian is not the main point of the text. The main point is the difference between us. Beyond that, it is the difference between Adam and Jesus. Adam was placed in a Garden with an easy test: don’t eat from one tree. Jesus was placed in hard conditions with 40 days of fasting in a very challenging test. The contrast could not be greater.

Just like with Adam, the devil came to tempt Jesus. Remember that beyond the evil of men in this world, there is the devil. We need to see that the evil in this world is not just the cause of humans. It is the work of a malevolent and powerful being that God created but who revolted against God and now seeks to wreck what God has done.

The Father had spoken to Jesus and confirmed that Jesus was the Messiah and the Son of God. He said, “You are my Son, whom I love; with you I am well pleased.” The question in all these temptations was, would Jesus trust the Father and the destiny that the Father had for Him, or would He try to take a shortcut? That was the same issue in the Garden. God had promised Adam a glorious future. All he had to do was trust God and obey Him in a very easy test.

Just like with our first father Adam, the devil tried to sow doubt. He does not say, “turn these stones to bread.” Rather, he says, “If you are the Son of God, tell this stone to become bread” (emphasis mine, Luke 4:3). This was a subtle way of sowing doubt in what the Father had said. It was particularly challenging because Jesus was hungry. Did God really say . . . ? Satan might have said here. Jesus knew exactly how Satan was trying to emphasize the “if” that would bring doubt in God’s Word. He rejected what Satan said and went back to the Word of God in the book of Deuteronomy, “It is written: ‘Man shall not live on bread alone.’” The rest of the verse says that it is on every Word that comes from the mouth of God. Jesus would not need to prove that He was the Son of God. He would rely on the word that came from the mouth of God. Continue reading “The Marvelous Works of Jesus 2: The Champion (Luke 4:1-30)”

[Listen to an audio verison here]

The Need for Faith
Our society does a lot to ignore the reality of death. We want to look young. The cemeteries are somewhat hidden. You will see many commercials about preparing for retirement. Very few about preparing for after retirement.

In spite of all this, the truth is that this world is a tomb. It is a place of death. It is a place where the dead are buried. When you think about it, we have lost a lot of people close to us this year. Kelsey just lost her Grandfather this past week. I lost a Grandmother last month. Jackie Bain lost her grandfather. Diane lost her husband Bobby. Deb Bain lost her husband Steve, and we lost an elder and leader in our church. Lisa Suplee lost her Father and her Uncles. Penny Reeder lost her Mother. This world is a tomb.

In the Bible, death is not just physical death. It is spiritual death. The presence of physical death is the result of the death of our relationship with God. The separation of the body from the soul is rooted in our separation from God. Out of our separation from God flows a separation from other people. This separation from other people leads to war and to death like it did with Abel and Cain.

That’s why there cannot be joyful fellowship with God and man. There is death. This spiritual death manifests itself in physical death. This spiritual death has made this world a tomb.

Into this world of death, God sent His Son. His Son died the death we deserved to die and experienced the separation from God that we experienced when He cried out, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” However, He rose from the dead. He conquered death. He brought about new life and new hope.

If we have Jesus, then we have life. “And this is the testimony: God has given us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. Whoever has the Son has life; whoever does not have the Son of God does not have life” (1 John 5:11–12). What does this mean? It means that instead of a sentence of death, we have life. This means we enjoy a restored relationship with God forever! That’s what we have when we have the Son.

Now, we might ask, why then do we have to die? For the believer, death is a liberation from the presence of sin. When we come to Christ, He breaks the dominion of sin. At death, He frees us from the presence of sin. When Jesus comes again, we will have our bodies restored but in a glorified way like Jesus. “But we know that when Christ appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is” (1 John 3:2b).

This is why we need faith in Jesus. “Whoever believes in the Son of God accepts this testimony” (1 John 5:10). When we believe in Jesus, we accept what God says about Him. We accept that it is true and that it is what we need. We are saying that Jesus can do for us what we cannot do for ourselves. That is the power of faith. It is not the greatness of faith that saves. It is the Christ in the faith that saves.

The problem we face is that there is much pressure in the world to go in a different direction. It tells us, focus on what we see. Focus on what we can get. Make this world about you. This is what John calls the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life (see 1 John 2:15–17).

So, how do we overcome the world and obtain life in Jesus? “This is the victory that has overcome the world, even our faith. Who is it that overcomes the world? Only the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God” (1 John 5:4b–5). Do we want to overcome the world? We need more faith! If we feel like the world is attacking us, we need the faith that enables us to overcome the world. Continue reading “Joyful Fellowship with God and Man, Part 9: How to Have Joyful Fellowship with God and Man”