Lord, our God, it's been, as you know, for most of us a busy day, maybe even a long day already. And now we come, perhaps hungry, perhaps tired, to be nourished and to be strengthened by meeting with you and your word, even in an academic setting now. I pray, Lord, that we would be still and know that you are God. We would study well and think hard, but not forget that the goal of our faith is understanding, and not some merely intellectual thing, but understanding you. We pray this in Christ name, amen. I'd like to begin tonight by studying with you, examining with you the beginning of Christ's ministry, the beginning of the ministry of Christ, the fourth lecture in your syllabus. If we look at the beginning of the ministry of Christ, one of the things we notice in all four gospels fairly rapidly is that they are interested in being sure that we know who Jesus is. If you have your Bibles near by, and I do want you to keep them busy today, and accessible today, we can turn immediately to the Gospel of Mark, chapter 1, verse 1. And that gospel begins by telling us exactly whose good news it is, Mark 1-1, the beginning of the gospel about Jesus Christ the Son of God. Luke chapter 1 and 2 also ensures us that we will know about whom this story is told. We learn in the first two chapters of Luke, and I'm supposed to survey here a little bit, first two chapters of Luke we see that Jesus is the Son of the Most High, the Son of God. He is the one who will save his people and deliver them from their sins. At his birth he is announced, chapter 2, verse 11, for example. He is announced as the Savior who is Christ the Lord, that's who's born in the city of David, the Savior who is Christ the Lord. He brings salvation to the Jews, and a light of revelation to the Gentiles, Luke chapter 2. John chapter 1 begins with those famous words in the beginning was the Word, the Word was with God, and the Word was God. I've already told you why I'm choosing the Gospel of Matthew as the one that we will follow primarily throughout this course, and the Gospel of Matthew is also full of information so that we should know who the Christ is about whom the story of the gospels is told. If you turn to Matthew, chapters 1 and 2 with me, you can see that even in what might appear to be the most boring or tedious part of the Gospel, namely the genealogy, is full of information. In fact, the very first line, Jesus Christ, the Son of God, the Son of Abraham. Let me invite you to participate. How many things do we learn about Jesus in just those few lines? What do you learn about him? Jesus Christ, Son of David, Son of Abraham. He is the Christ, he is the anointed one, the one who's set apart from a mission called permission by God. He is a Jew, someone said, because of course he is the son of David. The son of David doesn't just mean he's a Jew, it also means he is the son of a king, and he is the implicitly the ruler, the new king over Israel. What else do we know about him? Yes. Okay, he's a human, he has a genealogy, very good. He's the promise seat of Abraham, and he's the hope of the Jew, and the hope of the Gentile through whom all nations will be born. Nations will be blessed, and even the very name Jesus means many of you know, Savior. So already we have the Savior, the anointed one, a real man, the hope of the Jews, the hope of the Gentiles, just in a handful of words. But not only do we have that, but we also have some other interesting information, he's the son of a king, David, he's the son if you look further through the genealogy of all kinds of kings, good and bad, righteous and unrighteous. There's also another righteous, unrighteous mix. If you look at the genealogy, you'll know the genealogy, who are the women described in the genealogy of Christ? Who are they? Here we have Rahab, Ruth, Bashiba, not by name of course, but the wife of you right at the Hittite and Tamar. That is correct, you've answered, you've given the four answers. Now if you look at this list, what do you notice that these women have in common? Okay, they're Gentiles. Ruth is a Moabite, Rahab, from Jericho, Bashiba married, we're not quite sure, but married to you right at the Hittite, the Hittite of course is an anointed you. Tamar was probably in the line of Israel. So mostly Gentiles, what else do we notice about them? They all had sorted pasts a very good answer. Of course we have here a prostitute, right? Here we have a woman who doesn't know where to take a shower, and here we have a woman who prostituted herself on one occasion, and Ruth isn't quite so clear, but after all she did go to the place where a man slept and uncovered his feet and laid his feet, and even if nothing more than that happened in that society, that would be dubious. So we have here in the genealogy already some hints that Jesus is descended from Gentiles, descended from a human line, descended from a sinful line, and so his humanity comes to the fore, and we might also say his universality comes to the fore. Although it's a Jewish genealogy, you can't miss that the women, three cases out of four, are Gentiles, or presumed to be Gentiles. But in case that's not enough, Matthew is eager to make sure we notice a number of other things in chapter 1, verse 18, through chapter 2, verse 12, there's further information about Jesus. He is, first of all, it says, this is how his birth came about, and you read in the end of verse 18, that Mary was found to be with child through the Holy Spirit, so he's descended from, or he is the seed of, however you want to describe it, he's conceived by not a man, but by the Holy Spirit. He is named Jesus, you all know this already, verse 21 points it out, because he will save his people from their sins, chapter 1, verse 21. He is the king of the Jews, chapter 2, verse 2, he is the Christ, he is Emmanuel, God with us. Now that's one that we could pause over just a little bit, we love to sing about Emmanuel at Christmas time, and Emmanuel maybe is one of the most beloved, or sweet names of Christ, Emmanuel means God with us, it's a pleasant thought to be sure. But do you know where the Emmanuel prophecy comes from? It comes from Isaiah chapter 7 and chapter 8. Do you know who received the Emmanuel prophecy from the lips of Isaiah the prophet? It was Ahaz, one of the most wicked of the kings of Israel, and when God gave through Isaiah the Word, Emmanuel will come, and this will be assigned to you. Ahaz was entirely disinterested in that prophecy, he wanted no part of it, he was being invaded, he wanted no part of God's assurances that in this invasion he would be cared for by the power of God, instead he wanted to make an alliance with a Syria pagination, very political move. And when he did that, Isaiah repeated, Emmanuel, I promise you I offer you God with you to bless, but if you reject and choose your own path and choose to find political deliverance through a Syria, then still Emmanuel, and if God will not be with you to bless Ahaz, then he will be with you to curse. And to condemn, that's the message of Isaiah chapter 7 and 8. Jesus is Emmanuel, and that's a blessing, but it's also a stark reality for those who do not want to receive that blessing. He is God with us, whether you receive it or not. So these statements, don't just tell us who Jesus is, they also suggest how we ought to respond to Him, Christ is with us, whether we like it or not, in Him God is with us, to bless or to curse. Matthew is also very eager to make sure that we know that Jesus fulfills the prophecies of the Old Testament. His genealogy, he is the promised son of David, the promised seed of Abraham, and there are throughout the early chapters of Matthew, chapters 1 to 4, several prophecies alluded to, God will redeem Israel, the Emmanuel prophecy, and maybe at least one more, the prophecy of a light of revelation to the Gentiles, the Jesus also fulfills. The theme you also find throughout all the Gospels, Jesus fulfilling prophecy, maybe especially clear in the Gospel of Matthew, but also in Luke, God promised to reveal Himself the Gentiles that's alluded to in Luke chapter 2. And in Mark, there's a reference to Isaiah 40, and John never quite quotes the Old Testament, but he does say some interesting things you might turn with me, perhaps, just to get a flavor there too, of the Gospel's interest in establishing that Jesus not only is a real man and is God, but is also the hope of the Old Testament. It's already clear from 1-1 who Jesus is, he is God, but that in verse 14 it says, the Word became flesh and made His dwelling among us. We have seen His glory, the glory of the one and only who came from the Father, full of grace and truth. Now that little reference, beginning of verse 14, the Word became flesh and made His dwelling among us uses a Greek word that can be translated, pitched His tent or tabernacled with us. The verb that is used there is related to the word used in the Septuagint, the Greek translation of the Old Testament for the tabernacle, for God's dwelling with His people in the tabernacle given in Exodus chapter 32 through chapter 40, 33 through 40. So what he's saying is, Jesus fulfills that sign, that type, that hope you had in the Old Testament. In the Old Testament there was one place, one highly localized place, in a tent in the Holy of Holies where God dwelt. But now, as Jesus says, something better than the temple or the tabernacle is here, not a cloud highly restricted, so only a high priest could see it once a year. But rather something that anybody could see as he walked among his people, so Jesus fulfills the hope of God dwelling among us. And then a little bit later in John chapter 1, it says that the law was given through Moses, but grace and truth came through Christ Jesus. Now that's not necessarily, and it is not, in fact at all, a condemnation of the law, but it's saying the law can't redeem. Jesus is the source of grace that the Old Testament cries out for. So we have several things going here. We have number one that Jesus is God. Number two that he is a real man, number three that he fulfills prophecy. The fourth thing that the gospels are eager to do is to connect Jesus' birth, his incarnation, his humanity, with real places and real times. So it's not just some intellectual event, rather it is a real historical event. For example, you already know this, and you studied it some of you did for tonight, who was the king when Jesus was born? It was Herod. How do we know? Because it takes the trouble to point that out. And not only do we know that, that's the easy part we might say, but we also have another little sign of the reality of his incarnation with a real man, and that is that when Herod found out that Jesus was born, he went ahead and planned to kill him. And as a lot of you know from your research, that fits very well the real Herod, doesn't it? We have a real king acting like that particular king acted in his life. And if I could just throw it in another little sign of his, of the reality of the incarnation, it strikes me that when Jesus was under threat from Herod, he didn't get a gang of angels around the town. He was in. He didn't get all some miraculous intervention so that when the soldiers came, their swords melted or became butter or something like that. When Herod sent the troops, he had to leave because if a sword had run through the baby Jesus, he would have bled and died. Now God made sure that it didn't happen, but the idea is when the troops come around, he has to flee like anybody else would have to flee. He is a real child. Again, I'm not saying that God's purpose could be thwarted, I'm just saying, think this through with me. It is maybe most clear that we're trying to locate things in real space and real time in the gospel of Luke and Luke chapter three would be a good illustration. There are others to which we could turn as well. Very specific identification of the time of Christ ministry. I might add there's another specific identification while you're turning in Luke chapter two, verse one, in those days Caesar Gus is a particular king, not just any old king, it's one particular king. Issued to decree that a census should be taken of the entire Roman world. When it took place while Quirinius was governor of Syria, real history, you want to know what happened there it is. Chapter three, verse one, in the 15th year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar, that's another king, another Caesar. When Pontius Pilate governed Judea, when Herod was tetrarch of Galilee, when his brother Philip was tetrarch of Iteria and Trachonitis, and Lysanius was tetrarch of Abelene during the high priesthood of Annas and Caiaphas, the word of God came. He's making it as clear as he possibly can, the 15th year of the Caesar. If you know what that is, then hear a bunch of other ways in which you can know exactly when the ministry began. The gospels are eager to point out that this is real history that these things genuinely happened. Let me just pause for a moment, see if anybody has a question or comment on the fact and the importance of establishing Jesus' identity as a real historical figure, God-man, and the fulfillment of prophecy in Israel. I know that's not a big discussion starter, but if anybody has one, go ahead. Anybody want to comment on Quirinius, governor of Syria, I guess that's what I'm inviting from you. Okay, let's get to your assignment, perhaps. Matthew chapter 2, verses 1 to 12. Matthew chapter 2, 1 to 12. And the goal of the infancy narratives, again we've already seen it's to establish Jesus' identity, but not just the fact, it's also interested in establishing a response. Matthew chapter 2, verses 1 to 12. When you look at the story, and I'm not going to read the whole story of Jesus' birth here, the visit of the Magi, we have a number of characters who appear in the story. Can I ask you to list them for me? Who are the characters in the story of the birth of Christ and what we call the Adoration of Magi? Who do we have? We have Herod. Okay, we have Jesus, that's good, don't forget Jesus. Who else do we have? Okay, we have scribes, who else do we have? The kind of goes with the scribes. The scribes and the priests, what kind of priests? I'm just going to put a C, and the chief priests, there's one more easiest to miss. Okay, well I'm going to put that in with a scribe is another word for teacher. Okay, there's Mary and there's Joseph, there's one more, it's really easy to miss. People of Jerusalem.
I was looking at this particular story as we saw just a little bit before in last class. It's important to understand who the characters are. Tell me a little bit about Herod, what did you learn? I told you a few things about Herod last time, but tell me what did you learn about Herod in preparation for tonight? It makes the counts for the fronters to understand this passage, yes. Okay, he was not fully Jewish, his mother was an edamite, right? So he was a half breed, go ahead, that's right. Not only was his father an accepted but he wasn't accepted either. What else do you know about Herod? Kind of a man was Herod. He was insecure, why do you say that? Always afraid that someone would take his power. What else do you know about him? How far would he go? He would murder his own sons, murder his own wife, murdered a bunch of babies, and the point that we need to realize, and I know I said this last week a little bit, is that the account that we have here is totally consistent with what we know about Herod. He's murderous intentions, but specifically his paranoia about losing his reign. But now something else, how about the Magi? What can we say about them? Who are the Magi? I'm looking for a visual aid I have here somewhere. Who knows about the Magi? They were astrologers, tell me more. Okay, they're seeking the fulfillment of prophecies. What else do you know about them? Okay, from the East Persians, that's where Weizmann were. How about the song, We Three Kings of Ori and Art? Is that fit pretty well? No, why not? Kings, they're not kings. They aren't three. How many were there, do you suppose? Where does the number three come from? Three gifts. How many were there, do you think? A whole bunch. And why do you think there were a whole bunch? Do you think a town of best estimate, 40,000? Best estimate, size of Jerusalem and Jesus' day, in right by the city, then a few more thousand nearby would be stirred of three people arrived. I would say if you had 50 or 100, I mean, listen, if you're carrying gold, all that distance, you probably want a few armed men to help you, just a little bit in the desert, don't you think? And frankincense in Merr could be more valuable than gold ounce for ounce, maybe some of you have studied that and know that. And how much supply would you want in the first place? If you were going to travel, how long do you suppose they traveled, by the way? Several months? What's the maximum they traveled, would you say? Maybe up to two years now because Herod killed all the children two years and under. Now my guess is that maybe they traveled a year and Herod said just to be safe, I'm going to kill everybody two years and under. But certainly many months, a year, maybe even more than a year, magi from the east, advisers to kings, some legitimate, some charlatans, knowledgeable people, whom God used to whom God spoke, getting their attention through a star. Now, sad thing is I brought an audio visual. Does anybody here have a bunch of coins? Just right here, right at hand. Just give them to me really fast. That's the only way it'll work. All right, got a bunch? I'll help you pick them up later. Now, in all honesty, I kind of blew my illustration because I have the coins right here somewhere, but I put a piece of paper on top of it. What I was going to do is drop it while talking. What would have happened if I dropped a bunch of coins while talking? Heads would snap, right? Because the sound of money, even pennies. The sound of money gets our attention. God used it would get the attention of the magi. What were the magi? What did they study? They were astrologers. They studied the stars. So to get their attention, God gave them a star. Okay, that's how he got them to the place that they could actually worship, that they could find the Christ. To help you get just a couple of them here, I guess. They're actually not that far spread. If you look at the story with me for a moment, you see what exactly happens when they arrive. First of all, it says that they came to Jerusalem and asked, where is the one who's been born, King of the Jews, we saw his star in the east and have come to worship him. Could you say anything worse than that to Herod? Where is the one who's been born, King, and what did Herod say? None of my wives have had babies lately. Therefore, I smell a threat. We've come to worship him. The word could mean to pay homage to him, not necessarily worship as God. The original word is ambiguous. So when Herod heard this, he was disturbed and the other, we almost overlooked, all Jerusalem with him because he heard it as a threat. The city heard it as a problem. Have you ever seen the apron that says, when Mama ain't happy, ain't nobody happy? See, that was actually first coined in Jerusalem. In the year 5 BC, and it said, when Herod ain't happy, ain't nobody happy because he could do some damage. That is very realistically what I think we need to read. Herod is disturbed and all Jerusalem with him. I mean, Jerusalem wouldn't be disturbed. They'd be hopeful if a new king was born. They didn't love Herod. Maybe they were hoping for the Messiah. So they're disturbed because Herod is disturbed and then Herod does a clever thing because he was no fool. He calls together, verse 4 says, the chief priest and teachers of the law to ask them where the Christ was to be born. Now, did you read enough to know what an odd couple this is? The chief priest word, we talked about this last week, the chief priests were ordinarily from what group or what party in Israel. They were ordinarily the sagesis. And most of the scribes or teachers' law were associated with the Pharisees. Therefore, what he's doing is getting leading people from the Pharisee party and leading people from the sagesis party and bringing them together. Do they like each other? They despise each other. So what he's saying is, if I can get my two groups or aren't all that fond of me for that matter, but if I can get them both in here and I question them both simultaneous and they both say the same thing, then I'll know it's the truth. So he brings them both in and they both agree they replied, verse 5 says, in Bethlehem and Judea because that's what the prophecy says, Bethlehem and Judea is by no means the least among the rulers of Israel, out of you will come, out of the rulers of Judah, out of you will come a ruler who has shepherd my people Israel. Upon hearing this, Herod called the Magi verse 7 secretly and found out from them the exact time the star appeared. You understand why? Understood and I'll get your question in a minute. The exact time they appeared and then he said, go and make a careful search and as soon as you find him report to me, it's not hard to see what Herod's intentions are. And although it's clear in the English, let me say that it is even clearer in the Greek that he is questioning them intensely. The word for questioning them is one that implies that he was asking them repeatedly. Tell me exactly, tell me all you know, tell me precisely when, precisely where and then immediately make a report to me. Isn't it odd? Isn't Herod doing a strange thing? If Jesus is the Christ, the King of the Jews, does He have a chance of killing Him? And if He's not, why should He worry? And yet that's the folly, isn't it? Of the wicked. They believe just enough to be terrified and angry. But they don't believe enough to realize how futile this is to fight against God. Well, Herod does a strange thing, but it's also worth asking, and I forget exactly how I put it to you in the question in front of you, who are Herod the Magi and the scribes, use that to illumine the passages meaning. I want to just draw on that question a little bit. What's Herod's response to the birth of Christ? How could you summarize that? Fear, paranoia, and an intent to murder, right? Fear that he then takes in a murderous direction. Well, the scribes and the Pharisees, the scribes and the chief priests, how did they respond to the birth of Christ? Isn't it interesting that they heard the prophecy from the Magi, the Word, King of the Jews have been born, where? In Bethlehem. What did they do about it? What should they have done? They should have said, hey, Magi, wait up. We'll go with you. We want to worship, too. That's not reported. They give an answer. They say, we know where, and let's be fair. I mean, it's possible that some of them might have gone, but by and large, we have no reference, no statement that as a whole, the group went. As a whole, the group reported and probably went back home. How about Jerusalem? They were worried about Herod. How about the Magi? Well, we know what they did, don't we? They went and they brought gifts of gold and frankincense and murder. Now, a lot of people study those three gifts very carefully, and I know I'm probably, but I spell it wrong, and I know that I'm probably going to offend somebody in about five seconds. It's really unlikely that they knew exactly what they were doing and choosing all three, you know, anointing for his burial and all that sort of thing. I think if you just look at antiquity, they brought the best and most expensive things they could lay their hands on. Gold is always the metal of kings, and always the most valuable metal. Maybe some have been found since then, but through the ages, gold is just the way I'm going to bring you the very best. The second sense of murder were probably the most expensive spices in the ancient world. They were the best gifts they could possibly lay their hands on. We could put it this way, maybe in today's terms, that did not come bearing aluminum, a Ugo, an aqua valva, or old spice. Sorry if anybody here wears old spice. But they came bringing, I'd still say gold, a top of the line, home entertainment center, or home computer, communication center, and maybe Alexis. They brought the best thing they could get their hands on. And these are the responses to this day. I want to show you that I believe that that's part of what Matthew's up to. He's giving the narrative of the life of Christ, introducing Christ. He starts with saying, he's God, he fulfills the properties of real man, but he's also pointing out to us already in the first store that he tells, the first narrative, that the response is the Christ differed. And these are the four classes of response that exist even to this day. There are still a few who are rather like Herod, and are filled with antipathy or hatred toward God, and do all they could to destroy God, His work, His church, His people. Not many, but there are some. Perhaps the greatest number, or like the people in Jerusalem, basically say, what's this going to do to me? I hope this doesn't cause me any trouble. One person once said to me, you know, I'd be a Christian if it just wasn't for that piving business, because then that gets involved in money. But if it just didn't involve money, then I would be all right. Most people say, can it hurt me? If not, okay, I'll ignore it. Then you're the scribes is a group that's pretty common, I would suppose, in America today. People have the orthodox answer, they know the facts, they do nothing about it. They believe perhaps that Jesus Christ is God, and maybe that He's the Savior, and it means nothing to them. They can give you the catechetical answer, they know their sinners, they know that God loves them, and Gabe has only gotten sun, and they have a lot of Bible verses and some theological knowledge, but there's no response. Interesting, isn't it, that the one who responded, the one group that responded was perhaps in some ways the group that knew the last, the least? It didn't know much, but they acted on what they knew. That's the mark of the Magi. This is a method I'm encouraging to use. We're talking about more later, it's in the book, getting the message, list the characters, and they're often representative of the ways of responding to God's work. Does that make sense to you, Dwayne? There's not quite enough information to make sense of this. First of all, Bethlehem, you need to understand, is a region, in fact, although this thing that I have here is a picture of the road that Jericho, it's actually not, that's not all that far from Bethlehem. There's a lot of fields there, and there's a central town with a couple thousand people in Jesus' day, but there were little houses where shepherds lived, and it could have been all sorts of places in that region, several square mile region. Fair question. Well, introducing the life of Christ. Let's move on next to not so much of the birth narratives, but to the Ministry of John, the Baptist, who prepared the way for the Ministry of Christ. As I said a little while ago, the Ministry of John is located very specifically in history, in the time of Tiberius Caesar, and the governors and so forth are located. So there's no question where John enters history. There's also no question as to what his message was. It's recounted in Matthew and Mark and Luke all the same repent for the kingdom of God or the kingdom of heaven as a hand. Now the gospel that takes the most interest in Luke in John is the gospel of Luke, and I know I said he mostly follow the gospel of Matthew, but just for some discussions we'll turn over to Luke. And there we find a little bit more detail about the message of John. The message of John was Luke 3-3, a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. Now as you may recall, it's quite possible that when John first said, repent for the kingdom of heaven, what the people thought of, was the reign of God, the overthrow of Rome. But if you listened on, you could see that that wasn't really what John had in mind. He did not have in mind a violent political action, what he had rather was a deep interest in sincere repentance. And he saw this repentance as a ministry of preparation. He said, he comes, voice crying to wilderness, repent and also prepare the way. A voice of one in the wilderness, chapter 3, verse 4 of Luke, saying, prepare the way of the Lord, make straight paths for him, and through that manner all mankind will see God's salvation. What he's probably saying is something like this. If you want to be ready for the coming of the Messiah, for the new thing that God is doing, you must be faithful to what God has already done. If you want to be ready for the new covenant, then be faithful to what you know of the old covenant, the code of holiness, the law of God. Now, I'm not saying that we can get ready for God to do something by going out and working hard and trying to get things together. What he's calling them to is not to work hard simply, but he's calling them to repentance and to loyalty. Loyal to God, showing by sorrow for sins. If you look at the way he describes repentance in these verses, it has four traits. It is urgent, first of all, that one repent. The axe is already laid at the root of the trees. If you ever chop down a tree, you size that tree up, you get your axe, and you tap it a couple times, and then the third time, bam! That was more like a baseball swing than an axe swing, but that's the idea. He's already tapped at a couple times. Now, he's ready to start chopping. It's urgent. Point 1, point 2. It needs to be sincere. He says, you're a brute of vipers, and if you are really repentant, verse 7, you must produce fruit in keeping with repentance. And don't dream we have Abraham as our father. God can take these stones and raise up children for Abraham. Third, it should be decisive, repent and be baptized. This is what it looks like in most of the region where John had his ministry. This is what it looked like where John did his other work. Now, it wasn't right here, it was by the Jordan, but there's plenty of water there for a washing that symbolized sorrow and repentance, and that was a decisive step that people had to take. Everybody did not get baptized in those days. Very few people were baptized. It was a way of radically saying, I need to be cleansed. I need to be purified from my uncleanness. Finally, it had to be concrete. You can see he said the rich, they should share it at tax collectors, they should be honest, the soldiers, they should be content with their pay and not resort to brigandage or looting in order to supplement their salaries. So he called the people of Israel to repentance. Toward the end of his ministry, Jesus came and was baptized. John was astonished that Jesus should come to be baptized. He said, I need to be baptized by you, not you, by me. Jesus said, no, let it be so to fulfill all righteousness. That is to say, Jesus was baptized in order to do everything that an observant Jew ought to do. Now the average observant Jew was a sinner and therefore the average observant Jew ought to partake of his sign of repentance. Jesus was not a sinner, but he was an Israelite. He identified with his people even to the point of identifying with them in their sin. Now he did that in the cross, he was already doing it here. So he was willing to be baptized. And after he was baptized, he was driven into the wilderness by the Holy Spirit to be tempted. And maybe now we'll turn back to Matthew 4 to look at the temptation of Christ. But first let me ask you all a question. What is the number one question that people have, maybe they've asked you, maybe you have it yourself, or objection people have about the temptation of Christ. What is the riddle here? If he's God, how could he be tempted? Isn't this all a gain? I mean if he's God and he's totally pure, can he really be tempted? In his present case he could because he was a man. We need to explore that a little bit and look at the temptation of Christ and see what it means. The first thing I want to say is that it was a real event. It's not a charade, it was real. If you look at it, you can see the reality of it because all temptation involves the appeal to a man or woman for something as good in itself. Imagine for a moment if you would, that there was a new commandment given today. Just imagine you would accept it. And the new commandment was, thou shalt not eat caviar. How would you all feel about that? It's a great, that's wonderful. In fact you're just to keep a round number of ten commandments. Why don't we take one off like maybe from the Sabbath day or maybe don't covet or don't bear false witness. I don't like to lie much but it comes in handy once a while. What would you say if the command came, thou shalt not eat peas split decision on that one, right? Some of you like it, some of you don't like peas, liver pate. What if the new command was, thou shalt not eat pizza? You know what happened if God said thou shalt not eat pizza? People would redefine pizza. They'd say, this isn't pizza, this is lozza. And this has more water in it or more oil in it so it's not really pizza. They would get around it and they'd say, this isn't a pizza pocket, this is an Italian oily bread dough with cheese, pepperoni confection, that's what it is. So I can eat that. To be tempted, here's my point. To be tempted by something, it has to appeal to you. You can't be tempted to do something that is repulsive, right? Now the things that were laid out before Jesus were all things that were desirable. Food, they've been fasting for 40 days. Knowledge, jump off, you know, and see the God will take care of it. It'd be nice to know, it'd be nice for Jesus to know that God would take care of him no matter what. I'm taking the second temptation, be temptation of knowledge. Explain that in a minute. The third temptation bowed down and he will give all the kingdoms of the world. Now maybe bound to Satan isn't very appealing, but the idea of having all the kingdoms of the world is very appealing because after all, Jesus is the rule of the world anyway. And this would be an easy way to get that. So these would all be things that would have some real appeal. And they're exactly the way temptations are always made for all of us. Temptation is almost always, I'll say always, but I don't like quibble with anybody if they might have a slightly different view. It's always or almost always, temptation is an opportunity or the lure to take something that's good in itself, at the wrong place, at the wrong time when it's not yours to possess. So one we think of easily would be a sexual temptation. It's not that sex is bad, but sexual temptation. You can't be tempted toward your spouse whom you love. That's called desire, love, or affection, or romance. It's not called temptation. Because it's good and it's yours to have. You're supposed to enjoy. It's called temptation when it's to someone whom you're not married, because although sex is good, it's not good to have sex with people whom you're not married. And so Jesus is tempted by these things. Bread, which is good, but in the wrong place in the wrong time. Knowledge, throw yourself down. See if God will take care of you. It's a temptation to know or in a selfish or vain or empty way, a way of testing God. I want to know, I want God to provide the answer for me. And bow down is the desire for power when it wasn't his to take. In these three things, Jesus is proving himself to be the faithful, the true, and faithful human. All three temptations are temptations to take something that is like the temptation that befell Adam and Eve. In Genesis 3, verse 6, you see that the first way which temptation came to Eve was a temptation to take something that's good for food, right? When the woman saw the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, good food. And it was good food, but it wasn't hers to take. It was from the forbidden tree. Jesus passed exactly where Eve failed. The test of Eve was, take something good, but it's not yours to take. Eve said, I'll do it. Jesus said, I won't. Second, with Eve was the temptation to knowledge. The fruit of the tree was pleasing to the eye and also desirable for gaining wisdom. You see that's what Satan said. You go ahead and take it because when you do your eyes will be open, you're no good and evil. So you'll know, well knowledge is good, but she wanted a seasoned knowledge that God didn't have for her out of the two. They said yes to grasping knowledge in a secret of way. Jesus said, no, he passed where Eve failed. And then finally, you can see that even in the case of the third temptation bowed down, that is ultimately what Eve did. Now if you, and Adam too, I don't want to lay it on Eve, but if you consider carefully the situation it looks like, it looks like Eve is here and hearing two voices. The voice of God saying don't eat and the voice of Satan saying eat, right? So you say God says trust me, you can add anything you want except don't eat the tree. And Satan is saying listen, that's the one thing you do want and God's afraid that you'll have his powers and prerogatives and that's why it doesn't want you to have it. When did Eve fall? Did she fall when she bit the fruit? Or did she fall when she put herself in this position as the arbiter between the voice of God and the voice of Satan? I'll say to you the fall was already in progress, the minute she started to weigh the options and weigh one voice against the other voice. Because already, when she tried to judge the word of the one against the word of the other, she had already begun to exalt herself and then it became easier for her in time. Once she'd exalt herself and committed the basics in, to in fact bow to Satan. There too, in the raw confrontation, Jesus passed the test. I said Satan uses temptation, all temptation is an appeal to something that's good in itself, right? But there is also, in temptation, a raw confrontation and the final analysis and the final analysis, it is a test to whom will you bow? Here's the voice of God, the voice of Satan. She might have thought, well, I'm just, this seems more plausible. I don't know why she would think it would be more plausible to listen to a snake than the God, but she thought it was more plausible. It looked like that, but in fact, what she was doing was bowing. There are three more things to say about the temptation. I want to say two of them before we take a break. One of them is that when Jesus said no to Satan, he said, yes, to the cross. Because all three of these temptations, where temptations that could have gotten him glory without the cross, make these stones in the bread. What a ministry, makes tones in the bread. Let me tell you, there's a lot of stones in Israel. You can make a lot of bread in Israel, and people would love to call you Messiah. John chapter 6, after Jesus fed the 5,000, many people came following him for the bread. When he said no to the stones in the bread, he said yes to the hard path. When he said no to jumping off the temple, he was saying no to the way of security. I will not guarantee that my life stays safe. And of course, when he said no to bowing down to Satan, Satan was saying take the bloodless path. I will give you glory now. Jesus was saying yes to the path that included the cross. The third thing, the last one for just now, is that when Jesus said no to Satan, he was also defeating him. He was beating him. He was seeing through Satan's poise. There was combat, there was spiritual warfare going on. And every time he answered by the word and every time he said no, Satan lost a little bit more. So finally he gave up and left, not for good, but to come back another time, then in the meantime, licking his wounds.