Victory over Temptation!"
Falling in Love with Jesus…all over again! An epic journey through the Gospel of Mark (message #4)
Pastor Jerry Ingalls
February 6, 2011
Today, we finish the prologue (which is verses 1-13) to Mark's account of the Good News of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, as foretold by the Prophet Isaiah. For a messaged entitled, "Victory over Temptation!" the word of God from Mark 1:12-13, "Immediately the Spirit impelled Him to go out into the wilderness. And He was in the wilderness forty days being tempted by Satan; and He was with the wild beasts, and the angels were ministering to Him." [prayer]
Mark's account of the Good News does not go into detail about the content of Jesus' temptation in the wilderness, but when you read the Gospel of Mark you see that the ministry of Jesus Christ was dominated by His confrontation with demonic forces, who are led by the enemy of God and accuser of humanity, Satan. Satan (introduced in v. 13) plays a part in God's epic story and without him, you can't really understand Jesus' epic ministry. In the same way, Satan continues to be a key player in our epic journeys because our ministries, just like Jesus' are dominated by confrontation with demonic forces. Jesus was victorious! Will our lives and ministries be victorious or defeated against Satan? Will our wilderness experiences confirm or deny our loyalty and obedience to God's mission?
Let's begin with the first teaching point, A SPIRIT-FILLED LIFE THAT HAS VICTORY OVER TEMPTATION TRUSTS GOD'S LEADING! (2x) In verse 12 we read, "Immediately the Spirit impelled [The Greek word is ekballō which means the Spirit drove Jesus, it compelled] Him to go out into the wilderness."
Last week, we learned that the Spirit-filled life is a life that hears the invitation of God and responds to it. This is a reality that is seen time and time again in the life of our Lord Jesus Christ. Jesus was sensitive to the Spirit of God working and He knew when He must go and when He must wait. Jesus trusts God's leading. When the Spirit compels, He goes. When the Spirit invites, He responds. Why? Because Jesus knows God intimately and knows that God has proven Himself trustworthy time and time again; that truth is recorded history! Here are two examples amongst many from the Old Testament.
In the approximate year 2100 BC, God called another man to the wilderness—he was the chosen man of God through whom all the families of the earth would be blessed. God promised! The testing time starts in Genesis 22:1, "Now it came about after these things, that God tested Abraham, and said to him, 'Abraham!' And he said, 'Here I am.'"
You can read more of this story for yourself (Genesis 12-25). Here is the bottom line: God tests the loyalty and obedience of Abraham by commanding him to go into the wilderness to sacrifice his only son Isaac.
God purposefully and knowingly put Abraham in a situation of great personal stress and turmoil and essentially asked Abraham, "Do you trust me to keep my promise to you? Do you trust my leading?" And what does Abraham do: without hesitation, immediately, Abraham says, "Here I am." Abraham follows God's lead into the wilderness because God is trustworthy; God keeps His promises every time!
Here is another example of many. In the year 586 BC God destroyed Jerusalem at the hands of the Babylonian Empire who then took God's people into captivity. God spoke to His chosen people through the Prophet Jeremiah telling them that they must make their home and raise their families outside of the Promised Land in the land of captivity, Babylon, for 70 years. Immediately upon telling them this harsh reality, God proclaimed this famous promise to His people in Jeremiah 29:11, "'For I know the plans I have for you,' declares the LORD, 'plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.'"
In the midst of discipline and exile, God tested the loyalty and obedience of His chosen people. And like them you and I will have to go to places and walk through circumstances that feel more like God has abandoned us than promised us prosperity, hope and a future. Will you trust God even when you feel like He has abandoned you? And like Abraham, you and I are going to be invited to walk into situations of great personal discomfort and asked to do things that cost us more than we think we can bear. Will you trust God and make the sacrifice?
Remember this truth about God from Isaiah 55:8, "'For My thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways My ways,' declares the LORD." We are finite beings and God is infinite! God is the Creator and we are His creation. We cannot know the mind of God or begin to comprehend His ways! Trust is built on what we can know about God through His proven track record. Do you trust God in the midst of challenging and confusing life circumstances? Do you believe God's leading (and timing!) are best in your life?
Let's continue in our Scripture lesson and apply the second teaching point. A SPIRIT-FILLED LIFE THAT HAS VICTORY OVER TEMPTATION CLAIMS THE PROMISES OF GOD! The first half of verse 13 records, "And He was in the wilderness forty days being tempted by Satan;"
Jesus was driven to the wilderness by the Holy Spirit and for 40 days Satan tempted Him to sin against God. Why the wilderness? Why did God allow orchestrate this ordeal for His Son?
By the turn of the 15th century BC, the twelve tribes of Judah had spent nearly 300 years in Egyptian captivity and then God sent them His Servant Moses to rescue them from slavery. In God's power, Moses led them out of Egypt, miraculously crossing them through the Red Sea and safely to the base of Mount Sinai where God gave Moses the Ten Commandments. God established the Old Covenant with His people, but His chosen people immediately rebelled against Him! So, God sent them into the wilderness for a 40 year ordeal of testing.
Deuteronomy 8:2 records, "You shall remember all the way which the LORD your God has led you in the wilderness these forty years, that He might humble you, testing you, to know what was in your heart, whether you would keep His commandments or not."
This is the background of the temptation of Jesus. God led the Israelites into the wilderness for forty years (God led Jesus into the wilderness for forty days) to humble and test what was in their hearts; to see whether or not they would keep His commandments. In the same way, through the instrument of Satan, God tests the obedience of His Son Jesus Christ. Watch the expanded account of the temptations of Jesus Christ in the wilderness in the Gospel of Matthew 4:1-11.
Jesus remains faithful to God's plan; He is the obedient Son! God used forty years to confirm and test a people who would enter the Promised Land. With Jesus, God used forty days to confirm and test a person who would usher in the Kingdom of God. Immediately after the test, Jesus proclaims the Kingdom to the people.
How did Jesus stand victorious against Satan? First, He knew and trusted He was where He was by God's leading. If you are going to stand with the King for His Kingdom, then you must expect to be tested and tempted; this is a reality of the Spirit-filled life. Hardship is a guarantee!
Second, from Matthew 4:1-11, Jesus memorized and claimed the promises of God and was therefore victorious against temptation from Satan. Jesus went into battle well armed! When the enemy comes to attack you, will you too be well armed to stand firm against his deceptions and lies?
Ephesians 6:17 teaches us of our weapon, the same one Jesus used against Satan, "Take . . . the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God."
Satan's objective with Jesus was to deflect Jesus from following God's plan for His life; to compromise his loyalty and obedience to God. In the wilderness, Jesus had to choose between the way of God and the way of Satan. Satan tempted Jesus to sin against God by choosing the way of selfish ambition rather than the way of selfless sacrifice! Every time, in the wilderness, and throughout His earthly ministry, Jesus was victorious against these attacks because He claimed the promises of God; He memorized and quoted Scripture!
We too are under this same attack every day. We must be well armed to stand firm every day. Psalm 119:11 gives us the way to be victorious over temptation, "I have hidden your word in my heart that I might not sin against you." Do you make it a daily habit to read and meditate upon the word of God? Are you memorizing the promises of God?
Memorize this promise of God from 1 Corinthians 10:13, "No temptation has overtaken you but such as is common to man; and God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will provide the way of escape also, so that you will be able to endure it."
God has given us a sword for battle—the Bible! We watch Jesus quote from the Law of God (Deuteronomy) each of the three times Satan tempts Him to sin against God. Even when Satan twisted God's word against Jesus (as he did with Eve in the Garden of Eden and as he will do to you in your life!), Jesus knew God's word well enough to discern the difference between the real promises of God and the counterfeit! Are you immersed in the word of God enough to discern between real and counterfeit promises?
The victorious life is a life that reads, meditates upon, memorizes, and claims the truths of Scripture every day. Temptation will not be defeated by church attendance or even by having a daily devotion, but only by living a life of devotion! Are you living a life of devotion that claims the promises of God?
Let's finish our study with this third teaching point, A SPIRIT-FILLED LIFE THAT HAS VICTORY OVER TEMPTATION REMAINS FOCUSED ON THE VICTORY! It is so easy to become distracted. True? In fact, on Wednesday night between 10 and 10:30 p.m. when I was working on this sermon I kept getting frequent texts from a person I did not know (I finally texted him back so he knew I was not the person he was trying to get a hold of) and then immediately I got two calls from a restricted phone number. The first was an obscene phone call from a man who called himself Satan and the second was from the same man who wanted to know if my church allowed "gay people" to attend, and when I said yes, he said he would see me on Sunday. I thought great!
Satan, who appears to have taken on the form of a crank caller who cares whether or not we welcome all people to this safe place for people to experience reconciliation with God, told me he was coming to our church. Little did he know that I expect Satan to show up every Sunday!
Let me tell you friends, my heart beat a bit faster and I got fired up for this message because I knew I was hitting where it hurt if I was getting verbal notification of Satan's arrival. So I am here to declare to you, beloved of Christ, that we must, as a people of God, remain focused on the Victor Jesus Christ and the Victory of the Cross of Calvary which is for all people—idol worshippers, homosexuals and heterosexuals, broken you and broken me.
When we truly and whole-heartedly accept Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior we are filled with the Holy Spirit, who is the power of God in us to confess our sins and repent of our former ways of life (to turn away from our sinful past whether that past is riddled with sexual sin, racism, hate and rage, bitterness and unforgiveness). It is through the Victory of Jesus Christ that we, each of us, are made whole again. We are made right with God (restored!) so that we can experience God's Kingdom. That is the reality that is foreshadowed in the wilderness. Mark 1:13b states, "and He was with the wild beasts, and the angels were ministering [diakoneō Deacon-one who ministers/tends to] to Him."
Jesus Christ is the master of all creation—both above (the angels who ministered to Him) and below (the wild beasts who were peaceably with Him). This scene captures our promised return to Eden—the fulfillment of the Victory that we all await for when God's Kingdom fully reigns on earth. At the end of Mark's record of Jesus' temptations, we are reminded of what is to come to give us the strength to carry on and fight another day. James 1:12 promises, "Blessed is a man who perseveres under trial; for once he has been approved, he will receive the crown of life which the Lord has promised to those who love Him."
It strengthens us to know that our God has declared the final victory. Evil was defeated once and for all on the Cross of Calvary, and in the promised and foreseen second coming of Jesus, He will return to rule the Kingdom and bring God's will perfectly to earth as it is in Heaven. Yes, it is true, Satan is still on the loose and is trying everyday to kill, steal, and destroy and thwart God's plan for you and through you. But, Jesus has come to give you the abundant life and He knows that His followers will go through hard times, He knows we will fail (disobey, mistrust, go our own way!), and He has prayed for us so we can persevere until the end.
Listen to the words of Jesus to His disciples, from the Gospel of Luke 22:28-32, "You are those who have stood by me in my trials. And I confer on you a kingdom, just as my Father conferred one on me, so that you may eat and drink at my table in my kingdom and sit on thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel. Simon, Simon, Satan has asked to sift all of you as wheat. But I have prayed for you, Simon, that your faith may not fail. And when you have turned back, strengthen your brothers."
God sends us into times of testing, not to break us, but to make us better soldiers or athletes for Him. God does not send us into the wilderness of our lives to ruin us, but for our good. Not so that we will fall, but so that our roots will run deeper and our trunks will grow thicker—God's intent is good—to strengthen our resolve and commitment to the King and His Kingdom. Did you know that the famous Redwood Trees need fire to thrive?
When a coach sees an athlete who is ready for the next level, he does not move him from JV to the freshman squad; he moves him to Varsity. Why? We must be trained for greater things. We must be put into situations where we will be challenged to prepare us for that which is to come. As fellow-athletes of the Lord, we must trust our Coach to train us for victory. The Bible teaches us in 1 Corinthians 9:24-25, "Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one gets the prize? Run in such a way as to get the prize. Everyone who competes in the games goes into strict training. They do it to get a crown that will not last, but we do it to get a crown that will last forever." Are you distracted by the pursuit of crowns that will rust away and can be stolen? Only one focus will ensure the victorious life—focus on the Victor Jesus Christ and the Victory He has won for you!
It is easy to lose an eternal focus in the midst of life's storms and circumstances. Are you prepared for the confrontations and distractions caused by evil forces? Are you focused on the Victor Jesus Christ and the Victory He has won for you? How are you going to run the race set before you?
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