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Evening Fellowship Service
Good, let's begin tonight with number 29 in your supplement book number 29 I'm gonna sing another Christmas song.
Doing this.
Beginning this series on Mark the life of Jesus, of course. The gospel according to Mark Holy Child is the song Let's stand shall we as we sing that you've gotten comfortable seated. It's you uncomfortable Who chose the hearts of men to be his favorite?
Heaven's gates for Bethlehem God came to call his own. Now to us the highest King is born. Behold the Royal Son. Glory kneels to bind up all that's torn. The promised one has come. Joy and pain as man he knew on earth no place to lay his head as a servant he Embraced this world and on a cross he bled.
Having borne the deepest grief of man. He rose to heaven's throne. Now I'm sheltered in the father's and until he calls me home. May the gift of God Amaze us still the triumph of all time. As a child I need to heaven's will and make his purpose mine.
Though this road be scarred with trial and pain it's paved with lavish grace. Knowing him will be my greatest gain. His throne my resting place. We're thankful father that You sent your son into this world because you loved us in this way.
You gave your only begotten son. Whosoever would believe in him should not perish but have everlasting life. And those who receive him who become your children have this Promise that dwelling within us is The Spirit of God given by the Son of God to the glory of God.
So we thank you for the coming of this. Holy child the Lord Jesus became a man and walked among us and Carried out the work that you sent him to do. I Pray that you'd bless our time together this evening and the study of your word.
And I pray that we would learn and grow from it and we ask it in Jesus name. Amen. All right, you may be seated. So I want to read a psalm and then sing a psalm one for Psalm 147. Psalm 147 47th Psalm read together and then we'll sing this.
Psalm 147 Says praise the Lord for it is good to sing praises to our God for it is pleasant and praise is beautiful. The Lord builds up Jerusalem. He gathers together the outcasts of Israel. He heals the broken-hearted and binds up their wounds.
He counts the number of the stars. He calls them all by name. Great is our Lord and mighty in power. His understanding is infinite. The Lord lifts up the humble. He cast cast the wicked down to the ground.
Sing to the Lord with thanksgiving. Sing praises on the harp to our God who covers the heavens with clouds. Who prepares rain for the earth. Who makes grass to grow on the mountains? He gives to the beast its food and to the young ravens that cry.
He does not delight in the strength of the horse. He takes no pleasure in the legs of a man. The Lord takes pleasure in those who fear him and those who hope in his mercy. Praise the Lord. Oh Jerusalem praise your God.
Oh Zion. For he has strengthened the bars of your gates. He has blessed your children within you. He makes peace in your borders and fills you with the finest wheat. He sends out his command to the earth.
His word runs very swiftly. He gives snow like wool. He scatters the frost like ashes. He casts out his hail like morsels who can stand before his cold. He sends out his word and melts them. He causes his wind to blow and the waters flow.
He declares his word to Jacob his statutes and his judgments to Israel. He has not dealt thus with any nation and as for his judgments they have not known them. Praise the Lord. May the Lord add his blessing to the reading of this is word.
So in that one particular verse. The Lord counts the numbers of the stars and he calls them all by name. One of the one of the things that I kind of wanted to do when Chris and I went out out to the southwest last month.
Was one night just to go out somewhere in the wilderness like you know out and that area could be just about anywhere you go about any direction and and just wait for the stars to you know, the eyes to adjust in the stars, we never got to do that and I Regret that next time we go out somewhere like that.
We'll do it. You know Joshua tree is a great place to National Park. It's a great place to do that. There's no lights no light pollution nothing and you can look up and see the the myriad of stars and to see that and then Read this verse that he counts the number of them even the ones that we can't see and he knows them all by name.
Amazing is our God so in your Psalter number 331 is.
Is.
The corresponding song for this psalm 331. It is music to the Lord is right. Not I. Don't think this is a familiar tune to us, but it's I think an easy one. So Let's let's try it together. We'll sing just the first four stanzas.
There's 12 of them, that's if we won't do all of them just to get familiar with this particular psalm. You know what? Why don't you play the tune that played play through it for us once just so we can get the idea of It almost forgot the Alleluia.
All right, let's try it together. Music to the Lord is right. Music to the Lord is right. Praising him is our delight. Light who rebuilds Jerusalem. Gathering Israel. Easy enough tune to learn. All right, we want to share some testimonies tonight and while you're thinking or planning on that Just an update on on Jody.
Bob texted me this afternoon and said that he talked to a neurologist doctor today and The doctor said that what she is dealing with right now is not withdrawal. That it's something going on with the brain.
He went on to explain What that looks like? And he has another appointment the two doctor that doctor and another we're going to converse tomorrow and a neurologist I guess and talk about her situation.
So Just pray for some clarity there and some understanding of what's what's going on With with Jody, so pray for her. I think my wife should probably be there by now. But Chris left this afternoon to go spend a couple days with her mom.
She did not get to communicate with her at all on Mother's Day, and I have a conference to go to tomorrow so she took advantage of that time and So pray for her and her mom to have a good time together.
Some testimonies tonight. Yes, sir. Revering power. Remind us of your name again, Paul. Someone else. Intended. Yeah, I want to share this article with you that I came across the other day.
And.
When you hear some of the stuff I'm gonna read it will like Pastor will acquit mentioned this morning, you know, he watches the news. He even even channels that he can trust and he doesn't want to watch it because it makes him angry.
You can respond in that way to this article. But I want you to think about I want you to think about the person the the human being that is Communicating that is talking about herself here. This is a Demi Lovato.
I guess is how you pronounce her name. I didn't really know who she is that tells you how out of touch I am with modern pop culture, but she is a she's a pop icon I guess and The article says this is from CBS News it says singer Demi Lovato has announced that art now listen carefully singer Demi Lovato first person singers singular right has announced that they are non-binary and Are changing their pronouns to they slash them.
They said that quote revelation followed a quote a lot of healing and self-reflective work and quote in a Twitter video early Wednesday. Introducing her new pod their new podcast the pop singer says they don't identify as male or female.
She says quote. I want to take this moment to share something very personal with you over the past year and a half I've been doing some healing and self-reflective work and through this work. I've had the revelation that I identify as non-binary.
Lovato said they are officially changing their pronouns to they slash them adding that the label non-binary quote best represents the fluidity I feel in my gender expression and Allows me to feel most authentic and true to the person.
I know the true to the person. I both know I am and still am discovering and the article goes on and When I read this and I read there's there's more in this and I won't bother you with it. But but when I read this my my immediate response was What in the world happens to the mind?
What happens to the mind that you can come to this kind of a conclusion that says for a woman and she's fully and completely a woman to say I Sometimes feel like I'm a man. Sometimes I feel like a woman so I'm not really a male or a female.
I just kind of go with the flow. I'm very fluid in my gender the the mind. You know Romans 1 the Lord talks about Rome Paul talks about the Lord giving people over to the to the corruption of their mind and this is just a another example of that and the sad thing is That she is applauded she is applauded by the mainstream culture for being true to herself and true to her authentic being to her authentic person and Yeah, so Again, that can make us angry when we think about where our culture has come to to that to such a level.
But at the same time, I think it should cause us as believers to respond with a sense of pity and and and grief and sadness because what is really the matter with this person what's really wrong deep down in the heart and soul of someone who would Who would try to deal with life in such a way?
It's it's incredibly sad and yet this is the world Which we live so All right. Well, I want to move from that to a positive a song. Encouraging song number 21 in your supplement 21 the song God moves in a mysterious way His wonders to perform.
I'm 21 by William Cooper friend of John Newton who suffered tremendously with depression serious bouts of depression through the years. So, let's let's sing this together. God moves in a Mysterious way his wonders to perform.
He plants his footsteps in the sea and rides upon the stone Unfathomable Minds of never measures up works his sovereign will judge not the Lord by feeble sense. But trust him for his gray behind a frowning Providence he hides a smile failing Purposes will ripen fast.
Unfolding.
Every.
But but sweet will be the fly. I'm done. Belief is sure to her and scan his work.
In.
His own.
Interpreter.
Very good. So I chose that him because of what we read in Mark chapter 1 as we Think about and see how the Lord has been prepared for and now in this particular passage that we're going to read tonight How he is prepared.
I want to just read verses 9 through 13 Mark chapter 1. So find your place and then follow along. Mark 1 verse 9 says it came to pass in those days that Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee and was baptized by John in the Jordan and Immediately coming up from the water. He saw the heavens parting and the Spirit descending upon him like a dove.
Then a voice came from heaven. You are my beloved son in whom I am well pleased. Immediately the Spirit drove him into the wilderness and he was there in the wilderness 40 days Tempted by Satan and was with the wild beasts and the angels ministered to him.
Our father. I pray that you would encourage us and speak to us through this passage of preparation. We pray in Jesus name. Amen. So one of the challenges of going through some of life's experiences is actually Discerning their value.
What is the value of this experience that I'm going through for example? In the early summer before my senior year of high school, I Attended a I attended a Bob Jones University banquet. They call them these summer banquets.
They'd go around the country and they'd hold to host these banquets and and they and invite.
But.
Prospective students and you could use prospective students could go for free. Anybody could but there was always an offering or whatever. But anyhow, so I attended this banquet I had no real interest in Bob Jones.
The banquet came along. My parents said you want to go and I said, well, okay, you know, I'll go. I had my plans figured out. I I was interested in computers and I was planning to go to Florida Institute of Technology near Melbourne my grandparents lived in Melbourne, so I was gonna I was gonna dorm with my grandparents and go to FIT and get a degree in computer science so I go to this banquet and They do this little thing.
They show a film and in the film they they talked about this new minor that The university was offering in the next year and computer science a minor in computer science. So this was back in 1975 so computers were in their infancy and that whole thing was in its infancy.
So anyhow, I kind of piqued my interest and I finally decided you know what? I think I'll go there I think I'll go there and I'll major in business and minor in computer science and you know, and and it's cheaper and It looks like it'd be a good education.
So yeah, I think I'll go there and I applied and I was accepted. I had no real spiritual interest in going there. It wasn't like oh, this is a Christian College. I'll help me grow in my faith in Christ.
It wasn't At that moment. It wasn't on my radar screen. I had no idea That the Lord was using that experience to prepare me For the ministry, I mean it was several months later that he the Lord really got a hold of my heart and and by that time I had been accepted at BJU to be a business major and a computer science minor and Eventually that got changed to to pastoral pastoral studies.
But but again at that moment I Had no idea what the Lord was doing in preparing me for something radically different than what I thought. But we can be equally oblivious when it comes to some of those experiences of life that are significant hardships That we don't really appreciate at in the least bit things that we go through that are Are painful and and they they hurt.
They hurt us they hurt our our families sometimes and we just don't we don't we don't see why we don't see the value In it, we don't see what's going on but fortunately Many times with the passing of time we gain perspective.
We're able to look back on those experiences those hardships and We can see what the Lord was doing in it. So again, for example, I Spent in my first ministry for pastoral ministry 11 very very very long months in Colchester, Illinois, and it was That experience was challenging on many many levels I I just experienced things that I never thought I would experience.
I never never expected to experience in the ministry and again, I lasted there 11 months, you know, we left with nowhere to go and Ended up living with my parents for several months and you know, it was just it was just a miserable difficult challenging time.
But with the passing of time I was able to look back on that and realize that the Lord used those 11 very very difficult months to prepare me to be a teachable assistant pastor for four years and then to teach me prepare me to be more resolute in my You know pastoral leadership.
When we went to Oak Ridge, Tennessee and had the pastor a church there that had some real challenges. It was a challenging ministry. So the Lord used that in many ways and he had used that in preparation for Years to come.
I mean I've been in the ministry now for 40 years. So And I've learned a bunch from that one initial experience the Lord used it to prepare to prepare me. So in both of those cases both of those cases.
The experience that I went through was preparing me for the kind of ministry that the Lord had for me in the years To come. All right, so we come to Mark chapter 1 and in verses 1 through 8 John the Baptist ministry was that of preparing for Jesus preparing for Jesus.
But these verses we just read. They deal more with the preparing of Jesus himself not in a sense of there was. There were character flaws that needed to be corrected or anything like that whatsoever. But preparing him for the unique ministry that he was to fulfill.
And what I want us to notice first of all in verses 9 to 11 is that sometimes? Preparation is public and voluntary public and voluntary. So in verse 9 notice how Jesus publicly on his own initiative publicly identified with us.
Verse 9 says it came to pass in those days. Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee and was baptized by John in the Jordan he on his initiative Voluntarily left his hometown of Nazareth after he'd lived there Presumably for the last 30 years apprenticed apparently as a carpenter's son and learned to trade.
But he left all of that behind he left the familiarity of Nazareth he left the Comfort and security of the town that he grew up in and the people that he knew and so on and he left that voluntarily and those of you who have Have lived in a place for so long that that that is your home.
That is your home and then and then if you've been uprooted from that for one reason or another. You you always look back at that and it's a difficult thing to leave that place. And you look back at that place is your hometown.
Well, this was I mean Jesus remember remember remember Jesus was fully.
Man.
He was fully man. He said well, he was God too. Yes, but he was fully man. He was he was completely human saving a sin nature. So he left this hometown and he left voluntarily, but he left purposefully.
This wasn't arbitrary. It wasn't a. I think I want to venture out into the world and see what I can find. No, he left deliberately. Notice it says it came. Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee and was baptized.
And Matthew tells us in his record of the baptism of Jesus. That that was very intentional in Matthew 3 13. He says then Jesus came from Galilee to John at the Jordan to be baptized by him. So the departure from Nazareth Nazareth was purposeful.
I'm going to the Jordan to be baptized by John. And. What Jesus did in this very public? Voluntary act.
Was.
Except he accepted the baptism of repentance Even though he had nothing to repent of and in fact, he insisted on it. So again, look with me at John at Matthew's account of this Matthew 3. Because when Jesus came to be baptized at the Jordan River be baptized by John.
John protested verse 14 of Matthew 3. It said John tried to prevent him. I Don't know. No, he says I need to be baptized by you and you're coming to me. No, this is something's wrong here is what John is saying, but Jesus answered and said to him Permit it to be so now for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness.
Then he allowed him. Jesus insisted on this being baptized and accepting this baptism of repentance. But he didn't accept it because he had anything to repent of. He did this he accepted this baptism for several reasons.
One of them was to identify with the sins of his people even though he was sinless. He's going to be the sin bearer. And so in this act of baptism Allowing John to baptize him. He is he is saying I am I am Identifying with the people that I have come to save.
But there's more to it than that this accepting of baptism also Intended to picture the death burial and resurrection that was going to come. So and and we understand baptism to this day with that idea in mind and this was what Jesus did.
He went into the Jordan River and he was baptized. He was immersed. That's what the word baptized means. He was immersed into the Jordan River and Went under the water this symbolizes death death to the old and And the burial and then it comes up new life resurrection.
So Jesus being baptized is picturing his own coming death burial and resurrection though it is yet Three years out and he's also in this act Prefiguring the significance of Christian baptism of the baptism that if you've been baptized you you went through you also were baptized to signify death burial and Resurrection and your identity with Christ your oneness your unity with Christ.
And then there's another thing to think about remember. Before Jesus ascends into heaven. He tells his disciples Go into all as you are going into all the world make disciples of all nations Baptizing them in the name of the Father Son and Holy Spirit.
Jesus commands us to be baptized and He takes the lead by being baptized himself so in this the the the the nugget that I want you to get here from verse 9 is that in this voluntary Public act Jesus is identifying with us but in this voluntary public experience Jesus also was publicly anointed for service he's being prepared for the ministry that he is the unique ministry that he is to fulfill and In verse 10, he's publicly anointed for service.
Immediately as he came up out of the water He saw the heavens parting and the Spirit Descending upon him like a dove and so the Holy Spirit comes upon him in this scene in this experience and Empowers him for the humble service that he is going to perform for the next three years.
The humble service and the eventual sacrifice. He is empowered by the Spirit for this and.
This.
Descending of the dove upon him the coming of the Spirit upon him is really kind of reminiscent of Of the Old Testament expression where the Spirit of the Lord came upon. Different individuals remember the Spirit of the Lord came upon Gideon.
The Spirit of the Lord came upon Jephthah. The Spirit of the Lord came upon Samson even after Samson had cut off his hair had his eyes plucked out he'd taken captive by the Philistines, but his hair began to grow and the Spirit of the Lord came upon him when he was between those two pillars in the in the in the Theater the public spectacle place and he's there and he this with the Spirit of the Lord coming upon him.
He has the power to cause the collapse of this of this particular place. It's also reminiscent of the Spirit of the Lord coming upon David. The Spirit of the Lord coming upon the prophets you had this expression over and over again in the Old Testament but now the Spirit of the Lord comes upon the Lord Jesus and Empowers him for the service and the sacrifice that he is to perform.
Now I want you to turn back to Isaiah chapter 11 and Notice that Isaiah in a couple of different places prophesies that this is going to take place in Isaiah 11 verses 1 and 2. The prophecy says there shall come forth a rod from the stem of Jesse and A branch shall grow out of his roots my copy of the of the Bible.
The word rod is capitalized as is the word branch Signifying that that is to point to Jesus and it does. So a branch shall grow out of the roots of Jesse and then verse 2 the Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him the Spirit of wisdom and understanding the Spirit of counsel and might the Spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the Lord.
And In Isaiah 61 verse 1, this is the verse that Jesus read and applied to himself. Which says The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me because the Lord has anointed me to preach good tidings to the poor.
Notice the focus on the ministry that he is to perform. To preach good tidings to the poor He has sent me to heal the broken-hearted to proclaim liberty to the captives and the opening of the prison to those who are bound to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord.
So this Coming of the Spirit of the Lord upon Jesus as he comes up out of the water Is to empower him preparing him for the service that he is about to perform. But the Spirit comes in a way and I want you to notice this Comes in a way that it would express the character of his service he comes in the form of a dove and not in the form of.
Fire.
The spirit could come in the form of fire he has and he will. But not now he comes upon Jesus preparing him for his unique ministry by coming in the form of a dove and.
That that.
Form communicates Symbol. It presents a symbol of Peace and of harmlessness. For example, Matthew 10. Remember Jesus said in this world be wise as serpents, but harmless as a dove. And. Again, Isaiah prophesied the significance of that when in Isaiah 42 He prophesies the character prophesies the character of the ministry that Messiah will have.
Isaiah 42 verse 1 says behold my servant whom I uphold My elect one in whom my soul delights. I have put my spirit upon him and What what will his ministry be like? He will bring forth justice to the Gentiles.
He will not cry out nor raise his voice nor cause his voice to be heard in the street a bruised reed. He will not break and a smoking flax. He will not quench. He will bring forth justice for truth. He will not fail in it.
So this ministry of the Lord Jesus is going to be the ministry of the The anointing of the spirit in the form of a dove. One of the commentators I looked at said this about this symbol. He said in this symbol has been held out to us an eminent token of the sweetest Consolation that we may not fear to approach to Christ who meets us.
Not in the formidable power of the spirit, but clothed with gentle and lovely grace as Jesus Is John tells us Jesus came full of grace and truth. So Jesus publicly identified with us and he publicly was anointed for service as he prepares for this unique ministry to come ahead.
And then in verse 11 He is publicly authorized for this service to come as the voice comes from heaven and says You are my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased and.
He's he's authorized for this service by this Affirmation of the divine relationship. You are my son my beloved one. Notice the Nature of this relationship. It is an ongoing one. You are My beloved son not you have been or you will be but you are in an ongoing Relationship my son.
It is unique you are my son my beloved one and and this is said only of Jesus and spoken only to him and it is a loving relationship. You are my son the beloved one literally is how that can be translated so this authorization divine authorization for the coming ministry of Jesus is Affirmed affirms the divine relationship, but it also affirms the divine mission.
Here at the at the outset this inauguration of the public ministry of Jesus. The voice from heaven comes and says with you I am well pleased. With you I am well pleased. Now there are a couple other places where the voice from heaven speaks affirming the Pleasure of the Father in the ministry of the Son.
Roughly mid-range midway through a little more than midway through the public ministry of Jesus remember Jesus takes a couple of disciples up on the Mount of Transfiguration and he's transfigured before them and You know Peter says this thing let's build some booths one for you Moses and Elijah and and then the voice from heaven that says This is my beloved son.
With whom I am well pleased hear him. So it's like okay at the very beginning of this public ministry the father Affirms the divine mission. I am pleased with what you are doing. I am pleased with what you are about to do.
He could have said he could have said if he wasn't pleased. Well, you know, I really appreciate your spirit, but this isn't what we would is what we discussed in eternity past. No. You are right on mission.
I am well pleased a little more than halfway through on the Mount of Transfiguration. I'm well pleased with what you're doing and then in John chapter 12 You know just before the crucifixion so at the end of his public ministry in John 12 verses 27 and 28 Jesus says to his disciples now, my soul is troubled and what shall I say father save me from this hour?
But for this purpose came I to this hour and then Jesus prays. He says father glorify your name. Then a voice came from heaven saying I have both glorified it and will glorify it again. How has he glorified it?
Through the Son and the work of the Son so the the father affirms this coming public ministry of Jesus this unique ministry of Jesus. Some preparation is public and voluntary. But the next couple of verses show us that some preparation is private personal and compulsory.
Private personal and compulsory. Immediately after he comes up out of the water immediately after this experience with the Spirit coming upon him. What the Spirit does who comes upon him is drives him out into the wilderness.
This is not what we would expect. Right. I mean Jesus has just been inaugurated into this new unique Ministry that he is to fulfill we would expect him to get at it to get at it. We would not expect him to go off privately out into a wilderness somewhere and we certainly would not expect him to be driven out into that wilderness by the Holy Spirit and We certainly would not have expected him to go out there in private for 40 days to be tempted by the devil and yet.
This is.
This is what? This is what the Spirit drove him to in order. Now listen. Here's the point. In order to prepare him for his role of high priest of our high priest notice how this experience was compulsory.
The Spirit drove him. And that word that word that's Translated here drove is in the Greek. It's a it's a compound word.
It is.
Ekbalo the word balo means to throw to cast forth the little Preposition before it ek means out to to throw out. The Holy Spirit threw him out into the wilderness. This is this is nothing but compulsory he's going into the wilderness under the compulsion of the Holy Spirit and This experience this compulsory experience demanded of Jesus incredible endurance.
Where he was facing the threat in that wilderness of social isolation for 40 days 40 days in the wilderness. Jesus was a Jesus was the consummate people person. Don't you think. I mean he loved people he loved being around people he loved being with people.
Oh, yes. He did get away privately to be with the father. But that just prepared him to go back to be with people. He was the consummate people person and and You know the difference between an extrovert and an introvert a people person and a not people person.
An introvert an Introvert can be with people and enjoys being with people but it drains him and he has to go and get a he has to go get alone to get recharged and refueled. An Extrovert if he's alone man, it just drains him.
He loved he gets energy. He's energized by being with people it it charges him up. Jesus is a people person and yet he he's thrown out into this wilderness for 40 days to be by himself alone. Facing the threat of social isolation, but also facing the threat of physical harm.
He was with the wild beasts. I Was curious to know what wild beasts might he encountered and I I think I wasn't gonna take a whole lot of time with this. But I wanted to just see if I could find out some and and I didn't get anywhere with that.
And I mean I could have if I went further, but I just don't want taking more time with it. But the point is clear, you know. Whatever snakes or creatures or critters that were out there that could threaten him physically.
He was with them and he also faced the threat of spiritual assault tempted tempted by Satan so the experience the experience Involved in demanded great endurance, but it also involved this satanic confrontation where he was literally being tempted.
You know the other Two we call them synoptic Gospels. Matthew Mark and Luke are synoptic they they look at the optics are similar as. They look at the life and ministry of Jesus. John's is completely different.
Matthew and Luke both talk about the temptation of Jesus and they give us much more detail. They tell us about Details they tell us about these three kinds of temptation Jesus faced. And and we read of that and we think oh, well he faced three temptations.
I think it's better to suggest better to say that those three temptations that Matthew and Luke tell us about our representative and not exhaustive. He was out there being tempted in an ongoing incessant way and this temptation this Confrontation that he had with Satan was a targeted confrontation where Satan targeted the same three areas of temptation or the for the or the Potential sin that he targeted with Eve the lust of the flesh the lust of the eyes the pride of life.
Turn this stone to bread, you know, put yourself a bow down and worship me and I'll give you all of this. You know cast yourself down off the temple and the the the angels will keep you from dashing your foot.
He's he's zeroing in on the lust of the flesh the lust of the eyes the pride of life. So it's targeted. But it's overcome. It's overcome now mark doesn't go into those details. So I'm not going to either you can go to To to Matthew chapter 4 or Luke chapter 4 to rehearse that but it involved this experience of preparation involved satanic confrontation.
Then the last part of verse 13. Notice how this experience involved angelic ministration. Angels ministered to him now. This is a mystery. This is a mystery to us if you stop and think about it, right.
How so? All right, who is Jesus? He is the perfect sinless Son of God. He's fully man but he's also fully God. And What just happened to Jesus? In the baptism, what just happened. The Spirit of God descended upon him like a dove.
He's anointed with the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is with him through all of this and yet he needed and accepted divine ministry ministry of these Angelic ministers now, I thought about that and I thought you know.
Are we any less needful? Oh my goodness. If Jesus needed the ministry of this of the of an angelic Angelic ministry, how much more do we need it? And then I got to wondering are we served?
Ways that we had we're not we're not even aware of we don't even know. I Think we are. I think we are. We can entertain angels and not even know it and I think this is an indication of that the angels ministered to him.
Well, the other thing this this experience shows is it reveals?
Jesus.
Priestly Perfection his priestly perfection. He's enduring this temptation by Satan. He does so successfully he overcomes all of the temptation that Satan can throw at him and It reveals his priestly perfection.
He is a perfect priest in his character in his character and this is important because of what Hebrews tells us about Jesus priesthood in Hebrews chapter 7 verses 25 and 26. Hebrews 7 25 and 6 Says Jesus is able to save to the uttermost those who come to God through him since he ever since he always lives to make intercession for them for Such a high priest was fitting for us suitable to us.
Who is holy? Harmless undefiled. Separate from sinners has become higher than the higher than the heavens. He's a perfect high priest in his character. I came across this. This note this this parallel I thought was interesting and helpful.
Writer said the first Adam in the garden succumbed to the temptation in an environment that was beautiful and Friendly, it was void of any deprivation whatsoever. Everything we could possibly need was there before him beautiful friendly the last Adam Jesus Maintained his purity in an environment desolate and hostile deprived of everything except his character and the spirits anointing.
He's perfect priest in his character and he is perfect priest in his work. This experience of Jesus being tempted by this by this by Satan in the in the wilderness Prepared him to be the perfect sympathizing high priest.
Remember Hebrews chapter 4. Hebrews 4 verses 14 through 16. You have that handy? Hebrews 4 verse 14 Says seeing then that we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens. Jesus the Son of God.
Let us hold fast to our confession. Why? For we do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses. But was in all points tempted like as we are yet without sin. Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace.
That we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need. Where was it that Jesus was in all points tempted like as we are yet without sin? Where he was tempted with by the the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes in the pride of life.
Those points of temptation that you and I face in many different facets in the wilderness. This experience Jesus prepared him to be the perfect sympathizing priest and to be the perfect sacrifice in our behalf.
We are born again now with corruptible seed now with silver and gold and things of that nature. But with the precious blood of Christ as of a lamb without blemish and without spot without blemish without spot.
Because he endured this preparatory experience in the wilderness and so Jesus Messiah our Saving priest is thus prepared to enter fully into this public ministry of Securing the salvation of his people.
That he could save you. Thank you our father for this preparation of Jesus. To be the perfectly suited priest for us to be prepared for this public ministry. That we so desperately need and needed. Thank you for his faithful work.
Through this time through this experience of preparation. We pray you would bless these thoughts to our hearts in Jesus name. Let's take our hymnals and turn to 177 177 this hymn our great Savior. Let's stand.
We'll sing stanzas one and two. Jesus what a friend for sinners a friend for sinners. Jesus lover of my soul. Friends may fail me foes Assail me. He my Savior makes me whole a Savior. Jesus what a straightness let me hide myself in him.
Tempted tried and sometimes failing my strength my victory wins but a savior. Hallelujah, what a friend. Saving helping keeping Loving. Let's just the Lord will give you a good week and hope it's gotten off to a good start.
First day of the week the Lord's Day a great morning this morning with the Williquettes and I hope you have a good Blessed week this week father in heaven. Again, we thank you for all that you have done for us.
We thank you even for this day. Thank you for the blessings of it and the joy in it. Now use us this week as we go from this place. Endeavoring to serve you and to live with live for you and to walk with you.
We pray in Jesus name. Amen.