Spirit and Truth (5): "Anointed with the Holy Spirit and Power" Part 1

Read the Word of God once again, Acts chapter 10, beginning in verse 34.

Brothers and sisters, once again, this is the Word of God. Peter began to speak,

Now I truly understand that God doesn't show favoritism. That's not working.

I'll go ahead and read because of time. But in every nation, the person who fears him and does what is right is acceptable to him.

He sent the message to the Israelites proclaiming the good news of peace through Jesus Christ. He is

Lord of all. You know the events that took place throughout all Judea, beginning from Galilee, after the baptism that John preached, how

God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power, and how he went about doing good and healing all who were under the tyranny of the devil, because God was with him.

We ourselves are witnesses of everything he did, both in the Judean country and in Jerusalem, and yet they killed him by hanging him on a tree.

God raised up this man on the third day and caused him to be seen, not by all the people, but by us whom

God appointed as witnesses, who ate and drank with him after he rose from the dead.

He commanded us to preach to the people and to testify that he is the one appointed by God to be the judge of the living and the dead.

All the prophets testified by him that through his name, everyone who believes in him receives forgiveness of sins.

The grass withers, the flower fades, but the Word of our God will abide forever. Join with me as I breathe the word of prayer, ask for the

Spirit's help, and we get to work this morning. Heavenly Father, we would ask that as we have gathered this morning to worship, as we have gathered to worship

Christ, that your Spirit would be at work, that he would give us a greater vision of Jesus and who he is and what he has done for us.

May we grow in our estimation of him as we consider how your

Spirit was at work. May we learn lessons about our need of the

Spirit, how the Spirit works in our lives as we look to Christ, who is not just our

Savior, but our great example as well. Pray for it to be at work, and as your people here, may this be used to the edification, the building up of your people.

I ask you in Jesus' name and for his sake, amen. Please be seated, please be seated.

Well, as I said, we're kind of picking up our study of the person and the work of the Holy Spirit. This, I count, part, and this morning we're going to consider the ministry of the

Holy Spirit and the work of Christ. Often when we talk about the person in the work of Christ, the temptation is to Jesus as this sort of independent person who comes to the earth and kind of does what he does in his living and his dying, as you're saying, and he does it with, okay, the occasional link to the

Father, because he talks about the Father a bunch, but absolutely no link to the Holy Spirit. He just comes and kind of does what he does as fully

God and fully man with no links to the Spirit whatsoever. I mean, on the one hand, we can't really be surprised.

I mean, if you kind of look at how church life functions, we talk about a lot, and rightfully so.

We profess faith in Jesus when we're unbelievers, we're baptized in his name, along with the Father and the

Son, of course. We sing songs of Jesus, we just did. You can see in front of us, we're going to reflect his death in the

Lord's table. We're named for him. Christian literally means little Christ, and it's understandable that we focus on Christ, but I'm going to argue a good way to focus on Christ, and a multitude of bad ways to do that, if we can put it that way.

I think one of the bad ways in which we can focus on Christ is to focus solely on Jesus and to forget the fact that we as Christians don't just worship one person.

We worship, as Trinitarians, one God in three persons, that God is Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

And since we believe in the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, we have to understand that where we see one member of the

Trinity functioning, you will see all three. Now, one may take a more prominent role in the moment, but just focus on one and exclude the other two.

And I'm going to argue that you don't see that anywhere clearly than the life of Jesus himself.

In fact, our text this morning points to the fact Jesus had a living and a vital relationship to the

Holy Spirit. Did you see that there in verse 38? We'll look at that with me. As Peter is beginning his summary of all the things that happened in the life of Christ, where does he start?

He says, Acts 10 38, how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the

Holy Spirit and with power, and how he went about doing good and healing all who were under the tyranny of the devil, because God was with him.

Peter seemed to be under the idea, under the understanding, that whatever

Jesus did, he did as a result of being the

Holy Spirit and with power. And as a result, he was able to go around, went about, as the text says here, doing good and healing all who were under the tyranny of the devil, because God was with him.

Pastor and theologian Mark, his book in this week's study guide that should have been on your seat when you came in, a book five years ago called

Knowing Christ, he said this in that book, what exists for the work of the

Holy Spirit in the life of Christ? This question deserves a careful answer. After all, most

Christians believe that Jesus performed miracles because he is God. But the Scriptures present a more nuanced picture, especially since there are people who perform miracles who clearly were not

God. Given the plethora of references to the Holy Spirit in the life of Jesus, we must be able to give a meaningful role to the

Spirit. Maybe that last sentence again, given the plethora of references to the

Holy Spirit in the life of Jesus, we must be able to give a meaningful role to the

Spirit. So Dr. Jones makes a contention that there are a plethora of references to the ministry in the life of Jesus, but I have to be honest,

I've been in church pretty much my entire life. I have almost never heard people talk about the

Holy Spirit in relation to the ministry of Jesus. Think about it, quick show of hands, how many of you have heard preaching about Jesus's relationship to the

Holy Spirit before? Okay, a few hands, but I see a lot. I agree with Dr.

Jones, I see there are. As I was putting this message together this week, I was almost overwhelmed by how many there are.

And as you look through the Bible, I'm going to make a proposition to you this morning. I'll put it in your study guide and it's up on screen now.

The proposition I want to make to you is this, that when we encountered this man called Jesus, Jesus was the man of the

Spirit. That from the beginning of his earthly life, all the way to his resurrection, he was enabled and empowered by the

Spirit to be our prophet, priest, and king. I'm going to say that again, that Jesus was the man of the

Spirit, and that from the beginning of his earthly life to his resurrection, he was enabled and empowered by the

Spirit to be our prophet, priest, and king. This week

I was listening to the pastor from back home in the UK, Reverend William Taylor, he's the minister of St.

Helen's Church in central London, and he was teaching on Romans 8.

And in Romans chapter 8, he made this comment, it's a very British way to put this.

He said, you can't fit a cigarette paper between the work of Jesus and the work of the

Holy Spirit. I've never smoked a day in my life, but I'm reliably told that cigarette papers are pretty thin.

In other words, you can't fit even such a thin piece of paper between the work of the Spirit and the work of Jesus.

That where we see the work of Jesus in full effect, the Spirit was empowering and enabling that work.

It's picturesque language, but I think my friend William Taylor is right on that much. When I started studying,

I ended up with the analogy of a journey. I wanted to take a journey through the life of Christ. And I had six stops,

I wanted to make all six, and I realized that there's a lot more material here, and I don't want to skip over any of this.

I think all of it is important. And so we're going to break this up into two parts.

We'll start the journey this morning, we'll do a few stops, as it were, take a break, and we'll pick it up next week.

So this morning, I want us to consider three stops. We move on a journey through the life of Christ, examining the relationship between Christ and the

Holy Spirit. And equally as important, what we can learn for our spiritual lives from the relationship between Christ and the

Holy Spirit. So as I said, three stops on this journey this morning. Consider firstly, the

Holy Spirit and the Incarnation of Christ. The Holy Spirit and the Incarnation of Christ.

The Incarnation we just celebrated in Christmas. The fact that God took on, the second person of the

Godhead, took on a human nature in addition to his divine nature, and became fully

God and fully man. When you come to this thing we call the

Incarnation, the Spirit's at work even there. Tell me in your Bibles to Matthew chapter 1.

Matthew chapter 1, we typically read it around the Christmas season, it's one of the two accounts of the birth of Christ.

Matthew chapter 1, excuse me, Matthew 1 and verse 18.

Matthew chapter 1 and verse 18. Matthew 1 18, text says, the birth of Christ came about in this way.

After his mother Mary had been engaged to Joseph, it was discovered before they came together that, here's how

Matthew, she was pregnant from the Holy Spirit. So her husband

Joseph, being a righteous man, graced her publicly, decided to divorce her secretly.

Verse 20, but after he had considered these things, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream saying,

Joseph son of David, don't be afraid to take Mary as your wife, because what has been conceived in her, again note what

Matthew says, is from the Holy Spirit.

Flip over to Luke chapter 1, where there's more reference to the Holy Spirit in the

Incarnation. Luke chapter 1, just the one verse here, Luke chapter 1 and verse 35.

Luke chapter 1 and verse 35. Again, it's the narrative of Christ's birth.

Mary has just asked the angel after being told she's going to give birth to a son. Verse 35, the angel replied to her, the

Holy Spirit will come upon you and the power of the Most High will overshadow you.

Therefore, the Holy One to be born will be called So in Matthew, there's these references to the fact that she's pregnant from the

Holy Spirit and that what has been conceived in her is from the Spirit. And in Luke 1, Gabriel tells

Mary that the Holy Spirit will come upon you and the power of the

Most High, which is another reference of the Holy Spirit, will overshadow. What does it mean then that Jesus was, excuse me, that Mary was pregnant from the

Holy Spirit? What exactly was it like for Mary to have a child conceived from the

Holy Spirit? I think that's an important question to mention in both accounts, that Jesus was the product of the

Holy Spirit. What does that actually mean? Well, you listen to various people and you read various people try to explain this and there are all kinds of ways that people try to get around this.

I think the Puritan author John Owen, I've included the quote there because it's a longer one, had a helpful way of thinking about this.

He said this, quote, the act of the Holy Ghost in this matter, referring to the

Incarnation, was a creating act, not indeed like the first creating act which produced the manner and substance of all things out of nothing, causing that to be which was not before, neither in matter nor form nor passive disposition.

But like those subsequent acts of creation whereby out of matter before made and prepared, things were made that things were made that which before they were not and which themselves had no active disposition nor concurrence in.

Owen is notoriously worthy, as you may have gathered by me trying to make my way through this one quote, so allow me to translate a little bit.

When the Holy Spirit came upon Mary, he created a full human body within Mary the way that humans are created, but it was not in the creation of the world where God spoke out of nothing.

No, he used, just as naturally takes place when we have children, the mother of the child to house this baby.

Jesus had a full human nature. It's not like there was a special act where out of nowhere a baby came.

No, the baby carried along the normal course of life. Mary was pregnant for 39, 40 weeks. The baby grew.

All the standard things that happen, but that happened without the agency of a man. That's why it was truly a virgin birth,

Owen goes on to say. So a man was created or formed of the dust of the earth and woman of a rib taken from man.

There was a previous matter unto their creation, but such as gave no assistance or had any active disposition to the production of that particular kind of creature, where into they are formed by the creating power of God.

Such was this act of the Holy Ghost in forming the body of our

Lord Jesus, for although it was affected by an act of infinite creating power, yet it was formed and made of the substance of the blessed virgin, end quote.

Like I said, Owen ridiculously well translated. The Holy Spirit created the human nature of Jesus the way that God created

Adam and Eve. Out of existing material, in this case the humanity of his mother, yet human.

She didn't have an active role in that. That was the Holy Spirit's role, but it was a full human nature.

Think about it. Have you ever wondered how it is that Jesus could be born of a woman and not have a sinful nature? Thought about that before?

I know I had a much longer explanation than this.

I just took the most relevant part. This makes the most biblical sense. That Jesus was indeed real humanity.

That this was not a, you know, he didn't just look like a human, but wasn't. He wasn't

Clark Kent. You know Superman? He looked human, but he's actually not human.

And once in a while he actually demonstrates that he's not human. No, a real human being. Jesus was real humanity, but real humanity without the sinfulness.

In a very real sense, Jesus, in the presence of Jesus, excuse me, we see humanity the way that God truly designed it to be.

Now I have to be careful and allow the rest of Scripture to put some safety nets in place, because you can kind of run wild with this. First of all, we're not saying

Christ is the son of the Holy Spirit. That's messing up the Trinity. No, he is the son of the Father.

So yes, the Holy Spirit was the means by which the human nature of Christ was created, but he is not

Christ's Father. Second of all, it's not as though the Holy Spirit didn't want to do, that Jesus didn't want to do this, but the

Holy Spirit kind of made it possible, and the Father said, well Jesus, you've got to go do this. No, the decision to take on a human nature, like I said, is a

Trinitarian decision. The Father decrees that the Son will take on flesh, the

Son unites human nature perfectly, and the Spirit is the one who actually created that human nature that he united to.

Now firstly, that's great news. That's wonderful news. That's why he can be the mediator, because he is fully

God and fully man. But can I give another reason why that's important to you, sitting there this morning?

Remember we just talked about the fact that the Spirit created, not out of nothing, but took that which existed and created something that was so wonderful and amazing?

I don't think it's by accident that when you read the Bible, the Bible talks about your salvation. If you're here and you know the

Lord, the Bible talks about your salvation using the language of creation. Titus 3 .5,

he saved us, not by works of righteousness that we had done, but according to his mercy, through the washing of regeneration and renewal by the

Holy Spirit. 2 Corinthians 5 .17,

if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. Behold, the old things have passed away, and behold, all things have become new.

Galatians 6 .15, for both circumcision and nothing, what matters instead is a new creation.

Well think about that. When you became a Christian, did God kill you and start over again? No, he doesn't.

He does it. He takes that which already exists, part of us, and he takes that immaterial part of us, and he radically transforms it.

He radically changes it. That which was opposed to God, that which hated God, that which wanted nothing to do with him, is so radically transformed.

The Bible is a new creation. If he did that in the

Incarnation, he does that in our salvation as well. There's so much more to that, but I do want to make some progress on our little tour through the

Bible this morning, and so I want to move on very quickly to our second story. We talked about the

Incarnation. Secondly, I want us to consider the Holy Spirit and the baptism of Jesus. The Holy Spirit and the baptism of Jesus.

Now those of you who know your Bibles well, will know that the baptism of Jesus is mentioned in all four

Gospels. I've put the reference there. All four

Gospels make reference to Christ's baptism. I mean, if one

Gospel mentions something, okay, that's important. Of course it is. It's in the big.

As I said, the references are in your study guide this morning. For time's sake, let me just read Matthew's account, chapter 3, verse 17.

Jesus came from Galilee to John at the Jordan to be baptized by him, but John tried to stop him, saying,

I need to be baptized by you, and yet you come to me. Jesus answered him, allow it for now, because this is the way for us to all righteousness.

Then John allowed him to be baptized. When Jesus was baptized, he went up immediately from the water.

The heavens suddenly opened for him, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and coming down on him.

And a voice from heaven said, this is my beloved son with whom

I am well pleased. As I said, all four Gospel writers make reference to this, and they all point out the fact that in this baptism, the

Spirit descends upon him in the form of a dove. Why would all four

Gospel writers, all writing from different perspectives and for different purposes about the same life, why would all four

Gospel writers take the time to focus on this one event, seemingly meaningless event?

Well, it's seemingly meaningless because we don't understand the significance of it, but actually it's incredibly important. For this,

I need to take a step back and do something with you for a second. If I do some theology with you this morning, when you read your

Old Testament, there were three offices that required being anointed. The word anointed literally means to rub or to smear with oil or to pour oil on.

There were only three offices. You had the prophet. The prophet's job was that he spoke

God's Word to man. In the words of one of my favorite books, How to Read the Bible for All It's Worth, the prophets were

God's covenant enforcement officers. They were the ones who took what

God had said, and when the people broke it, reminded the people, listen, this is what God said. They spoke

God's Word. Man, we often think of a prophet, and we think of somebody who predicts the future. That's a very narrow part of being a prophet.

The big idea of being a prophet is one who speaks forth the Word of God. So you had the prophet. He spoke

God's Word to men. You had the priest. The priest's job, as it were, if you use yourself as an illustration here, the prophet faced the people and spoke to God.

The priest's job was he turned around and represented men before God. His job was to go into the very presence of God, and sinful men who couldn't go into his presence were represented by him.

You had the prophet. You had the priest, and then you had the king. The king's job was that he mediated

God's sovereign shepherding rule among men. So in the

Old Testament, you had priests, and you had kings, and all three of them, when

God's favor was on them, were anointed with oil, which is the Old Testament symbol of the

Spirit. Why is it we see that in the Old Testament? A big deal of it is made of it in the

Old Testament. Well, I call them anointed offices because offices that were pointing to the fact, as you read the

Old Testament, that there was one coming called the Messiah. By the way, the Messiah means the anointed one. That the prophet, the prophetic office, the priestly office, and the kingly office were all pointers.

They were all signposts. They were all billboards telling you there is one coming who's going to fulfill three of these roles perfectly.

You read the Old Testament, and you very rarely see somebody who is a prophet, priest, and king at the same time. It's interesting, the only time you do, kind of, is this interesting figure called

Melchizedek in the book of Genesis. Funny he comes up in the book of Hebrews again, but that's a digression for another time.

So, you have these three offices. Okay, Kofi, what does this have to do with Jesus' baptism?

Everything. At his baptism, Jesus is anointed with the

Spirit for the purpose of being prophet, priest, and king. The baptism is basically commissioning day.

Of course, the Father had decreed from the foundation of the world that Jesus would fulfill these offices, but in time and place, the mission begins at the baptism.

That's why you have the Spirit poured out on him, and you have the Father speaking from heaven, saying, this is my

Son in whom I'm well pleased. To use the words of the classic TV show, it's as though the

Father is saying to Jesus, your mission should be to be prophet, priest, and king.

Well, how is it that Jesus is a prophet and a king? Well, firstly, he's a prophet in the sense that he is

God's greatest and final revelation. So, Hebrews chapter 1, one of my favorite chapters in all the

Bible, verses 1 and 2 of Hebrews chapter 1 says, God spoke in various ways and in various times by the fathers, but in these last days, he's spoken to us by his

Son. Deuteronomy chapter 18. I don't think

I wrote this in the notes, but Deuteronomy chapter 18 and verse 18, well, beginning of verse 50, Moses prophesied to the nation of Israel and says, listen, the

Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like unto me. You will listen to him, and whoever doesn't listen to him will be cut off from God's people.

Well, fast forward to the book of Acts, Acts chapter 3 verses 19 to 22. Peter says, Jesus was that prophet, that final and greatest revelation of God.

If you will not hear Christ, you are cut off from the people of God. And so, he's a prophet in the sense that he is

God's greatest and final revelation. He is the one who spoke only what the Father gave him to speak.

John 12 49. So, he's a prophet and that he's

God's final and greatest revelation, but he's also a priest. He's also a priest.

Why? He's a priest in that he's a mediator between God and men. That he doesn't just offer the sacrifice for sin, the

Bible makes us to understand that he is the sacrifice for sin. That not only is he the sacrifice for sin, but ongoing since he mediates for people now, feeding the merits of his blood and seeding for us before the

Father. 1 John chapter 2 and verse 1. Beloved, I'm writing these things to you so that you will not sin, but if anyone does sin, we have an advocate.

One who pleads for us before the Father. And who does John say the advocate is?

It's Jesus Christ, the righteous one. So, he's a prophet in the sense that he is

God's greatest and final revelation. He's a priest in that he is the mediator. He is the sacrifice.

He is the advocate, but he's also a king because he's the shepherd of the sheep.

He's the ruler of the people. One day he will take his throne as the undisputed ruler of heaven and earth alike.

So, in Daniel chapter 7, you see this scene where Daniel, as it were, is able to peer into the presence of God himself.

And he sees this one who he calls the Ancient of Days. And the Ancient of Days gives to another one who's nearby to sit.

And he's given rule over every nation and dominion and power. When you read the book of Revelation and we see that that's

Christ. Psalm 2, the Father says to the Son, that ask of me and I will give the nations for your inheritance.

Jesus serves as God's king, God's ruler who right now rules and reigns in the hearts of his people.

Who right now is sovereign of all creation and one day will have an earthly kingdom over which he rules supreme.

All three of those roles, the prophet, the priest, and the king, all three of those are spirit -empowered.

That's why Jesus needed the filth of the spirit, needed the spirit to send power so he could fulfill that office.

Can I pause for a second? I find it fascinating, Brian. The Christians will latch on to one of those.

We'll latch on to Christ as the priest. We love Christ on the cross. We love Christ as the sacrifice. But think about it.

How often do we talk about Christ as the prophet? How often do we talk about Christ as a king?

I said, well I've seen it. I'll start talking about some of these things over the years. I've been teaching the Bible since I was 18. I'll start teaching some of these things and I will literally see

Christians have their eyes roll over and just you can just tell they have disengaged when we start to talk about Christ in his fullness.

It's almost as though we're comfortable with the priestly Christ but we're not comfortable with Christ as the prophet who deals with our ignorance.

We're not comfortable with Christ as the king who deals with our rebellion. The spirit came in power on Jesus precisely so that he could be all that we need.

A prophet to deal with our ignorance, a priest to deal with our sin, and a king to deal with our rebellion.

I'd love to say more but like I said this morning I don't want to keep you long. The Holy Spirit and the incarnation of Jesus.

The Holy Spirit and the baptism of Jesus. Can I hit you with a third and final stop this morning? How about the

Holy Spirit and the temptation of Jesus? The Holy Spirit and the temptation of Jesus. And here I want to,

I want to park for a little bit. Turn with me in your Bible to Luke chapter 4. Luke chapter 4.

Luke chapter 4 beginning in verse 1. Let's look at verses 1 and 2. So Luke chapter 4 verse 1.

Text tells us, then Jesus left the Jordan. So he's just been baptized. He leaves the

Jordan and Luke tells, excuse me, that he's full of the Holy Spirit. Interesting.

Jesus left the Jordan full of the Holy Spirit and was led by the Spirit in the wilderness for 40 days to be tempted by the devil.

Here's Jesus. He has just been commissioned with the task of being the prophet, the priest, and the king of God's people.

He's full of the Spirit. You would think at this point he's just going to go out and think about it.

It makes more sense that he'd start, just go out, start doing miracles, start teaching. But where's the first place that the

Holy Spirit leads Jesus? Leads him into temptation.

So it leads him to be tempted by the devil. Watch Jesus's first act as God's anointed prophet, priest, and king.

As the mediator, he goes to war against the adversary. By the way, while I'm on the subject, just on a practical level, isn't it funny that the more growth you have and the more closeness to God you have, the more you find that there are trials, temptations, and tribulations?

Isn't it weird? Maybe it's just my own experience, but I find that when

I'm making the most growth spiritually, that's when everything gets very weirdly hard.

That's when my flesh is melting up, situations that seem to go haywire, everything that can go wrong seems to be going wrong.

I was talking with Brian this morning. I was just like, why is that?

Why is it that when the greatest growth is taking place, that's when the most opposition comes?

Well, you know, I take comfort from when I read this notation, because Jesus has just had, can we agree this is a spiritual high as go?

This is a pretty high experience he's just had. I mean, let's face it, those of you in this room have been baptized.

None of you had God the Father speak from heaven the day you were baptized. None of you had that happen to you.

I'd like to think that's a pretty big deal. In fact, in John's account,

John alludes to it, and he puts the words, not puts the words, but he quotes John the Baptist's words about it. And John the

Baptist says, I saw the Spirit descend on him like a dove. People saw it. Incredibly high experience.

And the next thing that happens, he gets sent into the wilderness. The text tells us to be tempted by the devil for this purpose.

Well, then that begs the question, why is Jesus thrown into the wilderness to be literally compelled by the

Spirit to go into the wilderness? Why is that necessary?

And again, you read commentators, you read various Bible teachers and writers, and they all kind of go in different directions about it.

I think the most common sense approach is just to ask, what just happened previously? Well, in Luke's account, he kind of takes a parenthetical, he does a genealogy, but the last event that happened was the baptism.

Jesus has just been commissioned as God's prophet, priest, and king, and so his first act is to go to war.

But even as he goes to war against the evil one in the wilderness, he still emerges as the supreme prophet, priest, and king.

Think about this with me. In the wilderness, we see Jesus as prophet because he proclaims the truth of God through him, and he repels the father of lies.

Some of you have heard me say it before. It's fascinating that Jesus chose the book of Deuteronomy all three times, to quote. Do you know the book of Deuteronomy well enough to quote it in times of temptation?

That's a whole other subject for another time. But as the supreme prophet of God, the supreme voice of God, he proclaims the truth of God, and the father of lies is repelled three times.

As a priest, he enters into temptation, and he emerges sympathetic with those who will later go through suffering in his name.

So Hebrews chapter 2 says that because he partook of suffering, he's able to comfort and strengthen,

Hebrews 2 18, those who are likewise tempted. Hebrews chapter 4, we don't have a high priest who's unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but was tempted in every way like we are.

The precise reason that's the case is because he went through the temptation in the wilderness and emerges victorious.

But he's not the kind of victorious that we as human beings would be, where we're kind of snobby when something like this would happen. Think about us.

If we went through what Jesus went through and came out the other side, well, I could do it. Why can't you do it?

I mean, the devil was wailing on me, and I came out victorious. We probably could write a book about it, make some money off of it.

But Jesus comes through that experience, and the Bible says he's sympathetic. He's able to sympathize with our weaknesses.

As a king, he rejects the demands of what from the evil one, asserting the sovereignty of God and coming through victorious over his enemy and ours.

None of this would have happened without the empowering of the

Spirit, without the empowerment of the Spirit as he sovereignly sends the Savior of the world into the heart of combat with Satan himself.

What can we learn about Jesus? What can we learn from the Spirit's ministry to Jesus here for us? Can I leave you with two thoughts this morning?

First of all, know that you can only temptation successfully, excuse me, when the

Spirit is your guide. You can only navigate temptation successfully when the

Spirit is your guide. Please note with me that the text tells us that he was led by the Spirit into the temptation.

That cannot and will not be the case if you try and navigate it your way.

Keep a finger here and turn with me to 1 Corinthians chapter 10. I think Paul re -summarizes this in a very interesting way.

1 Corinthians chapter 10, verse 13. 1 Corinthians 10, 13.

He says, no temptation has come upon you except what is common to humanity.

First truth about temptation that we all need to kind of grapple with, you are not that special. I think our temptation when we, no pun intended, when we go through temptation is to say, why is this happening to me?

This has never happened to anyone before. You are not that special.

The temptation someone else has been through before. Have some perspective. But he goes on, but God is faithful.

There's a second truth about temptation, that even in the midst of temptation, God is faithful even in that. We see that in the life of Jesus.

He will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able. Okay, a third truth about temptation.

Whatever temptation you go through, God is not going to allow you, if you are his child, to ultimately fall because of that temptation.

But there's a condition to it. He will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation, he will also provide a way out so that you may be able to bear it.

As my pastor back in London, Dr. Tom Drion, used to say to us all the time, brothers, with every temptation,

God has an exit sign. The question is, how do you find the exit sign?

You can try and meander your way through the darkness to find it. Good luck. No, no,

I think that we learn from Christ's temptation that the way which we find that way out is through the guidance of the

Spirit, in line with God's Word, just like Jesus does in his temptations.

So that's the first thing we learn from Jesus' temptations, that we can only navigate temptation successfully when the

Spirit is our guide. Secondly, we learn that Christ's ability to sympathize with and comfort us in our temptations means that when we face trials on every side, we have someone in our corner who understands.

That we don't throw temptation, sitting in heaven saying, seriously? Seriously? This again?

Like, we've been here before. Like, we're back here with this again. That's not how the

Bible presents God in the face of temptation. No, we have someone in our corner who understands.

Hebrews 2, Hebrews 4 that I quoted just a few minutes ago. He's been through temptation just as we have, and so he understands.

It's the beautiful thing. He would not be able to understand if the Spirit had not led him into the temptation.

Oh, I have so much more I want to say about the ministry of the Spirit in Jesus' life, but like I said,

I wanted not to rush through this, and so I'm going to park it here. We'll pick it up next week. But as I conclude, can

I leave you with this thought? I hope

I've demonstrated this morning that, at least up to this point, that the

Spirit was indispensable in the life of Christ. That without the Spirit, Jesus couldn't have done anything that he did.

If the Holy Spirit was that indispensable in the life of Christ, if he was that necessary to the life of Christ, the

God -man, fully God, fully man, needed the enablement and the empowerment of the

Holy Spirit. Can I blunt with you for a moment?

If all that is true, what on earth makes us think that we don't need the power of the

Holy Spirit? You're all wonderful people.

I love every one of you, but I'm not the incarnate God. Neither am

I. He needed God in all his fullness.

Maybe, just maybe, we need the Holy Spirit a little more than we'd like to admit.

Maybe, and this is going to be a rebuke, I think, to our theological circle at times. Maybe we need to not just say, well,

I have Jesus, that's enough. Well, true, you do have Jesus, and true, he is all -sufficient.

But one of the things that having Jesus gives us is access to the ministry of the Holy Spirit. He is the one who takes the truth about Jesus as we read it in the

Word and brings it to life. Maybe, just maybe, 2021 needs to be a year where we grow in our pursuit of and communion with and empowerment by the

Holy Spirit. Let's pray together. Oh, Father, we recognize our weakness.

We recognize our need for your Spirit's enabling, even to understand this word that we've just heard, help us that we would constantly, consciously seek his enablement in all of life.

When things are going well and we're prosperous, when things are going not so well and we're struggling, in the words of the old hymn, we need thee, oh we need thee, every hour we need thee.

Oh, bless us now, our Savior, we come to thee. May that be true in our lives, not just in this first week of 2021, but for the rest of our lives.

May we never think that we don't need the Spirit, because as we look at the life of Christ, he needed the

Spirit and so do we. Help us in these things. We ask you in Jesus' name, for his sake.