When Jesus Christ came into public ministry, people made these kinds of
statements:
Who is this?
How can He have such wisdom? How can He do that?
How did He stop the wind and calm the seas?
How did He heal that person?
Jesus Christ was, indeed, scary good.
They had never seen anyone do anything remotely in the realm of the
things Jesus was doing. They had never heard anyone teach with the authority
that Jesus taught with. They never saw anyone so kind and so bold. Jesus was
scary good and was unlike any person they had ever seen.
Please open you Bibles to Matthew.
Matthew 3:16-17
“16 After 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. 17 And there came a voice from heaven: This is My beloved Son. I take delight in Him!”
I have been part of a fair number of baptisms and I have yet to see a
response like this. The heavens opened up and a voice bellows from the heavens,
“This is My beloved Son. I take delight in Him!”
If Jesus really is God’s son, then why did He need to be baptized?
Baptism is something that we as sinners do. It is an act representing
the cleaning we have received from Jesus. But here Jesus wades into the water
to be Baptized, He was born in a common womb, raised in a common village, in a
common profession, and now He the Son of God steps into a common river. He
steps into the waters of the Jordan River and tells John the Baptist, that it
is right for us to do this. It is the way for ‘us’ to fulfill all
righteousness.
Being baptized was another way for Jesus to identify with us, after all
He is 100% human in addition to being 100% God. Jesus was showing that all who
accept Him should be baptized. After all He came to earth to show us how to
live our lives.
From baptism to wilderness, from the waters of the Jordan to the desert
sun, Jesus was tempted. During his 40 days in the desert Jesus in essence
reenacted the temptation from the Garden of Eden.
Matthew 4:1-11
“4 Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the Devil. 2 After He had fasted 40 days and 40 nights, He was hungry. 3 Then the tempter approached Him and said, “If You are the Son of God, tell these stones to become bread.”
4 But He answered, “It is written:
an must not live on bread alone
but on every word that comes
from the mouth of God.”
5 Then the Devil took Him to the holy city, had Him stand on the pinnacle of the temple, 6 and said to Him, “If You are the Son of God, throw Yourself down. For it is written:
He will give His angels orders concerning you,
and they will support you with their hands
so that you will not strike
your foot against a stone.”
7 Jesus told him, “It is also written: Do not test the Lord your God.”
8 Again, the Devil took Him to a very high mountain and showed Him all the kingdoms of the world and their splendor. 9 And he said to Him, “I will give You all these things if You will fall down and worship me.”
10 Then Jesus told him, “Go away, Satan! For it is written:
Worship the Lord your God,
and serve only Him.”
11 Then the Devil left Him, and immediately angels came and began to serve Him.”
Every person on the face of this planet has wondered about the origin of evil. How do we explain evil? Why do people do the things they do? Where do our angry words and hurting hands come from? How about our hateful hearts, what caused them to be this way?
If we trace evil to its source we will find the devil. According to scripture, satan is not a myth, or some crazy idea. Satan is real and he is looking for ways to separate us from God, he is the great divider.
The devil is a divider, a separator, that is his mission, to divide us from God. If you see communities divided, families splitting, hearts divided, it is the work of satan. When you see people who are separated from God, you see the work of satan. Think back to Genesis when the snake approached Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. Satan succeeded in separating Adam and Eve from God and in the verses we just read Jesus is asking for a rematch. This time around the rematch is with the perfect Adam, or the second Adam.
I can almost imagine Jesus telling satan, ‘I know what you did to my friend Adam and his wife Eve. Come give Me your best shot.’
Jesus did not give an inch. Satan tried but got nowhere. Every time Jesus speaks, He speaks about God and satan was unable to create a wedge between Jesus and God. Every time Jesus is challenged by satan, Jesus talks about God, talks about living on the Word of God, and talks about the Lord your God. Jesus is so focused on God and doing His will that satan cannot break through. Jesus is strong in His relationship with God.
Satan came to divide, and he tempted Jesus to take matters into His own hands. Jesus doesn’t fall for it and during this ultimate showdown between good and evil; heaven and hell; right and wrong; Jesus and satan, there is one clear victor. Jesus wins and satan runs away with his tale between his legs.
The devil tried to take Jesus out by giving his best punch, but Jesus
didn’t even blink. Jesus won, and was scary… Jesus was scary good!
Later we find Jesus being confronted by the devil through the religious
leaders of the day.
You might be surprised that some of satan’s best followers on earth are
religious leaders. We see it throughout the Bible. Pastors, priests, rabbis,
and religious leaders throughout history have been attacked and tricked by
satan. They are his number one target. That is true today and was true when
Jesus walked the earth as a man.
There was something like 6,000 religious leaders known as Sadducees or
Pharisees. Many of these guys did not like Jesus and were out to get Him. Jesus
said they cared more about the praise of men then they cared about the praise
of God. Jesus’ teaching was different and they were scared and became angry and
jealous. So they decided to get back at Him.
Luke 6:6-11
“6 On another Sabbath He entered the synagogue and was teaching. A man was there whose right hand was paralyzed. 7 The scribes and Pharisees were watching Him closely, to see if He would heal on the Sabbath, so that they could find a charge against Him. 8 But He knew their thoughts and told the man with the paralyzed hand, “Get up and stand here.” So he got up and stood there. 9 Then Jesus said to them, “I ask you: Is it lawful on the Sabbath to do what is good or to do what is evil, to save life or to destroy it?” 10 After looking around at them all, He told him, “Stretch out your hand.” He did so, and his hand was restored. 11 They, however, were filled with rage and started discussing with one another what they might do to Jesus.”
‘what they might do to Jesus’ is also translated as ‘how they might kill Jesus’. The religious leaders of the day wanted Jesus’ head.
Jesus just performed a miracle right in front of their eyes and they want to kill Him? Witnessing a miracle like that should cause a different reaction. Applaud Him, thank Him, worship Him, why not find every person around with a similar issue and bring them to Jesus? Satan had already separated these religious leaders from God and they completely missed what Jesus was doing.
Not all the religious leaders of the day were separated from God. One example we are given is a man, a Pharisee by the name of Nicodemus.
John 3:2-16
“2 This man came to Him at night and said, “Rabbi, we know that You have come from God as a teacher, for no one could perform these signs You do unless God were with him.”
3 Jesus replied, “I assure you: Unless someone is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.”
4 “But how can anyone be born when he is old?” Nicodemus asked Him. “Can he enter his mother’s womb a second time and be born?”
5 Jesus answered, “I assure you: Unless someone is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. 6 Whatever is born of the flesh is flesh, and whatever is born of the Spirit is spirit. 7 Do not be amazed that I told you that you must be born again. 8 The wind blows where it pleases, and you hear its sound, but you don’t know where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit.”
9 “How can these things be?” asked Nicodemus.
10 “Are you a teacher of Israel and don’t know these things?” Jesus replied. 11 “I assure you: We speak what We know and We testify to what We have seen, but you do not accept Our testimony. 12 If I have told you about things that happen on earth and you don’t believe, how will you believe if I tell you about things of heaven? 13 No one has ascended into heaven except the One who descended from heaven—the Son of Man. 14 Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the wilderness, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, 15 so that everyone who believes in Him will have eternal life.
16 “For God loved the world in this way: He gave His One and Only Son, so that everyone who believes in Him will not perish but have eternal life.”
Nicodemus a high ranking leader of the Pharisees came to Jesus and admits that Jesus must be from God. There is no other explanation for all the miracles that Jesus has performed. Nicodemus sensed there was something different about Jesus and wanted to understand His teachings better. By the sounds of it Nicodemus was surprised by what he heard.
Jesus told him that he needed to be ‘born again’. This is obviously not something anyone would have understood back then. I wonder what was going through his mind. Probably something along the lines of ‘I could not control my first birth, if a second birth were possible, how would I have any say over it.’
Maybe as Nicodemus pondered these things and listened to Jesus talk he would have realized that Jesus was not just saying you can have a second chance, but a whole new birth. Essentially Jesus was offering to do spiritually what his parents did for him physically. Being born again by the presence of the Holy Spirit in his life would mean that he was part of the family of God.
Jesus was not offering a mulligan or a second chance, He was offering a miracle, a new birth! This is where the rubber meets the road, where God’s Upper Story and our Lower Story collide.
A miracle happens when a person accepts Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior, they are given a wonderful gift and become a new creation. At that moment in time the old sinful self dies and the new ‘born again’ creation replaces it.
2 Corinthians 5:17
“17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away, and look, new things have come.”
We may look the same, and for some time we probably sound the same. But at that exact moment an incredible gift has been given, a gift of a new eternal life with God.
Why would God do something like this?
John 3:16
“16 “For God loved the world in this way: He gave His One and Only Son, so that everyone who believes in Him will not perish but have eternal life.”
As we have seen on our journey through the Bible, God Loves You and He wants to spend forever with you!
God Bless and Happy New Year!
Robert
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