This morning we’re looking at the beginning of Jesus’
ministry and how the Holy Spirit guides him in his preparation
for the years of ministry that lay ahead of him. We don’t often connect Jesus’
baptism with his time in the wilderness. Jesus seeks out his cousin John to be baptized
by him. John is humble and wise enough to realize that he’s the one needing to
be baptized by Jesus rather than the other way around. But Jesus insists, “Let it be so now; it is proper for us to do this to
fulfill all righteousness.” This phrase of Jesus has created a lot of
discussion among scholars through the years. Righteousness is about a correct
relationship to the will of God as reflected in his covenantal relationship
with Israel. Righteous actions are those actions that flow out of God’s
choosing Israel to be his people, and the laws and ways God gave them to live
by. This is connected to our salvation because God is righteous and the saviour
of his people. Isaiah 61:10 reflects this, “I delight greatly in the Lord; my soul rejoices in my
God. For he has clothed me with garments of salvation and arrayed me in a robe
of his righteousness, as a bridegroom adorns his head like a priest, and as a
bride adorns herself with her jewels.”
Dallas Willard writes about salvation and I saw how Jesus and the Holy Spirit work out our
salvation, “Salvation includes three things that are available to us:
Forgiveness of sins. Through the work of Christ and his substitutionary stand
before God on our behalf, our sins are forgiven through the mercy of God.
Transformation of character into the image of Jesus Christ. We are meant to be
conformed to the image of Jesus Christ (Romans 8:29). This is a work of grace
just as much as the forgiveness of sins. And there is nowhere any indication
that this is something that is supposed to happen after we die. A significant degree of power over evil, both in our
own lives and in the life of the church of which we are essentially a part.” The Spirit works out the work of Christ within us. It
made me think about what Jesus is saying about fulfilling all righteousness,
with the images of Isaiah 61 and salvation, transforming our character in the
image of Jesus, and giving us power over evil’s influence and temptations. It
starts here with Jesus’ baptism and consecration to God’s will and plan.
Right after the Holy Spirit comes on Jesus and God announces his pleasure in Jesus, the Spirit
leads Jesus into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. This is all about
being prepared for this new stage in Jesus’ coming to earth as our messiah. A
number of cultures have young men going out by themselves to prepare for
manhood. Here in Canada, First Nations young men would go out on vision quests
to seek a spirit guide; something similar happens among many African tribes. They
seek out guidance from the spirit world, seeking for an identity. They missed
out on the Spirit of God who hovered over creation at the beginning, bringing
life because they didn’t know Jesus yet. Jesus went into the wilderness, not
seeking a spiritual guide, but guided by the Holy Spirit. A generation ago,
it was common for people to take time to travel and find themselves, a similar
thing, not realizing that the way to finding their identity lay in Jesus rather
than in themselves.
The wilderness was the place Israel went to encounter God in order to be shaped by God,
seeking his guidance. The Spirit leads Jesus to learn what being the Son of God
actually means and looks like, what the nature of being God’s son is. In the
coming temptations, the test will be to do his ministry in his own power, or to
trust in his Father and the anointing power and guidance of the Holy Spirit.
Throughout Scripture, we see the Spirit guide the
people, or cries for the Spirit’s guidance. Ps 78:52 “But he brought his people out like a
flock; he led them like sheep through the wilderness,” Isa 49:10 “They will neither hunger nor thirst, nor will the desert heat or
the sun beat down on them. He who has compassion on them will guide
them and lead them beside springs of water.” Isaiah 11:1–3 points ahead to the Spirit guiding the coming Messiah, “A shoot will come up from the stump of
Jesse; from his roots a Branch will bear fruit. The Spirit of the Lord will
rest on him—the Spirit of wisdom and of understanding, the Spirit of counsel
and of might, the Spirit of the knowledge and fear of the Lord—and he will
delight in the fear of the Lord. He will not judge by what he sees with his
eyes, or decide by what he hears with his ears.”
This echoes forward to the Spirit being given to us, to be a guide to us, a guide into places and times
to shape and form us, given to point us to Jesus and remind us of who Jesus is.
The Spirit will lead many of us into the wilderness at times. Sometimes it can
be especially dark or hard; it can be lonely or overwhelming. It’s in these
times we’re encouraged to call to the Holy Spirit and cry out, “Sustain me,
help me through this dark valley, over this impossible mountain.” The
Spirit is there!
In Ezekiel 36:26–28 we’re given a glimpse of how the Spirit
will guide us, “I will give you
a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of
stone and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit in you and move
you to follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws. Then you will live in
the land I gave your ancestors; you will be my people, and I will be your God.” Here we see the Spirit is not only given to guide
us, but to sustain us, “You will live in the land I
gave your ancestors,” and we see this when Israel wanders through the
wilderness, the Spirit led them to places where there was water, into places of
safety and provided food through the forty years.
Jesus fasts for 40 days and nights, open to the
leading and instruction from his Father through the Spirit. The
Spirit doesn’t leave Jesus as he enters the wilderness, just as the Spirit doesn’t
leave Israel when they’re taken into exile, as Ezekiel shows us when the Spirit
leaves the temple and goes east with the people when they are taken to Babylon,
just as the Spirit doesn’t leave us when he guides us into new directions,
places, and times. This is why Mikenna is able to go to a different part of the
world with YWAM in strength and confidence, knowing the Spirit is with her.
After 40 days and nights of fasting, the devil appears and 3 times he tries to tempt Jesus
to walk a different path in being the Son of God then God gives, and 3 times
Jesus responds with the words God had given Israel earlier, to feast on God’s
word, to trust God in all things, and to worship God alone. This echoes ahead
to John 14:26
when Jesus promises his disciples the Holy Spirit, “But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father
will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything
I have said to you,” just as the Spirit reminds
Jesus of God’s word in response to the devil.
The Holy Spirit protects and sustains God’s people. In Job we hear the Lord say in Job 1:12, “The Lord said to Satan, “Very well,
then, everything he has is in your power, but on the man himself do not lay a
finger.” Then Satan went out from the presence of the Lord.”
Then in
Job 2:6, “The Lord said to Satan, “Very well, then, he is in
your hands; but you must spare his life.” Here the Lord restricts Satan’s power and influence, sustaining Job
during this time of trial and temptation. Louis Berkhof writes about common
grace and how “divine punishments and rewards serve to encourage moral
goodness in the world. The Spirit restrains sin in the lives of people and
nations and sin is not permitted to complete its destructive work: punishments
often check the sinful deeds of men, and the rewards spur them on to do what is
good and right.” With all the evil and violence happening in our world
today, we know the Holy Spirit’s working, making sure that evil’s restrained
from taking over. We know that no matter what happens, the Holy Spirit’s with
us, he will carry us, and will guide us to remain true to Jesus, to be salt and
light in even the darkest time.
Because
the Spirit is with us, Jesus is able to tell us in Matthew 5:44–45, “But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those
who persecute you, that you may be children of your Father in heaven. He causes
his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and
the unrighteous.” I love following Jesus; he
gives us his Spirit to guide us, to be with us, and to give us what we need as
we travel through life, knowing who I am, who I belong to, and giving me what I
need to be a blessing. I encourage you; embrace Jesus and his Spirit, allow the
Spirit to guide and sustain you.
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