Sermons |
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A sermon is a manner of oral communication and therefore words and sentence structure/order would be added, altered, or deleted at the moment of delivery. + In Nomine Jesu + The Rev. Evan Gaerther At Jesus baptism the declaration was made by the Holy Father, “This is my son, the beloved, in whom I delight.” This declaration is like a trumpet voluntary at the entrance of a king. This was Jesus, God’s Son, declared by the Father’s voice directly from heaven. And the next verse he is not in glory and power, but in the desert. Not alone but being tempted by the devil. This is a contrary picture. One verse he is the beloved son of God the Father and the next verse he is in the wilderness being tempted by the devil. But this was God’s plan for Jesus to be there. It was not the work of the devil that Jesus was led out to the wilderness. He was led out by the Spirit. Why? Because we all have failed. The wilderness is precisely the setting in which Israel failed to be what God called them to be. God had named Israel his first born son. The command to the Pharoah was “let my people go.” It was in the wilderness after being led out of the house of bondage of the Pharoah that the people cried out to Moses, “It would have been better for us to be still in Egypt where we sat by meat pots and ate bread to the full, for you have brought us out into this wilderness to kill this whole assembly with hunger.” The people desired the slavery of Pharoah and the comfort of a meat pot instead of the freedom of being God’s chosen people guided by the Lord. So the Lord provided for the people in the wilderness Manna from heaven to supply their need. Like, Israel, so often we turn away from our identity as Christians, as God’s people, as God’s sons and daughters. In baptism we have been declared children of God. But we forget who we are, living in that forgetfulness, we desire the comfort of pleasures satisfied more than living in the freedom of God’s called children. If God left Israel out in the wilderness without the manna and the bitter water made sweet they would have perished. He provided for them and led them to the promised land. If God would leave us out in the wilderness without the promises of our baptism we would perish out there in conflict with Satan, we would perish! But now another true Son has come out into the wilderness. Because he is a very different “son of God.” He comes in the place of others, and for their sake. Jesus is filled with power by right. By position he is the true, beloved Son of God. But also he is filled by power by the spirit. He refuses to use his power for its own sake. He has been conceived by the Holy Spirit and born of the virgin Mary for the purpose of being a different Son. He knows who he is and it has been confirmed by the Father’s voice from heaven. He knows why He has come. He has come to bring His victory to our place in the desert, and on the cross. He alone can silence the devil’s accusation that we do not deserve to be God’s children. Jesus fasted for forty days and forty nights, after which he was hungry. When Satan comes up to him and encourages him to turn the stones that are before him into bread. This was a temptation to save himself. Satan tempted Jesus to use His own power to satisfy His own needs. This is remarkably similar to the last temptation that Jesus is mocked with upon the cross. You may just hear the passing jeers thrown at Jesus as words thrown in the air by an angry crowd when they said, “You who would destroy the temple and rebuild it in three days, save yourself! If you are the Son of God, come down from the cross.” It a desire of Satan for Jesus to see the people he stands in place of not worth it. Turn the stones into bread, why are you hungry for the people needed the manna. Get down from cross, why are you hanging up their for a people that would do this for you. Save yourself. In reply Jesus uses a passage from Deuteronomy which are the words of Moses that describe the failure of Israel in the wilderness. But Jesus does not fail, and He is not the kind of Son who will use his power to provide for Himself. Where Israel failed, where we fail, Jesus succeeds. In the same place where they failed, Jesus succeeds in their place. Jesus is the champion. He is the heavyweight champion of the world with Satan as contender knocked out. In the second attack, Satan tries to draw Jesus into demanding that His Father deal with him in a certain way, protecting Jesus when Jesus puts Himself unnecessarily into danger. Israel failed a similar test in the wilderness, demanding from God at Massah. The people were camped and there was no water and so quarreled with Moses, “Give us water to drink!” And Moses said to them, “Why do you quarrel with me? Why do you test the Lord?” But the people were thirsty and the people grumbled more. So Moses cried to the Lord, “What shall I do with this people? They are almost ready to stone me?” The Lord commanded Moses to strike a rock at Horeb and water came forth from it. The people failed the test. They could not live as the children of God in the wilderness without quarreling with doubt about God’s purposes. But Jesus passes the test, using the very words of Moses in reply to Satan’s attack. Israel did not know what it meant to be God’s Son. But Jesus does not swerve from his identity or calling as the true and perfect Son of God. The declaration that Jesus is the true and perfect Son of God is not simply a statement of relationship. What is a son? A son’s relationship is on one level a matter of biology. But with adoption and vacant fathers many sons are growing up being a son in a way more meaningful than simply biology. A more full definition of a son defines it not as a matter of biology but as a matter of relationship. By this definition a son serves a father and does his will. Jesus is the true perfect Son of God both by right but more importantly by living in perfect obedience to His Father. In the battle with Satan, Jesus would not waver. In the Garden of Gethsemane, Jesus prayed, “My Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as you will.” It was as the true perfect Son of God that Jesus went to the cross. He battled Satan, not for his own purposes, but because it is the Father’s will that we find victory where we have known only defeat. It is the Father’s will that you and I know victory instead of defeat. All day long there is suffering and death before us and yet I want you to have confidence that in Christ we witness the will of the Father. The will of the Father is not the expulsion from the garden and no longer knowing the tree of life. That was a result of our sinfulness. It was not the desire of the Father to have to look for his children in the Garden and discover them hiding because they were filled with shame. The will of the Father is that you know him and trust him and are a child of God. You are a child of God, through that servant in the wilderness who defeats Satan. In the wilderness he placed his son alongside you. In the waters of Baptism God has placed his name alongside your own. Rejoice and be glad, for it is your Father’s pleasure to give you the kingdom. Soli Deo Gloria -->> Home |