John the Baptist came preaching repentance, telling anyone
who would listen that “the kingdom of heaven is at hand.”
What did John mean to say when he talked about this kingdom? How did the people understand the words “the kingdom of heaven”?
The ancient world had already had several kingdoms in its
history that had arisen to such power that, during the times of their reigns, they had controlled the activities
of all the known peoples of that day. Kingdom
after kingdom had ruled this way in their times before falling from their
position. Finally, leaving nothing but the stone ruins of their ancient and once
great buildings, they were replaced by yet another kingdom.
But the Jews believed
that this cycle of kingdoms rising and falling would eventually cease.
This was a teaching not only of their traditions, but also in the Scriptures. A new kingdom would arise that would never cease—a kingdom with God Jehovah as its head.
As the Jews of John’s day
listened to him speak of the kingdom of heaven, this would be the kingdom that
they would have thought of when he preached his message. They would have
thought of the many promises in the Scriptures of the coming of a Messiah who
would set up this kingdom.
The
Coming of the Kingdom of Heaven
Some of these words had
been written by the prophet Daniel, as he had put on paper the interpretation
of a dream that the Babylonian king of his day had one night. He told the king:
In the days of
those kings, the God of heaven will set up a kingdom that will never be
destroyed, nor will it be left to another people. It will shatter all these
kingdoms and bring them to an end, but will itself stand forever. And just as
you saw a stone being cut out of the mountain without human hands, and it
shattered the iron, bronze, clay, silver, and gold, so the great God has told
the king what will happen in the future. (Daniel 2:44-45 BSB)
This is one of the many Messianic prophecies of the Old
Testament. To the people of John the Baptist’s day, it was the coming of this
kingdom about which they believed that John must have been speaking. Indeed,
they were correct, but they were not correct in how this kingdom was to arrive.
They believed that it was to arrive in their day with great signs of power,
overcoming by might the present Roman Empire, and ushering in a Jewish state
that would exist in power and in eternity.
They did not realize that their Messiah was already among
them, having been born in an animal stable to a poor carpenter’s wife. In
addition, the Messiah had not come to redeem the Jewish people only, but had
come as a savior for the entire world.
Unlike former kingdoms of the earth, the kingdom of heaven
would not be established by military means, but by establishing peace. The
Messiah would not be an army general, but would be characterized by bringing kindness
and goodwill.
The Revealing of the Messiah
This Messiah was revealed to John the Baptist not by an
aggressive bird of prey, but by a peaceful dove. John testified:
I saw the Spirit descending
from heaven like a dove and resting on Him. I myself did not know Him, but the
One who sent me to baptize with water told me, “The man on whom you see the
Spirit descend and rest is He who will baptize with the Holy Spirit.” I have
seen and testified that this is the Son of God. (John 1:32-34 BSB)
The revealing of the Messiah apparently was a developing
understanding for John, because even before this fulfillment of the Spirit
descending and resting like a dove upon Jesus, Jesus had come to John to be
baptized.
John at first did not want to do it. “I need to be baptized
by you, and do you come to me?” he asked Jesus.
John’s hesitation was understandable. His baptism was one of
repentance, and Jesus had no need of that.
But Jesus replied to John, “Let it be so now. It is fitting
for us to fulfill all righteousness in this way.” (Matthew 3:14-15)
True Righteousness
“Righteousness” is a word in the Bible that has a rather
special connotation. It means that which is right in the sight of God and in the
kingdom of heaven. What is considered “right” in the kingdoms of the earth is
not necessarily what is right in the kingdom of heaven. The kingdom of heaven
offers an entirely new way of understanding life.
This is the reason that Jesus came to John to be baptized.
With Jesus, it was not because it was a sign of repentance, but only to fulfill
what was the proper thing for Jesus to do to initiate the kingdom of heaven.
To Identify With Us
Jesus also gave himself to be baptized because in every way,
he sought to show us that he came to earth as a man so that we know that he can
identify with all that we endure. The writer of the book of Hebrews tells us
that Jesus “passed through the heavens” in order that he may live among us so
that he can sympathize with what we experience—even to the point of being
tempted in every way in which we ourselves are tempted (Hebrews 4:14-16).
The Pleasure of the Father and the
Testing of the Son
After Jesus had come up out of the water and as the dove
descended to rest on him, a voice came from heaven saying, “This is My beloved
Son, in whom I am well pleased!”
Pleased, the Father may have been, but that did not mean
that Jesus was to lead a privileged life in his time with us. And the image of
a dove was not to mean that the days ahead would be peaceful ones for him.
The very next verse says, “Then Jesus was led by the Spirit
into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. After fasting forty days and
forty nights, He was hungry” (Matthew 4:1 BSB).
In fact, in the Gospel of Mark, it says that the Spirit compelled or drove[1]
him into the wilderness. This was not something that Jesus chose to do, but it
was necessary for him to do so. I will not pretend that I know all of the
reasons that it was necessary for Jesus in his own life and ministry, but it
was necessary for us in that it demonstrates to us that of all the temptations
that we must endure, Jesus has endured far more.
Did the Temptations of Jesus Truly
Tempt Him?
Some wonder if this is so. They wonder if Jesus had to endure
more that we do. Was it possible for Jesus to even sin? He is God, so can God
sin? If he cannot sin, how then could the temptations be true temptations?
This is one of those questions that will keep the discussion
around the campfire or in the theology classroom going late into the night, and
without any conclusive answer. I will only say this: certainly the Devil must
have thought that he could entice Jesus to sin. He worked very hard at doing
so.
I in fact was pondering this very question on one camping
trip very many years ago. Some time before that night, a violent windstorm blew
through the area. Many trees had broken or were uprooted by the power of the
wind. As I hiked around examining the damage, I came upon two trees of the same
species and of similar size and condition. One had been toppled by the
windstorm. The other, just feet away, was still standing tall.
Which of these two trees felt the greatest power of the
storm? Not the one that toppled. When it fell, the fury of the wind no longer
affected it. The gale could no longer torment it. No—it was the tree that did
not fall that knew the full power of the tempest. It had withstood the most
violent of the wind gusts and endured the entire length of the storm. It had
known far more of the fury than did the tree that fell, yet it had stood firm.
Jesus also knew the full fury of the storm of Satan, yet did
not fall. He did not sin. Even in his baptism, he demonstrates to us the
strength that this act can also give us in combating temptations.
The Temptations of Jesus
The temptations of Jesus were three-fold. First of all,
Jesus had gone forty days and nights without eating, so of course he was
hungry. The first manner in which Satan tempted Jesus was with the physical
needs of Jesus—the nutritional requirements of his body.
The tempter came to Him and said, “If You are the Son of
God, tell these stones to become bread.”[2] It was a temptation to the
needs of his flesh.
But Jesus would not turn the stones to bread. Why? Perhaps
it was because he would not do it simply out of the suggestion of Satan, but
look at how he answered the temptation.
Jesus said, “It is written: ‘Man shall not live on bread
alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.’ ”
The larger issue is that in his forty days of fasting, Jesus
learned that physical food is secondary. Of primary necessity are the words of
life that come from God. Physical life is something that even with adequate and
proper nutrition will eventually cease. It is the spiritual life that comes
from the word of God that will live forever and will not cease.
Not to be so easily outdone, the devil took Jesus to the “holy
city” and set him on the pinnacle of the temple.
“If You are the Son of God,” Satan then said to him, “throw
Yourself down. For it is written: ‘He will command His angels concerning You,
and they will lift You up in their hands, so that You will not strike Your foot
against a stone.’”
Satan now is appealing to the pride of Jesus in that Jesus
could preserve himself from death—The Pride of Life. And the devil was also
getting crafty. He quoted a Psalm to prove his point.[3]
Jesus replied, “It is also written: ‘Do not put the Lord
your God to the test.’”
Failing that, the devil then took Jesus to a very high
mountain from which they could see “all the kingdoms of the world and their
glory.”
“All this I will give You,” Satan said to Jesus, “if You will fall down and worship me.”
These were no empty words. Scripture confirms that since the
initial rebellion of man in the Garden of Eden against the authority of God,
the world has been under the control of Satan.[4] Showing all of this to
Jesus, the devil perhaps thought that if Jesus would actually be able to see
with his eyes all that he would gain, he would succumb to the temptation.
“Away from Me, Satan!” Jesus answered. “For it is written:
‘Worship the Lord your God and serve Him only.’”
The Temptations of Jesus are Our Own Temptations
Interestingly, the three temptations of Jesus parallel our
own temptations more than we may at first realize. In whatever specific form
our own temptations come, they are basically either in the nature of the
desires of the flesh, the desires of the eyes, or the pride of life.
We may not be tempted to actually turn stones into
bread—that ability is beyond us. Nor may we be tempted to call on angels to
serve us, or tempted with possibility of ruling the entire world and all of its
governments. These things we know are simply beyond possibility.
But they were not for Jesus. He could have done or had each
of these things, but did not succumb to the continuing onslaughts of the devil.
He felt the full power of the windstorm. He felt the full gale force of the
temptations of Satan, yet did not fall.
But it apparently was not easy for Jesus to do this. This is
another indication to me that these temptations of Jesus were true temptations.
He was actually enticed by them. I know this by how Matthew finishes this
account.
Matthew writes, “Then the devil left Him, and angels came
and ministered to Him.”
Withstanding the tempest of Satan’s temptations had taken
everything out of Jesus. He must have felt drained of all inner fortitude that
the angels then came to minister life to him.
How Our Baptism Can Help Us
Withstanding Satan’s temptations may also take everything
out of us, but it is our baptism that is one thing that can give us the
strength to do so.
We can say to ourselves and to Satan in the midst of the
fiercest storm and within the tempest of the winds of temptation, “I no longer belong to the kingdom of the world and I do not
have to follow its ways. That old me is dead. I now live a new life in the
kingdom of God.”
We can stand firm, even when trees all around us are
falling.
Another John, not John the Baptist but John the Apostle,
wrote these words many years later. John the Apostle was by now an old man when
he wrote to the church:
Do not love the
world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the
Father is not in him. For all that is in the world—the desires of the flesh,
the desires of the eyes, and the pride of life—is not from the Father but from
the world. The world is passing away along with its desires, but whoever does
the will of God remains forever.
1 John 2:15-17 BSB
1 John 2:15-17 BSB
We will also remain forever if we refuse the temptations of
the world and learn to live in the riches of the will of the Lord. Withstand
the gale-forced winds of the tempter, and God will send his angels to minister
strength to you.
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