Part 5 // John’s Ministry and Jesus’ Temptation // Mike Bickle // Studies in the Life of Christ

turn to a Luke chapter three Luke chapter three from session five on studies in the life of Christ father we thank you Lord for the glorious precious Word of God that gives us insight into your beautiful son Lord we want to see him be like him adore him understand him more clearly love him with greater tenacity Lord we thank you by the Holy Spirit you will help us tonight in Jesus name Amen what we're going to begin talking about the Ministry of John the Baptist's because John the Baptist is identified as the father's messenger about Jesus in Matthew chapter 11 he's called the father's messenger that's a pretty intense title he was handpicked by the father and said I want you to introduce my son to history so that they have the right ideas about him and the reason I say that is that some people think of John the Baptist is kind of real intense and fiery you know prophet the desert and then we have kind gentle Jesus and John the Baptist was handpicked by the father to introduce Jesus so that we would understand Jesus better and so to understand John the Baptist gives us insight into the man that we love the Lord Jesus well begins here in Luke chapter 3 we're going to look at Luke chapter three and four and again we'll just have to go through it fairly quick and just hit a few of the key points there's a gold mined will curse to hold all the Gospels I could say that of every session begins that with John the Baptist the dating of his ministry and one of the reasons Luke does this is that he wants to set salvation history the big events in salvation in context the world history and what Luke is saying in essence is this is actually world history is actually following the lead of salvation history so he begins Luke chapter 3 verse 1 he says now in the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar now that's the big date right there the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar and much this is one of the major insights to get the dating for Jesus's ministry when he began and when his ministry when he died etc then he mentions Pontius Pilate and Herod the Tetrarch of Galilee now number one Tiberius there's two dates that history gives for the fifteenth year of his reign it would be AD 27 or ad 29 so one or two either one of those dates is when John the Baptist's ministry began and of course Jesus's ministry began six months afterwards and I think the evidence lines up best for it being AD 27 I believe Jesus's ministry was launched in eighty twenty seven and then he went to the cross in 30 ad and I think that most of historians will back up those numbers are real close to that I got a little bit of info on there and I'll have an entire handout on the dating of Jesus's ministry with four or five really clear and significant indicators I'll give you that at another time well number three Herod well there's quite a few Herod's in the Bible there's several of them in the Bible say a few in history this is Herod Antipas this is not hair 'hard the great this is haired the great son Herod Antipas and he was a Tetrarch and at a chart all that means is he ruled one-fourth of the area because his brother Phillip and others Pontius Pilate ruled the other part of the area so his dad ruled the whole thing but Herod Antipas only got a fourth of the of the in his uh his father passed on to him now Herod this Herod Antipas is the one that imprisoned and then executed John the Baptist and then you'll mention and you'll notice in verse two Anna's and Caiaphas the high priest the reason I highlight this is because you're reading the Gospels and Acts and one time it says and this is the high priest the next time it's Caiaphas you go well which is it well they're the official high priest was Caiaphas but his father-in-law anis was the high priest before him and when somebody was high priest their high priest for life but the Romans took him out of office but the Jewish leader said you can take him out of office but we're still gonna treat him as a high priest and so anis the father-in-law was still involved deeply with Caiaphas his son-in-law and so there's an - functioning high priest in the Gospels and in the book of Acts that's just an FYI paragraph B verse 3 that John the Baptist he went to all the region around the Jordan River that's down south in the southern part the Jordan River by just outside of Jerusalem and he was preaching a baptism of repentance for the remission of sins or you could say for the forgiveness of sins in verse 4 Luke wanted us to know of course all of the Gospels made this clear all four Gospels that John the Baptist was a fulfillment a partial fulfillment I'll add a partial fulfillment of what Isaiah prophesied that there would be a voice crying in the wilderness prepare the way the Lord that's the famous verse from Isaiah 40 and the promise was that every valley would be filled and every mountain would be brought low but here's why we know John the Baptist was only a partial fulfillment because the context verse 6 is the is the hour when all the nations see the glory of God and that only happened a little bit in John's day but Isaiah 4 is about the timeframe when all the nations see the glory of the Lord it's in the generation of the Lord's return and so though John the Baptist is the premier forerunner at the first coming God is going to raise up voices in the wilderness they're going to prepare the way of the Lord for the second coming and the hour in which all flesh which you could put all nations or all people groups will see with their eyes the glory of the Lord and that is in those final years leading up to the Lord's return and then the ultimate is the Lord's return and the glory of the Lord filling the earth now what Isaiah is really doing is describing Jesus's new covenant ministry when we see that every Valley shall be lifted up in every mountain brunt low that is symbolic but there's also a physical reality to that as well it's symbolic for emotional and spiritual truths John the Baptist was connected with that but this passage is also talking about topological changes topographical changes when the Lord returns on the earth and that's a big subject for another day but many things are going to be shifted even in geography but in this hour this is a reference to the New Covenant ministry of Jesus all the valleys in our life the low areas the areas where we're deficient in in the grace of God Jesus by the Holy Spirit says I'm going to help to bring those areas up and the mountains those are the areas that are too intense too out of balance the emotions the the areas in our life that are way out of balance they need to be brought down and the Holy Spirit is saying that through Jesus I'm going to do that I'm going to help you do that and so John the Baptist was actually a forerunner to get people ready to receive the man the man we love that would have that impact in our lives so I'm believing the Lord for every area that's low and deficient in my spiritual life to be brought up and every area that's like a mountain that that's over exaggerated that needs to be brought under the Holy Spirit's restraint to be brought down that mountain the scripture says you can believe the Lord's leadership in your life for that to happen so I want to encourage you to really lay hold of this this is about Jesus this is about his ministry now John the Baptist's ministry was was characterized as a baptism of repentance and some folks have a wrong idea about repentance and again they think John preached repentance but then Jesus preached grapes but Luke was very focused on and he emphasized the subject of repentance because Luke wrote the Gospel of Luke and you know most of you Luke wrote the book of Acts he wrote both of those and you study the word repentance throughout Luke and the book of Acts and Luke will show you how John preached it how Jesus preached did it more than John did and the Apostles preached it even more than Jesus because their ministry was longer that repentance is the message that Jesus the early church and John the Baptist proclaimed and so John wasn't kind of doing some weird thing until Jesus came around with the grace of God I hear things like that but faith and repentance are actually two sides of one reality I want to get I really want you to get that faith of repentance there's really two sides of one reality because repentance really means change your mind it's not just change your values from sinful things to godly that's repentance but change your perspective your mindset your perspective of life the lens through which you view life in situation and John is saying repent see it through God's eyes we call that faith but faith and repentance really it's two sides of one coin in reality and one of the reasons John the Baptist emphasized repentance and Jesus emphasized it and the Apostles because John understood that with repentance changing our values changing our perspective in our mindset the way we view things changing the leadership of our life from ourselves to the Lord that is how transformation is released in our life so we don't want to be shy or or draw back on the subject of repentance now he had a baptism of repentance meaning baptism was you went down in the water and you came up and you and you were signifying that the old life was going down and being washed away and I am now committed to a new life does it mean everything is going to be easy from then on but it's a statement of commitment you're coming up out of the water saying I want from now on to be under a new leadership to embrace new values and to have a new perspective on how I view life and opportunities and challenges I'm going to view them through the lens of the grace of God through Jesus as leadership now the problem is some people and that day they were getting baptized they were doing the outward but they were not doing the inward and I know people today they think well I've been baptized you know that that's good enough I go well you know you could have a wedding ring but if you don't have a spouse it's not going to get you very far and baptism without a relationship is like this the symbol without the reality now the this very glorious statement verse 3 it's a baptism of repentance for the remission of sins we're so used to that idea but this is awesome your sins are totally forgiven I mean this is amazing you can have a new beginning every single day in the grace of God no condemnation have confidence before God even in your weakness that is what remission of sins is talking about this is the most glorious news full forgiveness final forgiveness complete forgiveness confidence with God not just when we get to heaven there's no condemnation in Christ and John the Baptist was saying guys do you know who this man's coming this man I'm talking about the one that's coming he's going to bring this to your life this is more glorious than we can really really grasp and and john the baptist was emphasizing this and tying it to the subject of repentance a new perspective on life twelve of page two we're going to look now for a moment at the preaching of john and again john is preparing people for jesus's leadership and john is preparing people to understand what kind of man leader jesus is well john starts off here in verse eight he goes bear fruits of worthy of repentance he goes don't have repentance language and don't do the baptism the repentance ceremony without repenting because if you don't change your values and your mindset about life your perspective you don't change leadership over your life from you to the lord if nothing's going to change nothing good that god promised is going to happen in the way the Word of God describes it because it don't say to yourself we have Abraham as our Father because the Jewish people they said hey you know they would talk to the Gentiles to their neighbors I'm talking about the the those nations were hostile towards that many of them and they would say well Abraham is our Father so therefore were right with God because he was our great great great grandfather Abraham was 2,000 years before Christ and they said hey we're connected to him by blood so we're good and John says no no your religious heritage isn't isn't a substitution for a real relationship with the Messiah and and so John was telling them don't trust your upbringing and your religious heritage I know people today they trust their church background legolas tracing the church I was home-schooled as in the youth group I did this and now they're you know in their college years and their early 20s and they're out and about doing things and they're thinking well I grew up with that I check I got that one settled and they're trusting their heritage they're trusting Abraham like in essence or they trust their parents or you know I'm real good I'm good friends with the pastor back home I was in the youth group and what John says no that is it what I'm talking about don't don't lean on that but have a genuine up-to-date relationship with the king of Israel the king of the nations himself so verse 10 the people said well what do you what's that look like it's interesting there was three different groups that asked John the Baptist what does this look like you know I'm I'm a little bit amazed by the answer every answer he gave was an economic answer it was about the way they stewarded money that wasn't the whole answer but that was the main answer every one of them I would have thought wow you know how about you know your pride or whatever your lust in every other areas but it was about money there's something about when the Lord has leadership over our money it touches the deep places in our heart it's like John saying well you just obey the Lord's leadership and money you'll see how many issues in your heart will come to the surface good ones and bad ones and what will happen in your spiritual life if you stay obedient in the realm of money but obeying the Lord and entering into his fullness obeying the Lord and money and entering to the fullness of God in your life they are connected you know in all the years I've been pastoring when people won't obey the Lord in the realm of money they're stuck in their spiritual life in a way that bitterness and money are the two things that I see more people stuck spiritually because they assume those two areas or things are settled in their life because they're doing better than the guy next to them but these are really essential areas and so he goes on he says in verse 11 he goes the guy that has two coats give it to the one who has not the guy that has food do the likewise I've never really met an American except for on a mission trip who had two coats who really gave one of their coats away you know I've heard a people do it on a missions trip or that one outreach they'll do it but that doesn't really raus our mind really you know we think well I got five coats I got six coats I got way more than two I don't know how many coats I really have my wife knows but I don't but you know I got a bunch of them I'm sure in a closet somewhere but we never really think about this but the Johnson no I really actually want you to talk to me about these kind of small areas of your life then verse 12 he says to the tax collectors now the tax collectors you could put the IRS guys the tax collectors were the people who collected the money but it's not only government employees that because they were government employees they truly were the IRS kind of of their day anybody that's in a position that determines who owes people want it could be rent management it could be the bookkeepers store clerks accountants there's any number of professions where the guy that's making the decision can kind of be dishonest on 10% and nobody will know and John is saying if you're in one of those positions don't take more than is righteous no one's watching nobody's ever going to catch you but it will matter in your life with God then verse 14 he asked the soldiers and the soldiers of that eight we could call it the law enforcment many types of law enforcement of today but it doesn't only have to be the government law enforcement it might be anybody in a position of authority that they can make a decision that can harm somebody else's future or hinder someone else's future and he says if you're in a position of authority to open and shut doors for people good or bad don't use that position of authority to intimidate them don't say hey if you don't do it my way ugly I'll make sure that life is a little rough on you it's not just soldiers in law enforcement don't falsely accuse them and the idea is that these soldiers would accuse a guy to get a bribe from another guy like don't shift the story so you can get an advantage later from the person you help by shifting the story a little bit don't do that in your leadership position but be content with your wages now the reason this was a big deal because the soldiers didn't make very much so it is very easy to bribe a little bit or or to take 10% more than because nobody could catch up and so what's really happening paragraph C is John is saying the realm of money really is related to responding to Jesus's leadership because John's preparing people for Jesus and again that that's just an area those two where those two issues area and money and bitterness is is almost an area you just don't touch much because you can't really get on to the inside of somebody's heart because those are subjective areas because who really knows if you're bitter or you're covetous but if we really want the fullness of God we really want the valleys lifted up in our life and the mountains those difficult areas brought down we want to we want to take these cues from John about how to respond to Jesus Roman numeral three now John's going to speak about Jesus himself this is a pretty interesting description of the Messiah I don't think you and I preach Jesus like John dead I mean use I've never heard much talk about this you know a little bit here and there and I look at this and I go Lord this is good we're going through this class because this is how the great forerunner the Father's messenger Matthew 11 calls him the father's messenger here's how he prepared people about Jesus verse 16 he goes i baptize you in water but that but the man coming is mightier than I okay that's good he's far more powerful I think we all by that he's far more powerful than anybody but he goes he's the man that baptizes you with the Holy Spirit and fire but not only that number one he baptize you the Holy Spirit fire he has a winnowing fan in his hand that's the his leadership I want to tell you what he's like as a winnowing fan in his hand that's what he's preparing to use it when he comes into his public ministry and what he's going to do with that winnowing fan he's going to thoroughly cleanse the threshing floor and when he cleanses the threshing floor you know by the barn right outside the barn as the threshing floor he's going to gather the wheat and he's going to mobilize the weed and gather it and take care of it and he's going to burn the chaff I have never heard anybody preach a developed message on this description of Jesus I mean I need to get with it get with it Mike okay paragraph B he'll baptize you in the Holy Spirit and with fire now fire refers to the purifying work of the holy spirit so that love is imparted to us the purifying work is about an impartation of love the revelation impartation of love but fire also means judgment so Jesus uses fire in the positive and in the negative sense but this gives us revelation of who he is of what he's really like and of course when we receive Jesus we we want greater encounters with the Holy Spirit and I don't think being baptized with the Holy Spirit is just a one-time experience when the Holy Spirit touches you when you're first saved or you receive to get the tongues I think being baptized in the Holy Spirit the word baptized it immersed we want to be again and again the scripture the phrase used throughout the Gaza I mean the book of acts and the epistles is being filled with the spirit having a renewed and refreshed in the Holy Spirit over and over being baptized immersed in it where this is the world we want to live in encounter with the Holy Spirit and he's saying John saying Jesus will lead you into encounter with the Holy Spirit more than you could imagine if you'll stay with it so don't be content if you speak in tongues or you're born again but more than that we want we want that immersion and it's not just a one-time experience we're talking about we want to connect with the man who has the authority to release greater Encounters of the Spirit and these encounters have fire dimensions that are purity and the impartation of love and they have there's going to be trouble in the nations when the fire of the Lord and the negative sense that confronts sin but that's the Jesus we love he's the one that releases the fire the good and the and the negative dimensions of the fire of God he has a winnowing fork in his hand that's an interesting description now in that culture that was an agricultural culture so they understood it a winnowing fork is like a I have written here a fork like shovel they would take the winnowing big fork and they would take the the grain and the end and they would put it up in the fork and throw it in the air and the wind would blow and the wind would blow and the chaff because it's lighter would blow away and the grain is heavier would fall to the ground and that's how it got separated and what John is saying is he's going to separate what's going on in the nations he's going to cause people to decide for him and against him but he's going to bring a separation in Matthew chapter 10 he said that about himself he says don't think I came to bring peace I actually did and he knew he did but that wasn't the whole story of why he came to goes first I'm going to bring division I'm going to I'm going to intervene in lives and I'm going to intervene in the nation's in a way where it's going to cause the wheat to be separated from the chaff it's and the chaff again when the farmer threw it up in the air then the wind blew and the chaff went blew away it was lighter and the wheat would come to the ground but the point is John says this man that's about to come on the world scene is a man that's going to separate the wheat from the chaff that's one of his primary things now again we don't think about Jesus that way that much but this is how he was in urdu into human history paragraph eight now in past generations there a lot of preachers spoke about judgment and sin and repentance and they didn't talk that much about the good news and there's a correction that needed to take place in past generations but today it's quite opposite a lot of folks talk about the good news I mean forgiveness and glorious things in our life which is our focus but they don't ever talk about repentance the the need to really take seriously the mandate to break our agreement with wrong thinking and wrong values and the wrong leadership in our life that's all repentance as we break our agreement with wrong values we call sin sin we break our agreement with wrong ideas so we can walk in faith because right ideas is seeing things like God sees them agreeing with them not stuck in a and a negative mindset but saying what God says getting it in our mouth and getting it in our language with God and breaking our agreement with the wrong leadership of our life we're not just following the crowd or following our impulses and desires we're following a man who's leading us by the Holy Spirit and I believe before the Lord returns he's going to raise up forerunners in the generation that all the nations will see the salvation of God that's what Isaiah 40 said the passage we started with and they'll be voices crying out they won't be just echoes just you know repeating something someone else said they will it will resonate in their spirit they will be voices they will call people to repentance to agree with God's mindset we call that faith but it's it's really faith of repentance it's two sides of the same coin and they're going to call people to the glory of Jesus's leadership little top of page three the next passage right after that well it says here in verse 21 that it came to pass that G now is baptized I mean this is the highlight of John's ministry he's baptizing Jesus I mean this is like this is so glorious I mean you know he was called to get people to agree with Jesus but I don't think anything was a greater highlight in terms of a ministry event than this one thing right here so verse 21 he baptizes Jesus and while Jesus is praying the heavens open what a remarkable thing the heavens open and two things happen the Holy Spirit descends upon Jesus in bodily form like a dove this is like so intense like what what what do you mean well I think it means he descended on Jesus like a dove and then so the Holy Spirit comes on Jesus in a way that other people could see evidence of it now Jesus is fully God so he has all the fullness of God in him but as a man he still needed to be anointed to function as a man because Jesus didn't walk on the earth drawing on his own deity he walked on the earth in the limitations of humanity drawing on the anointing of the spirit that was on his life so Jesus the whole time was saying you know father I could draw my own my own deity and do it all but then I can't be a representative for the human race I got to live in the limitations of humanity in every way I have to be tempted in every way they have to draw on the anointing of the Spirit through my communion and prayer life and my interaction regularly with you God and that's what I have to draw on to move in power so that anointing came on him on his baptism but that's not all the father spoke audibly over him he didn't just say this is the man he said this is my beloved son you are my son let me didn't talk to the crowd about Jesus he talked to Jesus about Jesus and the crowd just observed it I mean this is the most dramatic an imagined that Jesus is childhood and his young adult years because he's 30 years old right now through his teens and 20s they're summed up by this one sentence we get more insight into what Jesus was like as a teenager and a young adult by this one sentence because we don't get much insight into his life it was it was obscure it's not in the Word of God besides you know the one passage when he was 12 years old went to the temple but here we see the whole story right here so Jesus is baptized the power of the Spirit rest on him to anoint him as the Messiah this was a new thing it came on him as a man as the Messiah an anointing he did not have as a man before this happened and the voice of God in his ordination service so to speak affirmed him you are my beloved I am so pleased in you and of course that's the truth that Jesus lived out up that was the identity when he's being rejected by men and even his own team betrayed him and fled and when they're under pressure he lived out of the resource of knowing that God said you're my beloved I'm your father and he lived out of the resource of the father saying I delight in your choices I believe in your choices the nation's don't but I do you know when he went to Nazareth his hometown and they want to kill it for real I mean long-term friends I mean the whole youth group all the elders of the church all the leaders of the town they want to kill him for real Mary's heart is broken I mean these are real friends that are really against him now suddenly because he was making these big bold statements and Jesus I when he would retreat he would say but father you delighted me and I'm your beloved and that's good enough for me I can endure all of this if I have that and this is not just a truth to a serve about his life but it's a truth to imitate as well let's go to a paragraph e well Luke doesn't mention this but Matthew and Mark do this statement that Jesus John said hey I can't baptize you and Jesus yeah you have to john goes no no no no no no way I can't do this is not right and Jesus in verse 15 Matthew 3 made this very unusual and surprising statement he goes no you have to permit it because it's fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness and so in what sense was righteousness fulfilled when Jesus was baptized I mean it wasn't in the sense that Jesus was repenting that's not there was no repentance going on and I have five paragraphs here they give a little bit about and I don't want to take time on it right now but I just that out to you it's in what sense because I remember when I first read this years ago I went this is strange you know how did it fulfill righteousness I mean we got a man who never sinned in what sense does righteousness need to be fulfilled and it was that God's will and God's ways were completed and you can read these five paragraphs on your own if it grabs your attention I don't want to take time on it right now but I didn't want to I did not want to skip that point in terms of the notes okay let's look at Roman numeral five let's go now where we're moving now past the baptism the anointing of the Spirit the audible voice of God all of these things taking place now the next thing that happened is that Jesus is led into the wilderness but by the Holy Spirit to be he's led by the Spirit to be tempted by the devil now that's an interesting paradox led by the spirit to be tempted by the devil like okay I thought the Spirit was supposed to lead me away from temptation this is a very unusual usual situation here and we know that God never tempts us he tests us and so the Holy Spirit was leading Jesus into the most dramatic testing of a man ever in human history the Holy Spirit empowered him he had the affirmation of the fathers loved to empower his heart and the spirit to empower him and he walked into the most dramatic testing that any man has ever walked in and if Jesus failed in this test then he would not be qualified to be our high priest to save us and there's no other Savior there's no other God in heaven the father can't become the son the Spirit can't become the son this is only one opportunity there isn't another God up there who's going to come down as a man and Jesus came down and in the wilderness and the part I want you to see on this that's why I want to go past some of the other areas too I want you to grasp this this is the most dramatic moment in history before the cross right here there there's this man Jesus he's going to stand in the place before the devil that Adam and Eve stood or I'll just say Adam Adam the Bible calls him the first Adam and he fell under the temptations in the Garden of Eden now Jesus is called the second Adam the last man there isn't a third one he's the last man the second Adam in the last man he's the only option for the human race but is going to be in the very grips of the most intense horrific every single element of power the demons can put against a man it's going to hit him in the wilderness well Adam had this in the Garden of Eden in Paradise and so the father says well here's how we're going to do this we're going to not put him in paradise we're going to lead him to the wilderness the most difficult situation no advantage whatsoever in the natural and we're going to bring him through 40 days of fasting and he's so wearied and vulnerable in his humanity and yet the devil comes it has the anointing of the Spirit and he has the affirmation of the Father that's what he has in his humanity to stand against the spirit and he has the Word of God to speak it against the devil and this is a this is such a historic moment I want you to grasp the weightiness of it of the historic moment but I also want you to grasp the model because it's not just a historic moment that we observe with Wonder and awe and gratitude because if he would have failed there isn't a third atom that was it there is no salvation for the human race if he fails so we we look at this passage with admiration and awe and gratitude but we look at the passage to get a model because under the greatest intensity he had the spirit and interaction with the spirit he had the father's voice of affirmation and he had the Word of God in his mouth those were the three things that he drew on to overcome the devil and that's a model for us so let's look at this first verse Juan Luke chapter 4 verse 1 that Jesus being filled with the Holy Spirit he returned from the Jordan River now he's led by the spirit into the wilderness to be tempted for forty days now he's not only tempted three times he's tempted night and day for forty days I mean the enemy is Bert brushing him with every single tactic at every single horrific thing he could bring against him in his humanity remember Jesus can't draw on his own deity he has to live in the limitations of a man and draw on the anointing draw on the affirmation of the Father and speak the Word of God those are his weapons that he's going to fight in and he's not an Eden in paradise like Adam he's in the wilderness and he's not full of vigor he's fasting on water for 40 days and he's getting weaker and weaker and when you're weaker just in your frame you're more vulnerable and the father says this is still going to work I mean all the you know everything is on the line for this one six-week period all of human history is on the line right now and this six-week period is 40 days and so you know we have this intensity what's going on this six weeks here and then we have three years later the six week six hours on the cross those two timeframes the whole thing comes together of human history now the Spirit led this this confrontation with darkness because I'm because it's a historic moment in history where Jesus is again standing before God and Satan as the second Adam because the first Adam failed in all of history was scarred and injured by that failure you know with this new a level of a warfare there's going to be new breakthroughs and of course the breakthrough is that he qualifies as a man he completely is victorious so now he can qualify as a sinless man who's been through every testing that any other person has every one of them hit him in full force and he obeyed therefore now he's qualified as the innocent one to take our place the place of the guilty ones so that the guilty ones you and me can become innocent before God as a free gift top of page four now you're going to most of you are a little bit familiar with this passage Luke chapter four but if not it's not so it's pretty easy to grasp the main things that are taking place that are stated in Luke four there's three basic temptations that are highlighted but remember he's being tested the whole forty days night and day but there's three of them that the spirit brought to a head to be recorded in the Word of God and it's interesting we're in paragraph C that all three of the ten tations Jesus spoke the Word of God every time there is it a time where he didn't speak the word back now this is where the model comes meaning with his temptation and how he overcame as a model for us is not just something we marvel at with worship but we it's a model for us to imitate and a lot of believers just don't do this when the enemy comes against them they kind of grit their teeth they kind of hunker down it like I'm getting heard I'm just hurt okay lift your voice talk to the devil speak the Word of God declare who you are declare who your authority don't just die like I'm all for pain I'm understand pains real but it's not an hour where you want pain to be the final word of your response we have to speak the Word of God back and every time Jesus did it and the Word of God teaches us to do that we speak the word of promise who we are our authority devil begone in the name of Jesus and then we have to do it a thousand times in a day we do it a thousand times we live by the Word of God and the way we live by it we bring it back through our heart and mind through our lips our lips by our mouth we do that we speak the Word of God and it reengage --is our heart in our mind in agreement with God that's how we live by the Word of God but if we don't reengage our heart in our mind by speaking the word the enemy will speak his word over you I tell you that enemy knows the Bible really well and he knows you real well and he knows how to deceive you really easy and if you're going to be just enough I'm just going to hang this one out just feel sorry for myself I get a few friends to pat me on the back and say how rough my life is I'm all for a little bit of that but beloved that can't be the final word or it can't be the main conversation that goes on I'm all for sympathy and compassion but I'm also like hey I'll stand with you and let's see the truth of what's going on here well it's not just that Jesus quoted the Bible three times James he quoted it three times from the book of Deuteronomy that's significant and the reason that's significant because Deuteronomy is the book of which is describing illed Israel in the wilderness for forty years so Jesus is saying I'm in the wilderness for forty days and Israel was in the wilderness for forty years Adam was in the Garden of Eden being tempted I'm in the desert being tempted so he is a contrast to Adam in the garden and Israel in the wilderness he says I'm going to bring both of those together and have victory and show you who I am before God in this in this intense six week 40 day period so number one under C I say this again Jesus is victorious in contrast to Adam in the garden because he's the second Adam and in contrast Israel in the wilderness because he's the new Israel he's the embodiment of what God wants in Israel he's saying Israel look at me and see your destiny and see your source and see your future by looking at me so all three Jesus Adam and Israel I mean you're not surprised they're all three called the son of God even corporate Israel God said this is my son he said it about Adam and he said it about Jesus those are the three in a more specific way in the scripture so in paragraph two Jesus is answering the enemy by the sword of the Spirit remember when Paul said that he says you can quench all the flaming missiles of the evil one by the sword of the Spirit which is the word of God but it's the word of God in your mouth because when you speak the Word of God it aligns it brings your mind and your emotions into alignment or into agreement with what God says and if you don't speak it your mind and emotions go right left it happened out in all kinds of directions now paragraph D I want you to really grasp what's going on to his historic intensity of what's going on that the purpose of Satan in tempting Jesus it's more than trying to get Jesus to set it's more than that he's trying to get Jesus to act independent of God he's trying to get Jesus to draw on his own deity and not stay under the limitations of humanity drawing on the Holy Spirit because if Jesus one time acts as God instead of a weak man drawing on the spirit then Satan says you can't save man unless you live perfectly a hundred percent as man every time so he's in the weakest condition and he's Satan when you when you understand what he's really after he's trying to get him to move independent of the Father not trusting the father like the rest of the redeemed half too and waiting on the father so he's trying to speed things up and get Jesus to step outside of that limitation and Jesus course he understands that far better than Satan does Jesus said in John 15 he says I say to you I can do nothing of myself but only what I see the father do now that is a stares a number of points about that but one thing Jesus is saying I can't do anything of myself but only the father if I step out of the limitations of humanity and I move in my own thing here because He is God if I'm if I draw on my own deity I can't be your Savior then I have to live as a man a hundred percent of the time and I have to live obediently 100 percent of the time in order to qualify to offer myself for your salvation and that's why you know people talk about well I've heard you know guys on talk shows they go you know you're kind of elite your religion you think you're the best and it's not about being elite or the best we're the only religion that has a man who faced everything and never sinned and then took the sin on himself it's an issue of justice it's an issue of is there any other faith that has a man who did that because if they do then we could talk but of course there is no such thing okay paragraph II I want you to notice and you're gonna have to put some of this together on your own but I'm just tipping you off because we're we won't have time to really develop it but there's three main categories of sin in life I mean there's millions of temptations but there's three big categories of which every temptation can fall under one two the three first John chapter two there's the lust of the flesh that's our our flesh our fleshly pleasures being gratified there's the lust of the eyes we see something and want it and there's the pride of life three main categories of sin every human being faces it now what I'm going to show you although we won't have time because I'm watching the clock here Adam face these exact three sins in the guard of Eden and fell Jesus is going to face the same three in the wilderness and he's going to succeed but he's standing right where Adam stood in the same three temptations although remember Satan has been tempting him the whole forty days these are the three the holy spirit brought to a head and they were climatic I'm sure even in the experience with Jesus the lust of the flesh speaks of pleasures without reference to the will of God and I'm calling that sensuality sensuality doesn't just mean sexuality sensuality just the realm of physical pleasure it's not just sexual in nature the lust of the flesh then there's the lust of the eyes that's possessions without reference to the will of God and then the pride of life is position without reference the will of God I heard some preachers say that many years ago and I thought man I'm going to take that and run I've heard it a number of guys say that so it's not just evil pleasures but it's just pleasures out of the will of God and in this case Satan wants him to turn because Jesus is really hungry stone into bread there's nothing sinful about wanting bread there things simple about that at all and God made manna in the wilderness for 40 years every single day so God does make food out of nothing he does all died he did it all the time for him and Jesus multiplied food so jesus knew it was in his repertoire so to speak to be able to do that and so but gee the father sang Jesus you can't do it without me telling you to do it you I mean it's it's in my character to do it but until I say do it you can't do it you have to live under the limitation of your humanity 100% and Satan goes hey you're hungry make come on it's biblical it's in the Bible just make that you can do it and Jesus is absolutely not and that's a that's what I'm putting the the lust of the flesh meaning that wasn't sexual but it was a gratification a legitimate one but he had to step out of the boundaries of his limitations is a man to do it because the father says I'm not doing it even with Israel he said I'll give you food when I give you you got to trust my leadership and so Jesus is here 40 days hungry father I'm trusting your leadership and he says I'll give it to you when it's perfectly right trust me and don't move on your own no matter what Satan does so Jesus turns that away that's what he was doing paragraph F I mentioned here you got to read it and kind of look at it a little bit later how this I I just make it real simple sensuality pride and greed I mean that is a little over simplistic but it just puts it real tight in your understanding almost everything you deal with if I'm a certain everything you do deal with and I deal with will be in one of those categories here in Genesis chapter 3 I identify very quickly if I had time I could develop it more why all three of those Adam and Eve faced them a demain face in okay paragraph G here's the principle that Jesus lived in now this is this room glorious thing about this temptation I mean how good are we marvel at what he was facing I heard a preacher say this many years ago - although Jesus was never less than God never there was never a moment when he was less than God he lived on the earth as though he was never more than a man his 33 years on the earth he lived always in the limitations of his humanity drawing on the spirit in the father's timing and not the father didn't give it he said I can't do it and he lived completely like he was a man though he was never ever less than God he lived as though he was never more than a man but I can say a man anointed by the spirit in those last three half years and he gives us a picture of what a man anointed by the spirit course he's the ideal beyond measure without measure so let's uh okay here's an illustration I heard down in paragraph I illustration I heard years ago that a laptop can be powered by a battery or plug in obviously Jesus had the battery he had the in he was gone on the inside but he always lived by the plug and he always lived by this source that came to him the Holy Spirit he never operated on his own battery as God he always lived dependent on the anointing of the Holy Spirit the analogy of the plug in I heard that years ago and I thought hey I could that make sense to me a little bit I although we laptops wasn't the what we were using we're using something else I think it was flashlights or something but anyway of top of page five top of page five the first temptation is the stone turned to bread and again there's nothing wrong with Jesus eating bread he's been not eaten for forty days but he has to wait on the father because Israel in the wilderness had to wait on the father to provide the water in the bread and Jesus says I'm the same place that Israel is in but I'm going to obey where Israel grumbled and they tested god paragraph B we're just gonna do this real fast the second temptation was Satan and most of you familiar with the story showed him the glory of all the kingdoms of the earth but not just the power of all the kingdoms but their splendor all of their riches all the property in the the glamorous buildings and all the possessions and all the wealth of the nations and Satan said I'm the god of this world they're under my authority that isn't a complete statement but in the sovereignty of God God let Adam give that place of authority over to Satan because that place of authority was given to Adam and you can see here in Luke chapter uh for hair he says in verse 6 Satan said to Jesus I'll give you all the authority and splendor of all the kingdoms because it was given to me he meant by Adam when Adam sinned and Adam had the dominion over the earth given to him by the father when he said he gave that Dominion to Satan so Saint says I got it I want it and Jesus stood as the second Adam and he won it back he he gained the victory as a man and he won the place between his victory in the wilderness and then the crowning achievement of the cross and resurrection he completely destroyed Satan but he wanted legally he didn't just take it he won it as a man in the way that Adam lost it as a man paragraph G when Satan's coming before him I want you to get this paragraph I mean paragraph seat verse 8 jesus said these simple words that a lot of believers never say get behind me I talk to believers I mean for years I go to you ever just rebuke Satan as well you know I don't know are you kidding with me you know Jesus did it James 4:7 says if you rebuke the devil he'll flee that doesn't mean one sentence that he's gone you stay with this in the name of Jesus I command you to go this torment coming to your mind or your body or your home your money or your situation Jesus actually did it he rebuked Satan and this is where we're learning a model he spoke the odd he spoke the promise of God and then he rebuked Satan taba page 6 the third temptation Satan comes and says well verse 9 he brought Jesus to Jerusalem that's kind of intense because he's out in the wilderness I don't not very many miles from Jerusalem I'm maybe 10 or 20 I guess something like that probably not that far I don't know how he brought Jesus to Jerusalem that's a pretty intense concept but he did and he set him on the pinnacle at the very top the highest building so here's Jesus you know 40 days fasting up there like what well we're talking about I mean the ultimate powers in the dark realm and in the glory realm Satan Lucifer right here so I mean these things are strange to us but they're you know the realm that they live in it's not as strange that it is duh so Jesus is there they're at the top of the pinnacle of the temple I mean just stop and get your mind around that for a moment it's like wow that's pretty intense and then Satan says if you're the Son of God throw yourself down because God promised to protect you verse 10 Satan's quoting Psalm 91 because God promised to protect you you know Psalm 91 right in verse 10 Jesus because I know Psalm 91 but you're twisting it you're twisting it because the father didn't tell me to throw myself down and I'm not going to test the Lord that's not what's going to happen I refuse to test the Lord because the Bible said in verse 12 he quotes Deuteronomy again Deuteronomy 6 16 you don't test God you don't make God act on your terms that's what it means to test God where Allah when Israel tested the Lord in Exodus chapter 17 what it meant when Israel tested the Lord is that God they didn't have water because God had it hadn't produced water out of a rocket I mean they're going to get 40 years they're going to have water flood of a rock do you know how much water it's going to take to provide enough water for three million people in the desert six hundred thousand men plus women and children and livestock do you know how much water that's going to take and water came out of a rock day after day after day after day and food came down from heaven and Israel when they didn't have water at first they got really mad at God and they said God you're not a good leader that's an essence they complain and it was the complaining that God said you've tested me you want me to act on your terms in your timeframe that's called testing God we call it complaining God calls it testing him you're saying I better produce on your terms or you're going to cast off my leadership of your life you're not going to trust me anymore and so Satan is coming to Jesus saying jump down I mean I got a Bible verse Psalm 91 it's right there in the Bible he'll protect you and Jesus says yeah God will protect me that is for me but it's not for me to determine the time in the place of how God intervenes I'm not going to determine that God determines that if I jump off this temple I am the one determining when God intervenes and how I'm going to trust him instead of insist on him to do it in my time in my way I'm going to be have gratitude and worship I'm not going to complain which is which is what testing the Lord is all about well it all came to an end and verse all the way down to paragraph I will just end with this worship team come on up verse 13 Luke 4:13 the very at the very end of page six when the devil had every temptation ended every one of them I mean 40 days worth and these three big ones but undoubtedly there were many different versions of those three temptations Satan departed from him until an opportunity and of course the opportune time was some years later related to the cross where Satan came in full force again to get Jesus not to endure the cross and Jesus had victory in that and beloved I look at this passage and I marvel at what this man walked in for our sake and yet I also want to embrace the model of how he did it because it's meant to be instructive to us to build our faith that we are the Lord says I intend for this to work in your life I intend for this to work in the weakest believers life if they will just draw on the spirit develop a relation with the spirit speak the Word of God and believe what God says about them about his love for them in their life amen and amen let's stand before the Lord Lord here we are before you Lord we love your leadership god we love your word we're all being tempted every one of us in this room are being tempted in various ways father here we are before you Holy Spirit I just ask you for your leadership even now I asked you to minister to us even now across this room [Music] there is power but I ask you to strengthen our hearts by this example of Jesus by this message of repentance that John [Music] but I agree with what John said I agree with what Jesus did now the Lord's calling some of you in this room tonight to repent he's always calling us in a spirit of repentance always actually in the name of it's repentance to experience the kingdom [Music] some of you is calling you to repent of some values you have in your life he says no resists those things resist those different actions in your lungs this is a night for repentance we can be [Music] others of you he's calling you to repent of your mindset [Music] you have a mindset of unbelief you don't take the Word of God at face value and he says repent enter the kingdom experience the kingdom by agreeing with me we say yes to your word some of you you never speak the Word of God back to the devil you just ride the storm out week after week year after year he's calling you to repent and not to have that attitude 'ti Lord we say yes to your leadership we take authority we agree with your leadership [Music] we take a pony [Music] the Lord speaking you tonight about repentance is any of those ways I would invite you to come and stand before the Lord of this if you would like prayer you would like prayer he's calling you to repent I want you to come up here I mean we're all going to repent tonight one way or the other I am for sure this lines me up regularly with what the Lord wants these kind of passages but if you want prayer you say I got to break my agreement with some activity or some value or I got to break my agreement with some negative mindset of unbelief what invite you to come up [Music] bringing up what I thank you for the message of repentance [Music] holy spirit we break our agreement with darkness we break our agreement with darkness dark ideas dark desires dark perspectives we break our agreement with darkness right now [Music] [Music] [Music] Oh [Music] but I asked for a spirit of Liberty now to move in this room [Music] we asked for spoon of Liberty to be released on hearts and minds tonight [Music] [Music] we turn to [Music] we turn to [Music] john the baptist said repent for the kingdom is here experience of the kingdom is here but we got to repent we got to line up with what God says [Music] [Music] thank you spear of Liberty we release the spread of Liberty right now in this room we dig authority over Satan we say Satan begone in the name of Jesus we review you in the name of Jesus tormenting spirits a spirit of heaviness a spirit darkness a spirit of fear a spirit of lost we take authority over it we release the glory of the kingdom [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] there's power in the name of Jesus [Music] oh we marvel at your leadership Jesus yeah [Music] Lord is raising up in time for runners in this hour they will be like a voice in the wilderness of the nation's the [Music] Lord says a voice will cry in the wilderness of the nations declaring the glory of the Lord whether that's an endtime promise now just in John the Baptist generation [Music] it's a fixer make sure [Music] [Applause] [Music] in [Applause] [Music] right [Music] Lord raise up forerunners in this house those that will have a voice to the wilderness of the nations rains up for runners that declare the glory of the kingdom [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Applause] [Music] I am [Music] [Music] good [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Applause] shame be free in the name of Jesus tonight change we break the chains by the Word of God [Music] in a mom Jesus free [Music] Jesus in [Music] love Jesus [Music] oh Jesus [Music] Oh Ray's a sucker we return we return ah [Music] here's is [Music] to be your play gone we make our hearts clean we say [Music] means my solar son here means our song surrender here Holy Spirit we ask you moving power but we ask you for a wave of your spirit to be released in this room right now we ask you for more tonight release power tonight more Lord [Applause] release your glory tonight tonight Lord freedom tonight [Music] [Applause] is my song [Music] sir it's [Applause] [Music] [Music] do what only you can do Lord do what only you can do we speak your word Lord release your power I asked for healings tonight physical healings tonight Lord spiritual healing tonight he'll herds and bodies and minds yes really [Music] we speak jung-hee [Music] only you can do only you can do come to me you can you Holy Spirit this place in line [Music] see you say can do [Music] [Applause] [Music] how many in the room here being tormented are attacked by fear any kind of fear you would like / denied the enemy he's a specialist and tormenting with fear there's a hundred types of fear if you're being attacked with fear you want prayer raise your hand up right now again there's so many kinds that godly men and women are being assaulted I would like to you the rest of you look rather and let's see whose hands I'm going to focus on this for a few moments anybody raise your hand there's all kinds of fears that godly men and women are attacked by wave your hands till somebody comes around I want at least two people around everybody there's someone over here I want to take authority over torment and the spirit of fear this is something we can do every single meeting actually scripture said he's not giving you a spirit of fear but of a sound mind in other words a mind that glazed hold of God's promises and God's perspective that's what a sound mind you have a mind to lay hold of the promise and the perspective of God so I rebuked the spirit of fear right now the torments godly men and women and I release a spirit of a sound mind that could take hold of the Word of God in the perspective of God [Music] I review a spirit of fear right now in Jesus name torment begone torment begone right now [Music] phobias fears of any kind fear of sickness fear of something from the past catching up with you I break the power of that fear right now the fear of failure of disaster of rejection the fear of a terminal sickness I take authority over right now [Music] not ask for spirit of Liberty on their mind the spirit of Liberty on their mind even now i ask i rebuke the spirit of heaviness I rebuke the spirit of heaviness a sound mind the lays hold of the promise of God [Music] freedom in the night we review terror in the night that disturbs you in the night different ones of you [Music] do [Music] see on the month and the spear [Music] we speak freedom freedom to your three Tommy [Music] jeez [Music] the Word of God says it is written he's giving you the power of a sound mind it is written he has given you the power of a sound mind [Music] [Music] [Music] healing now and I guess freedom tonight tonight Lord tonight Lord [Applause] [Music] tonight here and now here and now tonight [Music] [Music] you [Music] [Music] [Music] here no we chose here [Music] why not here why now [Music] [Applause] right now freedom in the name I like you [Music] not here [Music]

Channel: Mike Bickle Official

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Keywords: ihopkc, International House of Prayer, Mike Bickle, The Bible, Jesus, Life of Christ, Prayer, Prayer Room, John the Baptist, Christian, Christianity

Id: hwkmjKpYA5o

Length: 87min 30sec (5250 seconds)

Published: Thu Jun 15 2017