With the situation our world is in many of us feel, anxious and uncertain of the future. This morning we will look at Matthew Ch3 beginning at verse 15 and concluding at Ch4:1
Jesus is baptised and straight away was taken, by the Holy Spirit into the wilderness.
Sometimes we have to walk in that wilderness but its comforting to know that God is there also. We will look more at that later.
Let us begin our time of worship and sing, To God be the glory
===============================
Please turn with me to the Gospel Of Matthew Ch3
Matthew Ch 3:13-17 The Baptism of Jesus
13 Then Jesus came from Galilee to the Jordan to be baptized by John. 14 But John tried to deter him, saying, “I need to be baptized by you, and do you come to me?”
15 Jesus replied, “Let it be so now; it is proper for us to do this to fulfil all righteousness.” Then John consented. 16 As soon as Jesus was baptized, he went up out of the water. At that moment heaven was opened, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and alighting on him. 17 And a voice from heaven said, “This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased.”
Matthew Ch 4:1 Jesus Is Tested in the Wilderness
1Then Jesus was led by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil.
May The Lord add his blessing on his word this day Amen.
========================
As we move into a time of prayer let us sing: As The Deer. Song number 571
I pray that your soul longs after the things of God.
Let us Pray
Loving God, we pray for all those suffering or afraid. we pray that you will be close to them and protect them. We pray for world leaders, for compassion, strength and wisdom to guide their choices. We pray for the world that in this moment of crisis. Let us reach out in solidarity to our brothers and sisters in need. May we walk in your ways so that peace and justice become a reality for the people. Amen.
Let us all share together in The Lord's Prayer
Our Father in heaven,
hallowed be your name,
your kingdom come,
your will be done,
on earth as in heaven.
Give us today our daily bread.
Forgive us our sins
as we forgive those who sin against us.
Lead us not into temptation
but deliver us from evil.
For the kingdom, the power,
and the glory are yours
now and for ever.
Amen.
==========================================
Just before we look at the message for today. Come with me to the Saviour, for we need him every hour. Let us sing, and respond to, "I Need The" Song number 707
In The Wilderness
I wonder if I asked you to define success, exactly how would you go about doing that, and what does success mean to you? For a lot of people, I think success means achieving great things and being seen to achieve it in every way, reaping the rewards. And that’s pretty much the way of the world. Those outward signs of success – they’re supposed to make us happy on the inside – at least that’s the theory.
Remember our scripture reading earlier, as soon as Jesus was baptised, and at the same moment, heaven was opened and the Spirit of God, descending like a dove and lighting on Jesus. Then a voice from heaven said, “This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.”
Let us just stop and think about that for a moment. Let me ask you. Was that a sign of success or what? I mean, you go to be baptised, and as you come up out of the water, the heavens open up and God speaks, “This is My beloved Son in whom I am well pleased.”
Now, that to me, is a remarkable sign of success. God is saying something here – this Jesus – this Son of God, is someone really, really special. This baptism of Jesus signalled the beginning of His incredible, life transforming public ministry.
The first three decades of His life, He spent in a carpenter’s shop in Nazareth – God wasn’t in a hurry. And now He’s about to be launched into public life, and we know the story don’t we. We know He had the most amazing, spectacular, powerful ministry. And what a fitting ceremony – what a fitting rite of passage? Surely from here; from his spectacular baptism, he would go straight to the temple to preach. Or, in one of the largest synagogues? Surely from here Jesus is on a fast track to success? But wait, what happens immediately after his stunning baptism? He was thrown into the wilderness. A desolate place. He had nothing to eat for forty days and nights. Scripture says that he was hungry. Don’t they mean starving? I would be. From an amazing declaration of God Almighty, “this is my son in whom I am well pleased.” To be led into the wilderness, starving, to be tempted by the devil; to be alone and vulnerable. From an incredible baptism, straight into a desolate wilderness.
You see, in this day and age, success is something that we can see on the outside and by and large, most people want to be successful. And there’s nothing wrong with that. But God, from time to time does things that seem odd. At least that’s how it feels when we look at them through our human eyes. He doesn’t think the way we do. He doesn’t behave the way we do. And when we find ourselves in that wilderness we may think, I thought God was in the business of blessing me, so why am I in this wilderness. And feeling like that is, at times, hard to deal with, it’s hard to understand – what’s God up to?
Jesus was sent into the wilderness. And out there in his wilderness, the crowds are gone, the audible voice of God is gone, the dove is gone. All of that is replaced by a wasteland, a hunger, and the devil. And that's for forty days and nights. Remember what scripture said. “Jesus full of the Holy Spirit was led into the desert.” This was God’s plan. This was God’s idea. This was God’s doing. If we look at Mark’s Gospel, the literal translation puts it this way: At once the Spirit “threw” Him out into the desert.
Literally, ‘threw’ Him out there. In other words, this wilderness was an essential wilderness. It was the sovereign choice of God at the beginning of Jesus’ public ministry – that he entered into a deserted, lonely place. In this wilderness, Jesus would be deprived of the help and the protection of others, like a sheep deserted by his shepherd. Just Him and the devil, to be tempted for forty days while He was starving and weak.
You see, God is not interested in our popularity. He’s not interested in how successful we are at work or in our ministry. He’s not interested in other people patting us on the back. No, God has a different plan, a deeper plan to forge our character – a character that will stand victoriously in the midst of the desert. A character that will rely wholly on Him, no matter what the world or the devil throws at us; a character that’s forged in the furnace of the wilderness, ready to do God’s business.
How often do you ask God for humility and endurance? We should, because God uses those things to develop us on the inside. Take a look at all the popular self-help books and they all describe how to get successful in life, but the Bible does not do that. The Bible marks out our lives with the cross of Christ at the centre. Our character, our Christ-likeness is forged in the wilderness, in the desert parts of our lives. In the lonely times. In the times of hurt and struggles. Maybe that’s why the people of Israel missed their Messiah. They are oppressed by Roman occupation. God, through the prophets, promised them a Messiah, but Jesus wasn’t who they were looking for.
They weren’t looking for some bedraggled man who wasn’t much to look at, who wandered out of the desert after forty days of being in the wilderness. They weren’t looking for some man who had been hungry and vulnerable, having been tempted with none of the trappings of success – with nothing to commend him except this: that in his wilderness, by the power of God he withstood his pain. He withstood the blistering heat of his desert. And he was victorious. In that wilderness, he was alone and hungry and weak and vulnerable and he relied on one thing and one thing alone; the fullness of the Spirit of God within him to get him through. And then and only then, was He ready to begin His journey to the cross. Then and only then did God release Him to bring the good news to the poor and give sight to the blind and to bind up the broken hearted.
And it’s exactly the same with us. So often God leads us into a wilderness. I believe, so many of us are going through the wilderness. We pray that God will give us the Holy Spirit to sustain, uplift and bring victory. The Spirit, who, in our weakness and vulnerability will defeat our wilderness are enemies.
It is at these times we need to remember that the wilderness we are going through, happened to Jesus as well. It’s those places of complete vulnerability, loneliness, hurt, rejection, and pain that we discover and learn the things of God in ways that we will never forget. This wilderness is the place where God lays down the foundations to follow Him and serve Him and honour Him with all that you are. It’s the place where you can fall in love with Jesus all over again and again. And we need to do today. Fall in love with Jesus again.
I believe that God prunes us, now and again, and one of the pruning tools in His hand is the wilderness. And we are certainly going through the wilderness right now. Being in the wilderness is never fun! But the wilderness can be part of God’s plan to make us stronger. To make us more like him. And even though it never feels like it at the time, and it never feels like we want to be there in the wilderness at all. He is there every step of the way. And because he is with us, we are able to declare
“I don’t care what the world throws at me I am going to stand out here in the wilderness and wait on You and trust in You and hope in You because You … You alone are my God, You alone are my Lord. We don’t live by bread alone, but we live by every word that comes from Your mouth. I will worship You and serve You. You alone are my Lord and I will stand in the midst of this wasteland for You, no matter what the cost.”
I will not turn back because I'm in the wilderness. I will not turn back, even if it costs me dearly. I will not turn back. Amen
Use this time to meditate and ponder the thoughts of today. In our desert land, we wait upon Him who will lead us through. So let us sing and declare, "I'll not turn back".
We will forge forward. We will carry on proclaiming and living God's word through this wilderness. We will not turn back.
The Lord bless thee, and keep thee:
The Lord make his face shine upon thee, and be gracious unto thee:
The Lord lift up his countenance upon thee and give thee peace.
Comentarios