A woman had a weakness for beautiful clothes.

She was unable to resist the temptation…to the point of outrageous, extravagant spending.

She and her husband had worked on it, and he thought she was doing better. Every time she was drawn to a clothing boutique or a display in a department store window, she would talk to herself, “Don’t do it…don’t do it…remember how much you owe…you don’t need it…you’ve worn the last dress only once…you owe a fortune still…remember how John feels about it…don’t do it…get the behind me Satan.”

She made it for about six weeks, and then came home one day with a gorgeous $350 dress. Her husband couldn’t understand it. Why?

“The Devil got me again,” she said. “I couldn’t resist.”

“But how often have we talked about it?” he moaned.

“It has worked before. For six weeks you’ve overcome by fighting back…get thee behind me Satan.”

“This time it came too late.” she responded. I thought I was strong enough just to look. But before I knew it, I had the dress on, looking at myself in the mirror. The dress was gorgeous, but I fought back. Get behind me, Satan. But before I could move from the mirror, he said, “It looks as good from the back as it does from the front.”

Today we’re talking about temptation - but not just temptation. We’re focusing on Jesus’ temptation experience as a whole, and there are three movements in that story which will reward our attention. Those movements are captured in three powerful action phrases in our brief two-verse scripture lesson.

One, “The Spirit immediately drove him into the wilderness.
Two, “And he was in the wilderness forty days, tempted by Satan.”
Three, “And the angels ministered to him.”

With attentive minds and open hearts, let’s enter into these dramatic movements of Jesus’ experience, and receive what they have to say to us.

I.

Doesn’t it strike you as strange - that first word? - “The Spirit immediately drove him out into the wilderness.”

Remember where we are in Jesus’ biography. Jesus has just been baptized by John in the Jordan. “Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world,” John had said when he saw Jesus coming. Then as Jesus came up out of the waters of baptism, he saw the heavens open and the Spirit descending upon him like a dove. A voice came from heaven, and Jesus heard it clearly. “Thou art my beloved son; with thee I am well pleased.”

Does it strike you as strange? That immediately - that’s what Mark says – immediately after that experience, the Spirit drove Jesus into the wilderness.

It would seem that after such an inspiring and exalting experience of his baptism – with the accompany affirmation of God’s presence - that there would be a time of rest and reflection for Jesus to bask in the glorious meaning of what had happened, and let those affirming words of God baptize his very soul.

Strange! Isn’t the Spirit to protect us; what’s this business about Jesus being driven into temptation? The verb - Mark uses, is a very strong one. It’s the same word used later in Jesus driving out demons, It can meant “thrust” or “cast” or “under the control of.”

Mark wants us to get the full impact of that - that’s the reason he uses the word immediately. It was under the strong pressing control of the Spirit that Jesus leaves that glorious beautiful baptismal experience at the River Jordan - He leaves that experience not in a leisurely fashion - not on a meditative walk - but with determined steps, almost impetuous movement. Mark wants to give us the picture that Jesus is being driven irresistibly by the knowledge that there was something which had to be done, a battle that had to be fought.

We’ll deal with this battle to be fought in a moment when we talk about Jesus being tempted by Satan, but let’s mark down two or three important truths about being driven by the Spirit into the wilderness.

First, the wilderness is as much a part of the landscape of the Christian life as is the river Jordan. At the Jordan, we’re affirmed, the heavens are opened, and we hear God’s voice. But the wilderness is just beyond the Jordan, just outside the doors of this church - maybe in the office do your daily work, where competition and callousness mark the style of relationships – where money is god and material success is the kingdom most folks are seeking. Or, the wilderness may in the marriage relationship that is far from heavenly or affirming. The wilderness may be the new life invitation you are now experiencing because of retirement or it may be the trials you are facing as you rear two teenagers. The wilderness is as much a part of the landscape of the Christian life as is the River Jordan.

Temptation and wildness go together. They both suggest trial and/or testing.

And it isn’t as though we can go into the wilderness and be prepared once and for all. Gethsemane was a wilderness for Jesus. And that came only a few days before his death. It’s often true that our biggest trial out a pressing temptation will come almost immediately after some mountain top spiritual experience.

So mark another truth about the wilderness. Anyone who experiences God’s call experiences the wilderness - The wilderness of deciding, of wrestling with direction. Listen, if you aren’t tempted now and then, if you don’t know the wilderness, you’re probably drifting through life. You are not seriously grappling with the issues. Anyone who experiences God’s call, experiences the wilderness.

The other point to be made about being led by the Spirit into the wilderness is that life for the Christian is a Spirit journey. We may never know why it was necessary for the Holy Spirit to drive Jesus anywhere. To concentrate on that question is not where our attention needs to be. Somewhere I saw a fascinating list of unusual answers, given by children on tests they took at school. In answer to the question, “When was our nation founded?” one little boy wrote, “I didn’t know it was losted!”

Another little boy said that Socrates died from an overdose of wedlock!

When asked to describe the famous painting of Whistler’s mother, a student explained, “It shows a nice little lady sitting in a chair waiting for the repairman to bring her T.V. set.”

The question isn’t most important. We don’t need to know why the Holy Spirit drove Jesus into the wilderness. The picture is clear, and we can understand it - from birth to resurrection, the entire earthly life of Jesus was bound up with the Holy Spirit. So it must be with us. The Christian life is a Spirit journey – a walk with God.

Immediately the Spirit drove him into the wilderness. That means: (1) that the wilderness is as much a part of the landscape of the Christian life as is the River Jordan. (2) That anyone who experiences God’s call, experiences the wilderness. (3) Life for the Christian is a Spirit-led journey.

There is an interesting book written by Thomas Butts entitled, Tigers in the Dark. The book tells about a time when all the electricity went out at a Barnum and Bailey Circus. For a few minutes all was total darkness. They had just started the act with the tigers in the cage with the trainer. When the lights came on the trainer was still alive. He was interviewed by TV and newspaper reporters. They asked him, “How did you feel in that cage with all those big cats in the dark….when they couldn’t see you and you couldn’t see them?” The tiger-trainer’s answer was this: “But they didn’t know I couldn’t see them! So I just cracked my whip and shouted commands.”

Bishop Leontyne Kelley said she told that story to her Junior High-age nephew. He said, “Aunt Teenie, that’s what you call ‘fake it ‘til you make it’.”

That’s a way a lot of us are trying to get by. We look calm and confident on the surface. Inside we are terrified. We’re trying to fake it ‘til we make it. That doesn’t have to be so if we are led by the Spirit.

II.

Now the second action phrase: “And He was in the wilderness forty days, tempted by Satan.”

Jesus’ temptation has several layers of meaning. Both Matthew and Luke tell the story in vivid detail, while Mark only gives us a brief sketch. It is first of all the story of Jesus’ temptation. But it is also the story of Israel. Think about it.

Israel, chosen by God and Egypt, crossed over the Red Sea, spent 110 years in the wilderness in that experience they called “The Exodus”. They interpreted that 40 years in the wilderness as a time of testing and temptation. So, you can see Israel’s history when you read that Jesus is chosen by God when he is baptized by God in the River Jordan, at which time God announces, “This is my son.” Then Jesus passes over the River Jordan as Israel passed through the Red Sea, goes to the Desert for 40 days and 40 nights, as Israel went to the Desert for 40 years; is tempted and tested as Israel was tempted and tested. The story is told that way for a purpose. It’s told to emphasize that Jesus is Israel’s Messiah…

“But there is another, deeper layer in the story. For in reading of Jesus’ temptation, you also see Adam, the first man, created by God to be his son, and Eve, and created to be his daughter. They are to live in that kind of family relationship with God, as sons and daughters of a loving Father, and immediately they were tempted to see if they could be what they were created to be, and they failed. The rest of the story of Adam and Eve, the rest of the story of mankind, is a story of the search for redemption. How can they restore their relationship with God, the relationship for which they were created? You can see Adam’s story, too, when you read the story of Jesus’ temptation. Jesus is created as God’s Son, and immediately he is tempted, as Adam was immediately tempted, to see if he could be who God created him to be. “Immediately,” the Spirit sent him into the Desert. But where Adam was unfaithful, Jesus was faithful. He was without sin. Therefore, mankind has a new beginning. New Life is possible; a new start for all of us is possible, because He is without sin. (Suggestion about Israel and Adam from “The Natural”, Mark Trotter, Feb. 24, 1985)

Though we live under the shadow of Adam, and that shadow threatens to darken our days, don’t forget we can live in the bright light of the promise of Christ, the second Adam, new life - power over temptation, salvation over sin.

So, Jesus’ temptation is our temptation. Look at it. In Matthew’s account, the specifics of the temptation are given – to change stones into bread, to cast himself from the temple, and to accept the kingdom of the world for worshipping Satan.

What are those tantalizing temptations? First, there are the temptations to satisfy immediate need. Isn’t that always our tender trap? We want everything yesterday. The hardest, most cruel word for many of us is “wait”. Wait until you’re older, wait until you get to college, wait until you deserve it, wait until you can afford it - it’s a tough word - wait - wait.

Satan tempted Jesus to turn the stones into bread, to satisfy his immediate physical hunger - and how hungry he must have been, being out there in the desert for 40 days. How easy it would have been for Jesus to use his Messianic powers to produce bread not only for himself but all the people’s physical needs. But he knew something of a deeper, spiritual hunger for God’s love and power. He had a vision of being the “Bread of Life” sent down from Heaven, not just to satisfy our immediate needs, but to satisfy our eternal hungers.

And so we are tempted to satisfy immediate needs - hunger, security, sex, popularity, power - to try to accomplish God’s purposes - to try to satisfy our eternal hunger with that which is only passing.

We’re also tempted, as was Jesus, to do what is expedient. How tempting this must have been. Get the picture. Jesus knew the Scripture. Psalm 91, verses 11 and 12 had promised the Messiah: “For he will give his angels charge of you to guard you in all your ways. On their hands they will bear you up, lest you dash your foot against a stone.” Jesus could cast himself from the pinnacle of the temple, test the angels, and if the angels protected him, he would be the hero of Israel, and he would be recognized immediately as the Messiah.

At the heart of this temptation, as it comes to us - the temptation to do the expedient, is basically the temptation accomplish our purposes by God’s power. Don’t pass over that too quickly - how often do we seek to accomplish our purposes by God’s power? And in the process we negate, hurt, sometimes even destroy the people around us and we think it’s all for righteous causes.

I like one of the many tributes that was paid to President Eisenhower following his death. It was spoken by one of his golf partners out in Palm Desert. This long-time friend was asked if Ike ever cheated in a golf match. The friend said, “No, he didn’t sometimes Ike would hit the ball in sand traps, in bushes and into the trees; but he never moved the ball to get a better shot. He played the ball where it landed.”

That’s a call to us - to play the ball where it lands - not to give in to the temptation to do the expedient.

The third temptation of Jesus was so enticing. The devil showed him the kingdoms of the world and promised him those kingdoms if he would for a moment bow down and worship him - bow down and worship Satan.

It was the temptation to settle for the temporary, for us as for Jesus. It is the struggle as to whether the end justifies the means.

How luring the temptation. Our intentions are so righteous, our aim so high, our ultimate desire so holy so we can cut the corner here, shave back at this point. When someone is being slandered, one malicious like are being told. Give in a little, stay quite. The operational dynamic is compromise. We settle for the temporary – convincing ourselves that the end justifies the moment.

Do I have to convince you that Jesus’ story is our story? Temptation to satisfy the immediate, to do what is expedient, to settle for the temporary - we all know about that, don’t we?

Evelyn Underhill put her diagnostic finger on our basic problem. She said, “We mostly spend (our) lives conjugating three verbs: to want, to have and to do. Craving, clutching, and fussing, on the material, political, social, emotional, and intellectual – even on the religious plane - we are kept in perpetual unrest. We forget that none of these verbs have any ultimate significance, except so far as they are transcended by and include in the fundamental verb, to be. Being not wanting, having and doing. Being is the essence of the spiritual life.” (Quoted in, A Guide to Prayer for Ministers and Other Servants, Reuben P. Job and Norman Shawchuck, The Upper Room, 1933, p. 320).

We need to keep this perspective when we are tempted. A Marine in Korea was pushed to acknowledge the perspective in desperation. It was in the war on New Year’s Eve, and it was 42 degrees below zero on the battle lines. 18,000 American Marines were facing 100,000 Communist troops. Every Marine knew his odds for survival. At midnight, supper was served - cold beans to be eaten beside their tanks. A newspaper correspondent noticed a big fellow whose clothing had frozen hard as a board, and whose beard was encrusted with mud. He was eating beans with a trench knife.

The correspondent became philosophical and said to the Marine, “If I were God and could give you one thing you’d rather have more than anything else in the world, what would it be?”

The Marine thought for a moment and then replied, “I would ask you to give me a tomorrow.”

That’s the perspective we need. That being is more important than wanting or having or doing. Jesus passed through his temptation experience to show us that we have a Saviour who not only loves us, but who loves us as one who knows us, who lived our life, who faced what we face, yet overcame those temptations. Dallas Holmes sinner about it – a haunting melody – He knew mw then he knows me now and he died for me. He loved me then, He loves me now. Oh how can it be? He saw my face, He knew the place that I would be today – He knew me then, He knows me now and he loves me.

The writer to the Hebrews put it so beautifully: “For we have not a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect was tempted as we are tempted, yet without sin. Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace that we may receive mercy, and find grace to help in time of need.”(Hebrews 4:14-16).

He’s the one - our great high priest who can give us a tomorrow.

III.

That leads to the last action phrase: “And the angels ministered to him.”

This is the note of our text: “And angels ministered him.” The verb is imperfect in its tense and it means that the angels kept on ministering to him - they kept on ministering just as long as he needed their services.

What a heartening affirmation. God’s mercy does not spend itself in one act - that mercy continues. God keeps on ministering to us.

Underscore this truth as our final affirmation. Divine enforcements are always available to us in our hour of testing and trial.

Jesus was not left to fight his battle alone, and neither are we. What we need to remember is that angels have human hands. Willy Nelson sings about an angel flying too close to the ground. Angels do that sometimes. They come in the person of friends around us, who meet us at the point of our deepest need, and minister to us with the love of Jesus.

One of the most moving scenes in English literature comes at the end of Dickins’ Tale of Two Cities. Carts were rumbling through the thronged streets of Paris to the guillotine. In one of them were two prisoners. A brave man who had once lost his soul, but had found it again; and now was giving his life for a friend, and beside him, a girl - little more than a child. She had seen him in the prison, and had observed the gentleness and courage of his face “If I may ride with you,” she had asked, thinking of that last dread journey (to her death). “Will you let me hold your hand? I’m not afraid, but I am little and weak, and it will give me more courage.” So when they rode together now, her hand was in his; and even when they had reached the place of execution, there was no fear at all in her eyes. She looked at the quiet, composed face of the man beside her, and said, “I think you were sent to me by heaven.” (Quoted by James Stewart, “The Strong Name”, Charles Scribners Sons, 1941, New York, p. 164)

So he was – and so it will be. For each of us – as for Jesus - “And the angels ministered to him.”

You can count on it…you can count on if you accept the affirmation of God, and if you follow the leading of the Spirit.