January 23, 2005

The wilderness of the desert:Parched ground.Sharp rocks.Shifting sand.Burning sun.Thorns that cut.An oasis that’s only a mirage.Wavy horizons ever beyond reach.This is the wilderness of the desert. Then there is the wilderness of the soul.Parched promises.Sharp words.Shifting commitments.Burning anger.Rejections that cut.Hope that’s only a mirage.Distant solutions ever beyond reach.This is the wilderness of the soul.

Some of you know the wilderness of the desert.All of you know the wilderness of the soul.Jesus, however, knew both.With his hair still wet from his baptism, Jesus walked away from food and friends for 40 days, and was led by the Holy Spirit into the wilderness. Read text.

The wilderness was not a typical time for Jesus.This was a dark, challenging, period of time for Him.Yes, even for the Son of God.A fierce time of face-to-face challenges from the Devil.Now, we don’t have to go to Israel to experience the wilderness.A cemetery will work.So will a hospital.Grief can lead us into the desert.So can divorce or debt or depression.

The person who thought they were cancer-free, but now back in the hospital for chemo?Wilderness.Or your friend you have been talking to about their rough marriage?When you ask them how it is going, you find out they are in the wilderness.Or the person you know who is sitting at the bedside of their dying parent?Waiting for death.Wilderness.

Sometimes, times of transition become our greatest journeys into the wilderness.Look at the change Jesus was going through!He was done being a carpenter’s son, and now beginning his ministry as the Messiah, the Saviour of the world!His baptism was the beginning of that transition.Have you been through any transitions lately?A transfer?Job promotion?Job demotion?A new house?A new baby?If so, be prepared!The wilderness might be near.

How do you know when you’re in the wilderness?You are lonely.Whether in fact or in feeling, no one can help, understand, or rescue you.And your struggle seems endless.Jesus faced temptation for 40 nights!Mark and Luke’s Gospels tell us this.Luke says: “Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit in the desert, where for forty days he was tempted by the devil.”The battle wasn’t limited to three questions.Jesus spent a month and ten days slugging out with Satan.The wilderness can be a long, lonely time.

Doctor after doctor.Resume’ after resume’.Diaper after diaper.Zoloft after Zoloft.Heartache after heartache.The calendar is stuck in January, you are stuck in Yellowknife, and you can’t even remember what spring smells like.

So you begin thinking the unthinkable.Jesus did.Wild possibilities crossed his mind.Teaming up with Satan?Opting to be a dictator and not a Savior?Giving up his mission on earth and starting over on another planet?We don’t know what He thought.We just know this:He was tempted. What was unimaginable prior to the wilderness becomes possible in it.A rough marriage can make a good man look twice at the wrong woman.Extended sickness makes even the stoutest soul consider suicide.Stress makes the smokiest nightclub smell sweet.The wilderness weakens our resolve.

That’s why the wilderness is the maternity ward for addictions.Binge eating, budget-busting gambling, excessive drinking, pornography – all short-term solutions to deep problems. Usually they’re not appealing, but in the wilderness you give thought to the unthinkable.

Jesus did.Jesus was “tempted by the devil.”He may not have eaten the bread, but He was tempted to.Christ knows the wilderness.He was tempted in every way, just as we are.In fact, going there was His idea.Satan didn’t drag Him.He was led by the Holy Spirit.This was part of the Triune God’s plan.It was part of the mission for which He came.

WHY?Why did Jesus go into the wilderness?Well, does the word REMATCH mean anything to you?For the second time in history an un-fallen mind will be challenged by the fallen angel.The Second Adam has come to succeed where the first Adam failed.Jesus, however, faced a test much more severe.Adam was tested in a garden; Christ is in a stark wasteland.Adam faced Satan on a full stomach; Christ is in the midst of a fast.Adam has a companion: Eve.Christ had no one.Adam was challenged to remain sinless in a sinless world.Christ, on the other hand, was challenged to remain sinless in a sin-ridden world!

Without any help from anyone else, Christ dares the devil to climb into the ring. “You’ve been picking on my children for a while now.See what you can do with me.”And Satan does.For 40 days, the two go toe-to-toe.The Son of heaven is tempted but never wavers, struck but never struck down.He succeeds where Adam failed.This victory is a huge victory for us all.Romans 5:18: “Consequently, just as the result of one trespass was condemnation for all men, so also the result of one act of righteousness was justification that brings life for all men.”

Jesus has always been our stand in, our substitute.He did for us what a guy named Bobby did for a guy named David.The two were in boot camp in 1959.David was a very likeable, yet physically disadvantaged soldier.He had the desire but not the strength.There was simply no way he would pass the fitness test.Too weak for the pull-ups.But Bobby had such a fondness for David that he came up with a plan.He donned his friend’s T-shirt.The shirt bore David’s last name, two initials, and service serial number.The superiors didn’t know faces; they just read the names and numbers off the shirts and marked scores on a list of names.So Bobby did David’s pull-ups.David came out looking pretty good and never even broke a sweat.

Neither did you or I.Let’s be honest.We are no match for Satan.Jesus knows this.So He donned our T-shirt, our jersey.Better yet, He put on our flesh.He was “tempted in every way, just as we are – yet was without sin.”(Heb.4:15).And because He was, we pass with flying colors.

God gives you Jesus’ wilderness grade.Believe that!If you don’t, your days in the wilderness will give you a one-two punch.The left jab will be the struggle you go through.The right hook will be the shame for not prevailing against the temptation.So trust Jesus.Trust that He went through what you couldn’t.Trust His WORK!

And Trust His WORD.Don’t trust your emotions or your feelings.Don’t trust your opinions. Don’t even trust your friends!In the wilderness, the only thing you can trust, the only thing you should listen to is the Word of God.

Jesus is our model for this too, isn’t He?Remember how Satan teased Him?“If You are the Son of God…”Why would Satan say this?Because he knew what Jesus had heard at his baptism: “This is my beloved son, in whom I am well pleased.”“Are you really God’s Son?” Satan is asking.Then he double-dog dares Him – “Prove it!”Prove it by doing something.Tell this stone to become bread.Throw yourself off the temple.Forget your Father’s plan for saving mankind and do your own thing.What subtle seduction!Satan doesn’t denounce God; he simply raises doubts about God.Is his work enough? The devil attempts to gradually shift our source of confidence away from God’s promise and toward our performance.

Jesus doesn’t bite on the bait.And He doesn’t request a heavenly sign.He doesn’t bring lightning down on the devil.He simply quotes the Bible.Three temptations.Three answers:“It is written.” “It is written.” “It is written.”Jesus’ survival weapon of choice is Scripture.If the Bible were enough for His wilderness experience, shouldn’t it be enough for ours?Don’t miss the point here.Everything you and I need for wilderness survival is in this Book.We simply need to listen to it!

A family was visiting a castle in England.Outside in the garden, there was a maze.Row after row of shoulder-high hedges, leading to one dead-end after another.If a person could successfully navigate the labyrinth, they would discover the door to a tall tower in the center of the garden.The mother and the kids made it through and to the top of the tower.But where was Dad?Still on the ground, stuck in the foliage.He couldn’t figure out which way to go.But then he heard a voice from above.“Hey, Dad!”He looked up to see his daughter, peering through the turret at the top.“You’re going the wrong way,” she explained.“Back up and turn right!”Did he trust her?He didn’t have to…He could have trusted his own instincts, consulted other confused tourists, sat and pouted and wondered why God would let this happen to him.But do you know what he did?He listened.The girl’s vantage point was better than his.She was above the maze.She could see what he couldn’t.

Don’t you think we should do the same with God?“God is…higher than the heavens.” (Job 22:12)“The Lord is high above all nations.”(Psalm 113:4)Can He not see what eludes us?Doesn’t He want to get us out and bring us home?Then we should do what Jesus did.Rely on Scripture.Doubt your doubts before you doubt your beliefs.Jesus told Satan, “Man does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.” (Matt. 4:4).The word for “comes from” literally means “pouring out.”Its tense suggests that God is constantly and aggressively communicating with the world through his Word.God is speaking still!

Friends, hang in there!Your time in the wilderness will pass!Jesus’ did!“Then the devil left him, and angels came and attended him.” (v.11).Friends, until the angels come to attend to you, do these two things:Trust His Word.Just like the guy in the maze, you need a voice to lead you out.And Trust His Work. Like David at boot camp, you need a friend to take your place.Thank God you have One who did!Jesus took your place.In life and in death.And that always assures you a way out of the wilderness!Amen.

Excerpts from this sermon taken from Max Lucado’s story; “The Long, Lonely Winter.”

 

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