author: Ryan Hayden Take your Bibles with me this morning and turn to Luke 4. Luke 4.

Do you know what is the worst? Long introductions.

Every year we go to camp. We drive all the way there. (One camp we go to is four hours away, one is eight hours - doesn't matter - it's a long drive.)

We get there, the kids are itching to go. I'm itching to go. They are ready to play some games. They are ready to swim or to ride the zipline or to buy sugary soda from the camp canteen.

But no. First, you have to go to an opening assembly and listen to thirty minutes of rules.

Or maybe you get a new board game to play with your friends. You've heard all about how great this game is. You all sit down at the table to play. And "what are the rules?" Someone has to break out the rule book and read the rules to you. It's torture. Let's just play already!

Introductions are important. They are necessary. But it's always an exciting moment when the introduction is over and you can get on to the real thing.

I've got good news for you: we are through with the introduction. We are through with the prologue. It's time for the action to start.

Everything we've talked about so far in Luke, up until Jesus' baptism is just laying the groundwork for Jesus' life and ministry.

And here, in chapter 4...

• He has spent thirty long years in obscurity.
• He has been recognized by John the Baptist.
• Jesus has been declared to be the son of God.
• He has been indwelt and empowered for service by the Holy Spirit.
• and now He is ready to go.

So as we turn the page from chapter 3 to chapter 4 we are beginning the main part of Jesus' ministry. We are ready to go.

So let's see what happens next:

[!bible] Luke 4:1-2 - KJV

1. And Jesus being full of the Holy Ghost returned from Jordan, and was led by the Spirit into the wilderness,
2. Being forty days tempted of the devil. And in those days he did eat nothing: and when they were ended, he afterward hungered.

The very first thing that Jesus did as He commenced His ministry wasn't to preach before crowds or go start healing people. The very first thing He did was to go into the wilderness.

The verse says "He was led by the Spirit into the wilderness." This was God's will for Jesus. This was the plan.

Jesus was going into the wilderness and He was going to be tempted by the devil for forty days.

All my life I've read this story and the thing that stuck out to me is "Forty days...I can't not eat for forty minutes." I've always thought (and this was dumb of me) that the biggest challenge Jesus was facing was this very long fast.

But I think I missed the point. There is something much bigger going on here. This is a much bigger story and a much more important story that I ever realized.

• Why is it so important that it is shared in Matthew, Mark and Luke?
• Why is this story the first thing Jesus did after being baptized?
• If this is something Jesus was led to do first by the Holy Spirit - whatever Jesus was doing in the wilderness was crucially important to His mission, so...
• What was Jesus doing in the wilderness?

I want to tell you about the three things Jesus was doing in the wilderness.

In all of the preaching I've ever heard on this. Only the last one (which is the least important) is the one people talk about.

The three important parts of the mission Jesus was fulfilling.

Let's pray and we'll get into that.

author: Ryan Hayden What was Christ doing in the wilderness? Why did He have to go there alone?

Look at verses 1-2 again with me:

[!bible] Luke 4:1-2 - KJV

1. And Jesus being full of the Holy Ghost returned from Jordan, and was led by the Spirit into the wilderness,
2. Being forty days tempted of the devil. And in those days he did eat nothing: and when they were ended, he afterward hungered.

There are lots of hints in these two verses at the significance of what Jesus was doing. I think this story is meant to remind us of another story.

Remember Genesis 3. The garden of Eden. Mankind was alone there in a wilderness and what happened there? They were tempted by the devil. They were tempted by the serpent.

What were they tempted to do? Doubt the goodness of God. Eat something they weren't supposed to. Become as gods.

And here, right at the beginning of Jesus ministry He goes into a wilderness, all by himself, He suffers real hunger - and in that extreme hunger - far more extreme than what Adam and Eve dealt with - Jesus is tempted by Satan.

Do you see it?

So what was Jesus doing in the wilderness? The first thing Jesus was doing was Jesus was being our second chance.

1. Jesus our second chance.

God gave Adam a test. Adam was tempted by the devil. Adam failed the test.

Here God is giving Jesus a more extreme version of the same test.

We can go to verses like 1 Corinthians 15:22 which says:

[!bible] 1 Corinthians 15:22 - KJV 22. For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive.

Or verse 45 of that same chapter which says:

[!bible] 1 Corinthians 15:45 - KJV 45. And so it is written, The first man Adam was made a living soul; the last Adam was made a quickening spirit.

Jesus is the Second Adam. The Last Adam.

The first Adam came and failed. The Second Adam came and passed the test.

You all know, I'm not into numerology. I don't like to make a big deal about numbers in the Bible. But there can be no doubt that numbers have meaning, and our text tells us Jesus was tempted for forty days.

In the Bible, when we see that number 40 - often we see it in reference to testing and do overs.

I'll give you an example. The spies spent forty days spying out the land. Then when Israel rejected God and refused to enter the land, they spent forty years wandering.

Moses failed and killed the Egyptian, then spent 40 years in obscurity on the back side of the desert.

This number 40 at least reminds us of tests.

So listen, as Jesus is declared to be the son of God. As He is empowered by the Holy Spirit for ministry. The very first thing God has Him do is to repeat the test that Adam failed.

Now, before we get into the second two points this morning let's read the rest of this text and see how Jesus passed this test.

[!bible] Luke 4:1-13 - KJV

1. And Jesus being full of the Holy Ghost returned from Jordan, and was led by the Spirit into the wilderness,
2. Being forty days tempted of the devil. And in those days he did eat nothing: and when they were ended, he afterward hungered.
3. And the devil said unto him, If thou be the Son of God, command this stone that it be made bread.
4. And Jesus answered him, saying, It is written, That man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word of God.
5. And the devil, taking him up into an high mountain, shewed unto him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time.
6. And the devil said unto him, All this power will I give thee, and the glory of them: for that is delivered unto me; and to whomsoever I will I give it.
7. If thou therefore wilt worship me, all shall be thine.
8. And Jesus answered and said unto him, Get thee behind me, Satan: for it is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve.
9. And he brought him to Jerusalem, and set him on a pinnacle of the temple, and said unto him, If thou be the Son of God, cast thyself down from hence:
10. For it is written, He shall give his angels charge over thee, to keep thee:
11. And in their hands they shall bear thee up, lest at any time thou dash thy foot against a stone.
12. And Jesus answering said unto him, It is said, Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God.
13. And when the devil had ended all the temptation, he departed from him for a season.

So Jesus passed this test. The devil through every temptation he had at Jesus and Jesus didn't falter. At the end of forty days - the devil gave up. He ended all the temptation and departed for a season.

And that brings us to my second point? What was Jesus doing in the wilderness? Well, He was there repeating Adam's test and He was there being our champion.

2. Jesus our champion.

Do you remember the story of David and Goliath? That's an interesting story.

You have these two armies. The army of the Philistines and the army of the Israelites. They are facing off against each other across a big valley. But the armies don't end up fighting, at least not at first. Instead, they send a representative to fight for them.

The Philistines send Goliath and eventually, the Israelites send David. This is unheard of today - but in history there are lots of examples of this:

• In the Illiad there is the fight between Achilles and Hector.
• In Roman history there was a fight between Horatii and Curiatii where each city sent three soldiers to fight as representatives.
• The Indians have stories of different epic fights where champions fight in representative warfare.

So the idea of champion warfare isn't unique to David and Goliath. It happened. Armies would pick a champion to be their representative and whichever champion won would decide the outcome of the battle.

And I want to tell you that Jesus is our champion. Here is the thing the Bible teaches that is hard for us to grasp - but is an essential part of the gospel:

When it comes to our standing before God, we are ultimately not judged based on our own conduct. We are judged based on a representative. A head.

We are either judged by Adam or we are judged by Christ - the second Adam. Either we are under Adam and have Adam's curse or we are under Christ and receive Christ's blessing.

Turn with me to Romans 5 with me for a second. Look at verse 12.

[!bible] Romans 5:12 - KJV 12. Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned:

We aren't sinners because we sin individually. We are sinners because Adam, as our representative, failed the test and sinned.

Look at verse 14:

[!bible] Romans 5:14 - KJV 14. Nevertheless death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over them that had not sinned after the similitude of Adam’s transgression, who is the figure of him that was to come.

This is a tough pill to swallow. But even if you could live a perfect life (you can't) but even if you could - that doesn't matter because you are represented by Adam.

Why is that important? Well, if we can be judged based on a representative, that means we can be saved via a representative.

That's what verse 15 says:

[!bible] Romans 5:15 - KJV 15. But not as the offence, so also is the free gift. For if through the offence of one many be dead, much more the grace of God, and the gift by grace, which is by one man, Jesus Christ, hath abounded unto many.

Listen, what Jesus was doing in the wilderness matters - because He was doing it as our representative. He wasn't just retaking the test - He was retaking the test FOR US.

Adam (and all mankind) cannot pass the test of Satan's temptation. But Jesus did and we can choose to have Jesus as our head, Jesus as our representative.

Look at verses 18-19:

[!bible] Romans 5:18-19 - KJV 18. Therefore as by the offence of one judgment came upon all men to condemnation; even so by the righteousness of one the free gift came upon all men unto justification of life. 19. For as by one man’s disobedience many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous.

That is the gospel there. Jesus was passing the test for us. Jesus was defeating sin and Satan for us. In Him we can be made righteous.

So who is your head? What representative have you chosen? Are you under Adam or are you under Christ?

Well, how do you get "under Christ?" Look at verse 1:

[!bible] Romans 5:1 - KJV

1. Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ:

We do it by faith. By putting our faith in Christ.

Is Christ your champion? Are you trusting His work, His battle, to give you righteousness before God?

That is, I think, the most important thing about this story. Jesus went into the wilderness to retake the test of temptation and to win - to be our champion - our second Adam.

Now, there is one more thing this story does for us, there is one more secondary - but still important thing that Jesus was doing in the wilderness.

He wasn't just there retaking the test and being humanities do over. He wasn't just there winning against Satan and being our Champion.

He was there defeating sin and temptation and being our example.

3. Jesus our example.

You see, the main thing we need to take from Jesus is that He was our champion. He defeated sin and satan for us.

But we can also learn from Him how to resist temptation.

In this story, the Devil tempts Jesus.

Listen, the devil is very real. He roams about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour. (1 Peter 5:8) He desires to have us and sift us like wheat. (Luke 22:31)

The devil is real and temptation is real. You will face temptation.

So what can we learn from this temptation:

First, we can learn that the devil tempts us with our desires.

[!bible] James 1:14 - KJV 14. But every man is tempted, when he is drawn away of his own lust, and enticed.

When Satan tempted Eve in the garden, it was with fruit. Nothing wrong with fruit. There is nothing wrong with the desires we have. They are God-given.

But the devil takes our God-given desires and twists them so they are out of God's will.

There was nothing wrong with Jesus eating bread. He did it many times in the Bible. There was nothing wrong with Jesus miraculously making bread either - He did that at the feeding of the 5,000.

But at this point, God's will for Jesus was to go through this time of hunger, and it wasn't time for Him to eat - but the devil was tempting Him with that real desire.

Listen, God wants to give you good things. God is good. And the strongest temptations we often face are to have the good things we want sooner or in a different way than God wants us to have them.

To have the crown without the cross. To have victory without a fight.

For instance, there is nothing wrong with the desire for sex. That is God-given and the Bible says "marriage is holy and the bed undefiled." But Satan tempts us to have that thing outside of God's will - either in adultery or fornication or through pornography. That is bad.

God wants to provide for us. And Satan tempts us to try to find shortcuts to God's provision.

Another thing we can learn about how Satan tempts us is Satan likes to twist the scripture.

In our text, in verse 10, Satan quoted a Psalm to Jesus. Psalm 91:11-12 says:

[!bible] Psalms 91:11-12 - KJV 11. For he shall give his angels charge over thee, to keep thee in all thy ways. 12. They shall bear thee up in their hands, lest thou dash thy foot against a stone.

That's just a generic psalm about God's provision when we are walking in His will. But Satan twisted it to mean something completely different.

So Satan tempts us with our natural desires. Satan likes to twist scriptures.

What does Jesus show us about resisting temptation:

First, we must know the scripture. Look at verses 3-4:

[!bible] Luke 4:3-4 - KJV 3. And the devil said unto him, If thou be the Son of God, command this stone that it be made bread. 4. And Jesus answered him, saying, It is written, That man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word of God.

Every time Satan came at Jesus - Jesus answered with scripture. Scripture was His weapon in this spiritual battle.

And the scripture is our weapon. We must know the scripture and live by the scripture.

I think a second thing we can learn about defeating satan is found in verse 8 - when Satan tempted Jesus with the world.

Jesus answered and said:

[!bible] Luke 4:8 - KJV 8. And Jesus answered and said unto him, Get thee behind me, Satan: for it is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve.

We need to know the scripture, but we also need to worship God.

Satan and the world are always giving us things to worship and serve. We need true worship - we need to worship God. It's like rewriting our source code. Realigning our compass.

But there is a third thing we can learn here about how we fight temptation:

We fight temptation by trusting in the finished work of Christ.

At the end of this story, Jesus just says "No. God said don't tempt the Lord your God." And Satan retreated. It was a total defeat.

Satan isn't going to just back down from you. But you can remind yourself and remind the tempter that Jesus has already won, and you are bought with a price.

Right after Paul talked about Jesus being our second Adam in Romans 5, He talked about how to deal with temptation in Romans 6 and the answer is to understand our position in Christ.

Listen to Romans 6:6

[!bible] Romans 6:6 - KJV 6. Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin.

Jesus won that battle. You don't have to serve sin anymore.

So we need to do what verse 11 says:

[!bible] Romans 6:11 - KJV 11. Likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Listen, because Jesus was our second chance, because He was our champion and because He won - we can trust in His finished work and we can "reckon" or count ourselves to be alive with Christ.

"When Satan tempts me to dispair And tells me of the guilt within Upward I look and see Him there Who made an end to all my sin"

We have a champion who has won for us - and we do not have to serve sin anymore.

• So live in the scripture, live by the bread of the word of God.
• Live in worship. Constantly realign your heart with the truths of scripture.
• And live in the victory that Christ provides.

We have a do over. We have a champion. We have a great example.

Let me ask you - have you trusted Christ? Is He your champion. Or are you still trying to win that battle yourself?