As we continue this series, I want us to look at another test which faces us on the discipleship road. I am talking about the obedience test. This is the test that Adam and Eve failed back in the very beginning. God decreed how they should live and what they should do and not do if they were to experience the abundance of life in paradise. They failed that obedience test and the consequences flowed down through all of God’s creation.
The ‘second Adam’, Jesus, also faced this obedience test many times. In fact, it was the first real test He faced at the commencement of His ministry. It was almost as though it was an initiation or probationary test of some kind before He commenced His three-year teaching ministry.
You will recall that John the Baptist preached about the coming Messiah and prepared the way for Jesus and His ministry. Then on that special day in the Jordan river, Jesus was baptised and the Father gave His approval and blessing to His Son. The Holy Spirit descended upon Him and anointed Him for the ministry ahead. Now it is fascinating to see where the Spirit led Jesus immediately following this special induction service.
Luke 4:1-13 “Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, left the Jordan and was led by the Spirit into the wilderness, where for forty days he was tempted by the devil. He ate nothing during those days, and at the end of them he was hungry. The devil said to him, “If you are the Son of God, tell this stone to become bread.” Jesus answered, “It is written: ‘Man shall not live on bread alone.’”
The devil led him up to a high place and showed him in an instant all the kingdoms of the world. And he said to him, “I will give you all their authority and splendour; it has been given to me, and I can give it to anyone I want to. If you worship me, it will all be yours.” Jesus answered, “It is written: ‘Worship the Lord your God and serve him only.’”
The devil led him to Jerusalem and had him stand on the highest point of the temple. “If you are the Son of God,” he said, “throw yourself down from here. For it is written: ‘He will command his angels concerning you to guard you carefully; they will lift you up in their hands, so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.’”
Jesus answered, “It is said: ‘Do not put the Lord your God to the test.’” When the devil had finished all this tempting, he left him until an opportune time.
With the Father’s approval at His baptism, it is now time for Jesus to begin His earthly campaign. But before we begin a campaign, we must choose our methods. The story of Jesus’ temptation shows us how He chooses once and for all the method by which He proposes to win the lost to God. It shows us how Jesus rejected the way of power and glory and accepted the way of suffering and the cross.
Jesus knew why He had come. He knew He had come to die. He knew He had come to be the suffering servant. He knew that His calling was to walk the road of suffering and death. So here, at the very commencement of Jesus’ earthly ministry, God uses His own archenemy, Satan, to test Jesus’ obedience to that call. Let me just paint the picture behind this story for you.
This occurred in the wilderness. The inhabited part of Judea stood on the central plateau which was the backbone of southern Palestine. Between it and the Dead Sea stretched a terrible wilderness. It was 35 miles long and 15 miles wide. It was called Jeshimmon: which literally means “the devastation.” The hills were like dust heaps. The limestone looked blistering and peeling. The rocks were bare and jagged. The ground sounded hollow to the horses’ hooves. It glowed with heat like a vast furnace and it ran out to the precipices – 1200 feet high – which swooped down to the Dead Sea. It was there in that terrible devastation that Jesus found Himself alone, confronting the full force of evil.
We mustn’t think that three temptations came one after the other like scenes in a play. We need to think of Jesus being led to this lonely place by the Holy Spirit, and for forty long days He wrestled with this whole problem of how He would win people for the Father. It was a battle that never really ended until the cross and the empty tomb. That’s why the last line in this story says that Satan left Jesus only for a while.
The first temptation was to turn stones into bread. You may be aware that the wilderness was not just sand. It was covered with little limestone rocks shaped like loaves of bread. And when you’ve gone without food that long and you possess the power that created the whole universe, then the temptation was strong. So, Satan effectively says to Jesus: “If you want people to follow you, use your powers to give them material things.” The Tempter was suggesting that Jesus could bribe people with material things. Jesus answered with a quote from Deuteronomy 8:3 and declared that God’s people will never find life in material things.
The task of Christianity is not to produce new conditions – and change the material things around us. The real task is to produce new people. The whole message of Christianity and the ministry of all true disciples is to see hearts turned back to God – the rest us up to God. Our task is to turn hearts to God, not tempt them with material things; not temp them with a prosperity doctrine that does not come from God; not tempt them by promising that life will be easy and things will always go their way.
Man does not live by bread alone. There is an eternal reality that is far deeper and far more significant than this life here on earth. That’s why Jesus said later in His ministry: Seek first the kingdom of God and all these things will be added unto you. Seek first those things which are eternal, and those things which are temporal will follow.
In the second temptation, Jesus (in His imagination) stood upon a mountain from which He could see the whole civilised world. This is the temptation to compromise. Satan called Jesus to compromise just a little, and people would follow Him. Jesus retorted and affirmed that God is God, right is right and wrong is wrong. There can be no compromise in the war with evil. Jesus quotes Deuteronomy 6 once again to thwart Satan’s second attempt to lead Him astray.
It is a constant temptation to seek to win people by striking a compromise with the devil or the evil world around us. It is so easy for the church and for individual Christians to mix a little bit of the world into their discipleship to make it more palatable. We then end up with no black and white issues anymore; everything is relative; everything is grey; everything is acceptable and nothing can really be challenged.
Again, Jesus is our example here. He was loving, compassionate, kind, gracious, humble, always giving – rarely receiving. He was gentle and meek and but His standards were absolute. His judgements were precise. He used the Scriptures and clearly articulated God’s uncompromising view of sin, Satan, the world and Christian ministry. On the discipleship road, you and I will be faced with decisions like this every day. Will we take the easy road and water-down the truth of who God is and who we are in Christ?
I am not talking about standing on our high moral ground and preaching against immorality and perversions in the community. Jesus didn’t waste much time talking about such things. I am talking about the absolutes in the Kingdom God: Who God is; who we are in Christ; who Satan is and what the mission of Jesus Christ is all about. The moral issues are of secondary importance, I believe. Invariably, such issues disappear or are dealt with when foundational issues are addressed.
One of the more serious errors in church life is not the watering down of moral issues, as serious as that may be – I think the greater sin in my opinion is that we water down the truth of what it means to be a real disciple. We water down or ignore passages about suffering, self-denial, death, spiritual warfare and the reality of demonic attacks against obedient servants of God. We water down or ignore issues like Church discipline, submission, working together as a team. In so many areas of church life we are tempted to compromise the truth of God’s word and make life easier for ourselves. We don’t want to tread on people’s toes, so we let things that are wrong continue.
Pastors and their families are being destroyed every day in this country by churches who have lost the plot when it comes to authority, obedience, submission and love. There are also many people in churches who are victims of abusive leaders who have lost the plot also. But there tends to be far more abuse the other way.
There is a spirit of rebellion in this nation that goes right back to our roots as a convict colony. The ‘tall poppy syndrome’ is as ugly and as widespread as ever. There also appears to be an anti-authoritarian attitude that is built into the very fabric of our society. If Christians don’t identify that, confess it, own it, and ask the Lord to remove it, then it creeps into the church and when that rebellion manifests fully in the body of Christ, it is ugly and devastating.
If we are to walk together on this discipleship road, we must stand against the temptations of the enemy to conform to the patterns of this world. Submission, servanthood and self-sacrificial obedience are not common characteristics in the world around us today, they are as rare as diamonds and just as precious. Yet if we are to believe the Bible, such character traits are to be the norm in the kingdom of God. As we journey together as disciples, we need to stand against these temptations, pray for each other, support each other, be honest and confess these sins as they manifest in us and let God renew our minds and hearts.
In Jesus’ third temptation, He found Himself in His imagination, on the pinnacle of the temple where Solomon’s porch and the royal porch met. There was a sheer drop of 450 feet down to the Kidron Valley below. This temptation faces us in the church every day. It’s the temptation to give people a show. Jesus said, “No, you must not use the power of God for such senseless demonstrations.” He was again quoting Scripture, referring to Deuteronomy 6:16.
Jesus saw quite clearly that if He used His power in this sensational way, He could be a nine-day-wonder. The sensationalists never last. It is the hard road of service and suffering that leads to the cross that Jesus takes and calls us to take with Him – there is no other way. The crown comes after the cross, there are no shortcuts.
The modern church with all its experience, technology and ability to impress, is facing this third temptation every day. The temptation to put on a good show. We have the ability to impress people. We can get the best musicians and the finest music and the most creative order of service and we can put on a show that will impress even the most apathetic of audiences. We can do it with sincerity; we can do it with conviction; we can even cover it with prayer and say that we are preaching the Gospel. Now, there is nothing wrong with any of that. But is that the method we should be adopting on a daily basic as we work out our salvation and live as disciples of the King?
If we look at the life of Jesus, we see very clearly that there was no sensationalism. His miracles were sensational – there is no doubt about it – but that was not His reason for healing people and raising them from the dead and delivering them from demonic oppression. It was His compassion for people in bondage that motivated Him to perform such miracles. He used the timing of those miracles to prove a point to the Pharisees and to build people’s faith, but He never just put on a show.
Like Jesus, we have a choice to obey the call of God to be love-driven servants of all. We can choose to let compassion and love and other people’s deepest needs drive us and direct us, or we can let our own need to be noticed or successful or impressive in man’s eyes, govern and motivate us. The road that the Father chose for His own Son was one of suffering, self-denial and death. It was a road of obedience.
In that obedience, Jesus was called to set aside His own power and glory and personal interests and become like those around Him in order to win them for God. When He calls us to follow Him – we must do the same. If we are to obey the call of God, we must set aside our needs and our interests and our personal preferences and allow God’s desires and plans and purposes to dominate all that we think say and do.
Jesus faced this test of obedience for forty long days in the wilderness, and He passed. He returned tired, hungry and broken, but totally surrendered to the will of God. This wilderness experience for Jesus was not the only time He faced the obedience test. He faced it every single day as He made a deliberate choice to say yes to God and no to His flesh and no to the world and no to the enemy. We live in a world where everyone is demanding their rights. Satan was very clever in the way He tempted Jesus. He reminded Him of who He was and the rights and privileges of such a position:
“If you are the Son of God ( and Satan knew He was) then surely it’s the right of God’s son to have the provision of food. He has the power to make food – let Him do it. Surely it’s the right of the Son of God to receive power over all nations and become King of Kings … and since the world is in my hands … I give it to you … you only have to proclaim me as Lord. Surely it’s the right of the Son of God to claim protection against all dangers and His Father has actually promised it. So let’s put that promise to the test.”
Jesus turns to Scripture each time and makes the point that He will obey God above everything else. He effectively says to Satan:
“You suggest that feeding my body should take precedence over obeying my Father? My God has told me that men, mere men, shall not live by bread alone . . therefore, nor shall I. You offer me universal power at the price of worshipping you . . but my Father has told men that they should worship nobody but Him … therefore I shall not worship you. You propose that I should test my Father’s promise of providential care to suit my own convenience … but He has told men not to test Him in this way . . therefore, neither shall I.”
What is Jesus doing here? He is deliberately emptying Himself of His power and His glory. Jesus is deliberately forgoing His rights. Satan was correct, as the Son of God, Jesus could do all those things. But He chose to put himself in the position of a man, under the authority of the law of God and walk in obedience to that.
This temptation scene has a familiar look. This scene played out many years beforehand in the garden of Eden when the first Adam was given the same obedience test. That Adam failed that test and set the whole human race on a course of destruction. Now the second Adam, Jesus Christ, alone in the wilderness, confronts the same tempter; faces the very same obedience test; and passes this test and puts mankind back on the right side of God and His purposes.
Jesus overcame the powers of hell by standing firm in His uncompromising obedience to the Word and will of the Father. An obedience that He pursued right through to the cross. This conflict in the wilderness was the first time where a son of Adam raised an effective defence against Satan. The test of obedience is a hard test, it comes at times when we don’t expect it or appreciate it, but it is a test we will continue to face on this discipleship road.
Many years ago, Keith Green took a verse out of the Old Testament and wrote a very powerful song around it. The opening line was, “To obey is better than sacrifice.” A constant theme of the Old Testament was obedience. God continued to tell His people that their sacrifices were a stench in His holy nostrils for they offered them with disobedient hearts. They made sacrifices to appease Him rather than obey Him to please Him.
Sacrifices are fine, and God can really bless us for making those sacrifices, but if they are not the by-product of our obedience, then they are a waste of time. You can go out there and sell everything you own and give all the money to the church and commit your whole life to God in full-time service and not impress Him at all. If that sacrifice was not in obedience to His call, to His Word; if God did not ask you to do that – then it was a total waste. We may make lots of sacrifices for God; we may give hundreds and hundreds of hours of our time to His service and work in His church; but if there are still things that we refuse to do that He asks of us, then all our sacrifices mean nothing.
You and I face this obedience test every day. Not just obedience to the clear revelation of God’s Word in the Bible – His logos – but obedience to that still small voice in our spirit – His rhema – His word to us personally. When that conviction comes, we have a choice to obey or rebel. There are many who get stuck in this area and never travel any further on the discipleship road. If there is something that we are stubbornly refusing to let go of; to give up; to do or stop doing; if there is something that is not honouring to God that we continue to submit to; if there is a direction or course of action that He has showed us that we refuse to take; then we will come to a grinding halt on that road like a car with a broken axle.
Yes, it’s true, our sin has been atoned for. Yes, it’s true, God will not hold our sin against us as new covenant believers. But it is also true that our sin is still very real and it will continue to bring its consequences in this life. There is natural consequence of our disobedience. It’s not the punishment of God – that all fell on Jesus. When we continue in sin, we invite Satan to manifest his presence and power in that sin and this will have serious consequences our lives and the lives of those around us. As we see in Jesus’ temptations in the wilderness, when we stand against Satan in obedience to God, He departs from us – every time! Satan will flee when we resist Him – the Bible promises that and our experience confirms it.
So, what is God calling you to do or to be today? What does the obedience test mean for you today? What choices are you facing right now? Is there some area of sin in your life that continues to haunt you and drag you down? Is there some addiction or habit you can’t seem break that continues to put you at odds with God’s will? Have you been caught on a side road and can’t get back to the main road in the Kingdom? Is there something that God has called you to do and you just can’t find the emotional energy or motivation or courage to pursue it? Is the price too high? The cost too great? The sacrifice too painful? What is He calling you to do? If you don’t know, then you need to spend some time with Him seeking His direction and will for your life.
May God help us to face the obedience test each day with courage, with determination and with the power of His spirit within, making it possible to always submit to His will.