William Pritchard February 23, 2015 THE JOURNEY Lent Week 1 - Hearing the Voice of the Father Baptism of Jesus It was a profound announcement by God that Jesus is the Messiah, and that Jesus has taken on the reality of heaven and bringing that to earth, which is the Kingdom of God. Temptation of Jesus The first temptation is the distortion of true trust in God. How deep is your trust in God? Pray and ask the Holy Spirit to strengthen your trust in Him in every area of your life. The second temptation is distortion of Jesus ability to do God s will. Do you doubt your ability to serve the Lord? Pray and ask the Holy Spirit to grand you the courage to serve Jesus with love and humility. Mark 1:9-13 9 In those days Jesus came "om Nazareth of Galilee and was baptized by John in the Jordan. 10 And when he came up out of the water, immediately he saw the heavens being torn open and the Spirit descending on him like a dove. 11 And a voice came "om heaven, You The third temptation is the distortion of the power. Do you desire after power or success in life? Pray and ask the Holy Spirit to grant you the same attitude and mindset of Christ Jesus; who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped (Phil. 5:5-11). 1
William Pritchard February 23, 2015 are my beloved Son; with you I am we# pleased. 12 The Spirit immediately drove him out into the wilderness. 13 And he was in the wilderness forty days, being tempted by Satan. And he was with the wild animals, and the angels were ministering to him. Introduction My Prayer for You In this Lent season, my prayer is that through the story of Jesus, in the gospel of Mark, you would learn to see and hear the heavenly vision, the heavenly voice of the Father speaking directly to you. My prayer is that the voice of the Father will change you, mould you, make you somebody new, the person He wants you to be. That you would also discover in Jesus story, by Mark, the normally hidden heavenly dimension of God s world for the purpose of transforming this world. Why was it necessary for Jesus to be baptist? That brings us to our second point, the temptation of Jesus. What is our prayer-purpose for Lent 2015? Our prayer and purpose for Lent 2015 is to learn to listen to the voice of the Father through the Holy Spirit speaking to us directly as individuals and as a community of disciples through the Gospel of Mark. Also, we must not forget that we, IBC, are in the season of transition. We have come to a point that as a church, we need to listen to the voice of the leading of the Holy Spirit regarding the future of IBC. The Interim Leadership Search Team have started their meetings, discussion and prayer about these key issues regarding the future of IBC. Mark 1:9-13 As we reflect on the Gospel of Mark 1: 9-13 today, listen to the voice of the Father. What is the Father saying to you directly today? What is the Father saying to us as a community of disciples? Mark bursts through the pages of history with passion immediately telling us all that he had witness about Jesus the Messiah. The first thing Mark (1:2) does is that he ties Jesus back to narrative of the Kingdom of God prophesied by Isaiah. Mark Temptation of Jesus 2
then quotes from Isaiah, saying that God send His messenger of the Son of God, who will prepare the way. This messenger is John the Baptist (Mark 1:4). John prepared the way for the Son of God by preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. Repentance, here means simply, the end of the exile of Israel is at hand, and God is returning to His people of Israel to rescue them from their sins. Today we prepare the way, within our own lives, so we can hear what the Father is trying to say to you, to me, and to His Body of IBC. John the Baptist then proclaims that the Son of God was to go beyond the baptism of repentance, by baptizing people with the Holy Spirit (Mark 1:8). Immediately Mark turns his attention from John, to Jesus, His Baptism and Temptation, and it is here were we begin our Journey of Lent. What did it mean for Jesus to be baptized and be tempted? How should we respond to Jesus baptism and temptation? In the following, I will focus specifically on the story of Jesus baptism and temptation. Listen and hear the Father speaking to us through the life of our Lord Jesus Christ. The Baptism of Jesus In those days Jesus came "om Nazareth of Galilee and was baptized by John in the Jordan. And when he came up out of the water, immediately he saw the heavens being torn open and the Spirit descending on him like a dove. And a voice came "om heaven, You are my beloved Son; with you I am we# pleased. (Mark 1:9-11). In the past, I was a spiritual mentor to a successful banker, a brother in Christ, here in Hong Kong. One of the issues we discussed was the issue of his relationship with his father. He heard me shared my testimony about how my father gave me away to another family and the impact that that had on our relationship. And since then, God has done wonderful healing in my heart more so toward the situation, than my father. This really spoke to him. This brother in Christ, shared how he has everything one could ever need, in regard to material wealth, but there is one thing he desperately longs for, and that is the approval, affirmation and love from his father. This brother was willing to give up everything he had just to hear the approval of his daddy. Unfortunately, this happens all the time, in families, businesses, education, all over. Many children grow up in our world who have never had a father say to them (either in words, in looks, or in hugs), You are my beloved Son; with you I am we# pleased. Or a more direct translation from Hebrew to English; You are my wonderful son; you make me very glad. Instead, what these children hear far to much are angry voices, bitter rejection, the slamming of doors, and a total rejection and reaction toward their parents. Perhaps the whole Christian gospel could be summed up in this point; that when the living God looks at us, at every baptized and believing Christian, He says to us what He said to Jesus on that day. God sees us, not as we are in ourselves, but as we are in Jesus Christ. Now, this was a hard concept to grasp by this brother in Christ, but that s the reality of God s typical response to His children who are in Christ. God looks at us and says the same thing He said to Christ, You are my dear, dear child; I m delighted with you. 3
The baptism of Christ, was God s way of announcing to Israel and to the world, that His Messiah has arrived. Messiah means, The anointed one. There were many before and after Jesus who claimed to be the messiahs of Israel. In fact, there were over 20 individuals known in history before and after Jesus who claimed the messiah tittle. The most famous one was Simon bar Kokhba (meaning the Son of the Star) who led a revolt against the Roman Empire in 132 CE. He established an independent Jewish State which he ruled for three years as a messiah. In fact, Kokhba was an imperious dictator who rule the Jews under his control with an iron fist. It took the Romans three years to siege the city and killed every single men, women, youth, and child all except one, Simeon ben Gamaliel. The same Gamaliel Luke wrote about in Acts 5:34 who spoke favorable on behalf of Peter and the Apostles. Also the same Gamaliel who educated Paul, taught him the strict manner of the law... being zealous for God mentioned in Acts 22:3. Simon bar Kokhba was not God s Messiah. He was not baptized, nor was he anointed by the Holy Spirit, as a mark of God s son, and the Prophets of Israel never spoke of God s messiah as a dictator who lord it over God s people, versus serving God s people. Why was it necessary for Jesus to be Baptize? The baptism of Jesus was a profound announcement by God that Jesus is the Messiah, anointed by the Holy Spirit. Messiah here, means that Jesus has taken on the reality of heaven and bringing that to earth, which is how he taught us to pray in the Lord s Prayer. Mark records that, He saw the heavens open. The biblical roots of seeing heavens opened doesn't mean that Jesus saw a little door ajar miles up in the sky. Instead, heaven in the Bible often means God s dimension behind ordinary reality. It s more as though an invisible curtain, right in front of us, was suddenly pulled back, so that instead of the trees and flowers and buildings, or in Jesus case the river, the sandy desert and the crowds, we are standing in the presence of different reality altogether, God s reality. Christian faith, in the early church, was a matter of learning to live by this different reality even when they could not see it, yet. We get a sense of this reality when we encounter God in a very special way. One of the things Mark is saying to us, in the way he s written his gospel, is that this reality is seen throughout the whole life of Jesus. In a sense, Mark is screaming out to us, saying look at this story, look at this life, and learn to see and hear in it the heavenly vision, the heavenly voice, the kingdom of God coming to earth. C. S. Lewis said it well; aim at heaven and you will get earth thrown in. Aim at earth and you get neither (Mere Christianity). In this Lent season, my prayer is that through the story of Jesus, in the gospel of Mark, you would learn to see and hear the heavenly vision, the heavenly voice of the Father speaking directly to you. My prayer is that the voice of the Father will change you, mould you, make you somebody new, the person He wants you to be. That you would also discover in Jesus story, by Mark, the normally hidden heavenly dimension of God s world for the purpose of transforming this world. 4
Jesus in the Wilderness The baptism of Jesus and him being anointed by the Holy Spirit was to equipped him to be sent into the desert for a time of Solitude. Mark writes; The Spirit immediately drove him out into the wilderness. And he was in the wilderness forty days, being tempted by Satan. And he was with the wild animals, and the angels were ministering to him (Mark 1:12-13). Why was it necessary for the Holy Spirit to drive Jesus out into the wilderness to be tempted by Satan? Part of the ministry of Jesus was to identify with the story of the nation of Israel. In a way, Jesus is acting out the great drama of Israel s exodus from Egypt, Israel s journey through the wilderness into the promised land. The road that the Son of God must walk is the road of dry and dusty paths, through temptation, suffering and apparent failure. So it will be for us as well. It is at this exact point that we, like Jesus, remember the comforting voice of those powerful words of affirmation and love from the Father. But as we have seen and heard from Jesus letters to the Churches in Asia-minor, Those who have ears, let them hear what the Spirit is saying to us, His Church. What were the temptations Jesus encounter in the desert? It is often when we are alone with God that we face these temptations. Jesus 40 days, His time of solitude in the desert, is were the season of Lent comes from. This is where Jesus fasted for 40 days, and was tempted by the accuser, satan. This was not a time of punishment for Jesus, but a time of preparation for the ministry ahead of Him, especially the lonely walk to the cross. The temptations that Jesus faced was the deepest temptations within the human experience. These temptations are but, distortions of who we are, in the light of who God is, and a distortion of God s power and authority over the world and over our lives. Temptation 1: The Distortion of Trust in God The first temptation is the distortion of true trust in God. The question is; Whom do we really trust? Would Jesus have absolute trust in the one true God? Matthew records that the tempter tempted Jesus saying; If you are the Son of God, command these stones to become loaves of bread (Matthew 4:3). In a way, the tempter is saying; if you are the Son of God, then why do you need to rely on God. You yourself can turn these stones into bread. Don t bother God, do it yourself. As the Nike advertisement say; Just do it! For Jesus it was trusting in the voice of the Father, in the kingdom plans of the Father in bringing to an end the exile of the nation of Israel, and defeating evil once and for all. And finally the trust that His Father will not forsake him. This is the cry of Jesus recorded in Matthew during his crucifixion; My God, My God, Why have you forsaken me? (Matthew 27:46). Yet, the voice of the Father comes to His soul and redirects His trust back to the Father, not my will, but your will be done. 5
That s going to be the challenge for us during Lent. We have all that we need materially, but are we going to put our trust in those material processions versus the God who own all that we have? What would happen if we wake up tomorrow and everything that we have has vanish? How deep is our trust in God? Do we trust God with our security? Do we trust God with our futures? Do we trust God with our children and their futures? Do we trust that God will provide for our needs as we seek to fulfill His reality on earth? We will encounter moments when we will doubt God s faithfulness. It is at that moment that we need to hear afresh the voice of the loving Father, whispering into the depth of our souls, You are my wonderful son/daughter; you make me very glad. Jesus answered the tempter; It is written: Man sha# not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes "om the mouth of God (Matthew 4:4). In other words, while bread is necessary for our survival, but that s not enough. We need the word of God to take us beyond the material unto the spiritual side of things. That s how we were created, and it is how we will survive. The word of God means the story or narrative of the Kingdom of God, that He fulfilled through the nation of Israel, through Jesus our Lord, and now through us. That s where we are to put our trust in God, that He is fulfilling what He had said through His prophets that His Kingdom will come on earth as it is in heaven. So, that s the first temptation, the distortion of trust. Temptation 2: The Distortion of Jesus Ability The second temptation is the distortion of Jesus ability to do God s will. The tempter said to Jesus; If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down. For it is written: He wi# command his angels concerning you, and they wi# li$ you up in their hands, so that you wi# not strike your foot against a stone. In another word, the tempter is saying, hey you are the Son of God, God has just told you that during your baptism. He has given you His Spirit, or power and approval to use as you wish. So are you really the Son of God? Prove it to me! Why don t you show me by throwing yourself down and see if God s angels will save you like He promised in the Torah Psalm 91:11-12? I will only know if you are the Son of God if the angels will save you! What does Jesus say to the tempter? Do not put the Lord your God to the test? During this lent season, you and I will face the tempter. He will try everything to distort God s approval of you as His child and the ability that He has given you to worship, and serve Him. Through Jesus, the Father looks at you and say, you are my wonderful child, you make me very glad. Temptation 3: The Distortion of Power The final temptation is the distortion of power. The tempter says to Jesus; A# this I wi# give you, if you wi# bow down and worship me (Matthew 4:8). In the gospel of John, John attests to the fact that the 6
Word was in the beginning and that through Him all things were made, without him nothing was made that has been made (John 1:1-3). The tempter is saying; Since I have all the wealth and power in my hands, worship me, and I will be your god and will give you whatever you want. I will even give you all the kingdoms of the world and their splendor. What does Satan care most about? Not wealth, but the desire to become a god, and to seek your soul to worship him versus God? Jesus said to Satan; Away "om me, Satan! For it is written; Worship the Lord your God, and serve Him only (Matthew 4:10). During Lent you and I will be tempted by the enemy of our souls to the distortion of power and control. The question for us to ask is this; When, where and how am I tempted to worship the outward trappings of success rather than seeking the inner authority that comes from when we are worshiping God and serving Him only? Conclusion What is the Father saying to you through his word? The Father knows where you are at in life. He knows your struggles. He knows your desires. He knows the longing of your soul. Today, the Father stands before you with open arms waiting and longing to speak with you. Will you give Him that chance during Lent? Will you open up your heart to Him? Will you allow His voice to mould you, transform you to the person He knows you can be? The Father longs to say to you; You are my beloved child; with you I am we# pleased. 7