Jesus Was Led Into The Wilderness By The Holy Spirit

“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 splendor; 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.” (Luke 4: 1 to 11, NIV)

First of all, before this passage we see Jesus, the Son of God, being baptised in the River Jordan, God the Father telling him “You are my Son, whom I love; with you I am well pleased.” And then the Holy Spirit comes upon Jesus. At the physical location where ordinary people are made right with God, we see the Triune God. Where the people repented and turned back to God; God the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit were present. There is something special when people come back to God. Angels in heaven praise God when this happens. These are the thin spaces that the Celts talk about.

Next, because Jesus is full of the Holy Spirit, the Holy Spirit leads him into the wilderness. This is a hard lesson, we like the soft fluffy words of Psalm 23, where “He makes me lie down in green pastures, he leads me beside quiet waters, he refreshes my soul.” This is our God, this is the God we want. But God also leads us into wilderness experiences. Don't be fooled! God can take us through trying times. Look at Job; he lost his children, his cattle, his servants, and his property all in one day. It’s how we react to these trying times that's important. Job maintained his integrity. Horatio Spafford lost his property empire during the great Chicago fire. Then he lost his 5 children when the ship carrying them and Horatio’s wife was hit by another ship. Horatio went on to pen the hymn “It is well with my soul”. Job was able to worship God, and Horatio was still able to worship God. I pray that we will be able to praise and worship God when we go through our next wilderness time.

Not only can God take us through trying times, but these trying times can come right after we have spiritual highs. Look at Elijah, when he was at Mount Carmel. He had 450 priests of Baal defeated when they saw the reality that Baal was just a dead piece of wood that people bowed down to. On Mount Carmel God came down and consumed a sacrifice by fire. The sacrifice was covered in water, but that was nothing to the Creator God, who made the water. This was a real display of God’s glory and it showed the Israelites that Baal was nothing. But what happened next? Ahab’s wife Jezebel threatened Elijah, and he ran for his life. He had just witnessed the power and majesty of God but he was terrified by a woman who worshipped the dead god Baal.

Jesus and Satan came together and Satan tempted Jesus. Satan used, scripture, the Word of God to tempt Jesus and Jesus used the Word of God to fight back. Satan used the Word of God but he misused it!! We need to be careful when people misuse the Bible. A good example of this is when people tell us ”Judge not, lest we be judged”. They tell us to stop judging, they don't want to be told that their actions are sinful, so they fire out words from the Bible to stop us in our tracks. But they are misusing the word of the Bible. The Bible says “Do not judge, or you too will be judged. For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.” We are to be careful how we judge people, but we are not to stop judging people. The criminal courts would grind to a halt if we stopped judging people. We tell children, not to talk to strangers, and we are making a judgement on strangers.