Please turn with me in the Gospel of Mark, chapter 1. You may already feel that you're thoroughly familiar with Mark, chapter 1, but we're going to look at a slightly different part of this chapter than we've looked at before. We want to take up the reading at Mark, chapter 1, verse 4, and we'll read down through verse 13. Mark chapter 1 at verse 4, let us give attention to God's own Word. John appeared baptizing in the wilderness and proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. And all the country of Judea and all Jerusalem were going out to him and were being baptized by him in the River Jordan, confessing their sins. Now John was clothed with camel's hair and wore a leather belt around his waist and ate locusts and wild honey. And he preached, saying, After me comes one who is mightier than I, the strap of whose sandals I am not worthy to stoop down and untie. I have baptized you with water, but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit. In those days, Jesus came from 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 from heaven, You are my beloved Son, with you I am well pleased. 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. So far the reading of God's Word. Most of us are probably relatively familiar with the story of the temptation of Jesus in the wilderness after His baptism. And we may have heard a number of sermons preached from Matthew's gospel or Luke's gospel, where the nature of the temptation and the specific temptations that the evil one presented to Jesus are recounted for us, three temptations. And then when we come to Mark's gospel, we may be surprised how brief his account is. He doesn't tell us about the three temptations. Matthew has 11 verses on the temptation of Christ, Luke has 13 verses on the temptation of Christ, and Mark has a, one might be tempted to say, measly two verses. It's so brief, we may be tempted to say, what's a preacher to make of it? Actually, as I've spent time studying these two verses, they are very intriguing and very illuminating both about the nature of Mark's gospel and the character of Christ's work. And so I hope you will find it's worth taking time to look particularly at this brief but important summary of the temptation of Jesus in the wilderness. This brief account helps us to see the character of Mark's gospel, which is often brief, frequently abrupt, and often full of illusions that make us ask, how does this element of the Scripture connect to other elements of the Scripture? In other words, Mark writes in a way I think intended to slow us down and make us think and ask questions. For example, in verse 6 of chapter 1, Mark records of John the Baptist, now John was clothed with camel's hair and wore a leather belt around his waist and ate locusts and wild honey. He doesn't tell us why he tells us what John is wearing and what John is eating. Most people in Mark's gospel don't have their attire described. Why does Mark do that? Did he have a certain number of pages to fill up? So, he went back and added details just to have more to say. No, he wants us to ask, why? Why are we told that about John the Baptist? And actually, I think the answer is because this description of John the Baptist closely parallels descriptions of Elijah, the prophet in the Old Testament. And one of the themes of Mark's gospel will be the coming of Elijah and John the Baptist as the Elijah who prepares the way for the coming of Jesus. So, when Mark is brief, we shouldn't assume that's a sign of unimportance, but rather we should pause and ask, what is he saying? What is he meaning us to think about that maybe doesn't immediately occur to us? And what Mark wants us to see as he's writing about the temptation of Jesus here is, first of all, that Jesus is sent into the wilderness by the Spirit. The Spirit sends Jesus. This isn't just a random action of Jesus. This is something very intentional in the plan of God for the salvation of His people. And as I mentioned last time, the verb here is very strong. Luke and Matthew use the word, the Spirit leads him into the wilderness. Mark speaks more strongly here, the Spirit drives him into the wilderness. And as we think about that, we realize when he was being baptized, he was already in the wilderness. John was baptizing in the wilderness. So, when we're told he's driven into the wilderness, it almost certainly means he's being driven further into remoter regions, more desolate, more isolated, more on his own, because God has a purpose for Jesus in the wilderness. And what is that purpose? Well, it's another way in which Jesus is identifying with the history and character of God's people. Sometimes we've asked, why was Jesus baptized? Only sinners were to be baptized. But Jesus is baptized not because he is a sinner, but because he identifies with sinners, because he's taking upon himself the obligation of sinners, because he's come to save sinners. That's why Jesus is doing what he's doing. And that is true not only of his baptism, but also of his temptation in the wilderness. In going into the wilderness, he's identifying with Israel and its history. The wilderness had been important, hadn't it? It had been important for the prophets. The prophets had often worked in the wilderness. Isaiah is quoted right at the beginning of Mark's gospel, talking about how a voice will cry in the wilderness to prepare the way of the Lord. The Scripture talks much about Moses in the wilderness and Elijah in the wilderness. The wilderness is the place where God has done dramatic things for His people. And when we are told that Jesus is in the wilderness for 40 days, those of us who have studied the Bible should immediately think of other 40s. Israel, in particular, 40 years in the wilderness. And for Israel, the wilderness was the great place of testing. Did they trust the Lord? Would they rely on the Lord? Would they follow the Lord? Would they keep the Lord's commandments? And of course, in a profound sense, the history of Israel in the Old Testament is a history of a people who fail the test, the history of a people who over and over again have not been obedient to the Lord. Think of Psalm 78, that great psalm that recounts Israel's history in the wilderness. I had thought of us singing it, but it is 69 verses, so it seemed a little long. But listen to just part of Psalm 78, which begins recounting the blessings of the Lord to His people, and then the reactions of His people. I read from verse 14 of Psalm 78, in the daytime God led them with a cloud, and all the night with a fiery light. He split rocks in the wilderness and gave them drink abundantly as from the deep. He made streams come out of the rock and caused waters to flow down like rivers. Yet they sinned still more against Him, rebelling against the Most High in the desert. They tested God in their heart by demanding the food they craved. They spoke against God, saying, can God spread a table in the wilderness? And then going down to verse 40, how often they rebelled against Him in the wilderness and grieved Him in the desert. they tested God again and again and provoked the Holy One of Israel. They did not remember His power for the day when He redeemed them from the foe. The wilderness was to be a place of testing for Israel, and Israel failed the test in such a profound way that they tested the Lord. And what was the test that Israel put the Lord to? It was the test of doubting His presence and His provision for them. Israel failed. And what Mark is telling us, I believe, is that the Spirit sends Jesus into the wilderness so that Jesus can be a second Israel and stand the test in our place. so that Jesus can be a second Adam taking the test of obedience in our place so that Jesus can be the faithful son doing what the Father always calls him to do. Jesus is the one who by his obedience in keeping the law of God in following the will of God purchases redemption for his people. This is what we call theologically the active obedience of Christ. Theologians distinguish the active obedience from the passive obedience. The passive obedience of Christ is his death on the cross, bearing our sins, dying there on the cross in our place. But the active obedience of Christ is just as important. That's his active keeping of the law in our place, so that when he has taken away our sins, we are not left in a neutral state, but we have credited to us all of his obedience, all of his faithfulness, all of his law-keeping, so that in sustaining the temptation in the wilderness, He is fulfilling a profound part of God's purpose for Him and for us and providing our salvation. So, this little story of the temptation in the wilderness is of maximum importance as we understand Christ and His work. He's driven into this wilderness, which is a dangerous place. And Mark highlights that for us. It's dangerous because it's alone in the desert. Now, we have some members of this congregation who appear to like to go to deserts and hang out, but they usually go with buddies and with guns and who knows what else. They don't go alone. They don't go to face the dangers of the desert alone, but Jesus did. He went for a long time, didn't He? Forty days to be alone is a long time in a dangerous place. And Mark, although he's usually brief, rather regularly adds little details that the other Gospels don't contain. And Mark adds the little details that he was not just a long time alone in a dangerous wilderness, but he faced their wild beasts. Deserts are dangerous in part because the beasts who are there have little to survive on, and when they find something to attack, they're particularly eager. I've been told I have no personal experience with these things. But I believe Mark includes that illusion or that statement about the wild animals so that we'll think of a psalm. Because after all, Mark's early readers were all psalm singers. They knew the Psalter backward and forward. And what would have come to mind as they thought about wild beasts that Jesus faced in the wilderness? They would have thought of Psalm 91, wouldn't they? Verse 13, you will tread on the lion and the adder, the young lion and the serpent you will trample underfoot. The Psalter had already prophesied the coming of the Son of God. who, although in the dangerous place of the wilderness, would be triumphant, would succeed, would accomplish his purpose. And that's what's so beautifully put here for us. Now, of course, the greatest danger in the wilderness was facing Satan. And that really moves us on to the second point of the sermon. It's not just the Spirit who sends Jesus into the wilderness, but it's Satan who strives with Jesus in the wilderness. He's called Satan here by Mark, and Mark seems to emphasize that point. Satan. Satan is a Hebrew word, you remember, which means accuser, and that stands at the very heart and essence of what the evil one does. He accuses. He accuses us to God. That's the easy part of his work. There's plenty about us that can be accused. But he also accuses God to us. He did that in the garden with Adam, didn't he? He said, God has said, don't eat this fruit or you'll die. You won't die. You'll become like God's. God has lied to you. God isn't truthful. God isn't reliable. And in the other gospel accounts, that's exactly what Satan does with the specific temptations that he brings to Jesus, isn't it? He says to Jesus three times, if you are the Son of God, he's sowing doubt. That's what the evil one does. sowing doubt in God's Word, in God's faithfulness, in God's reliability, in God's willingness to fulfill His promises. He's the liar and the father of lies. And that's what He comes to do as He faces Jesus. And he comes then to tempt Jesus to be a faithless Israel, to be a faithless Adam, to be a faithless son. I remember reading an article by Professor John Murray, who taught many years ago at Westminster in Philadelphia, and who very movingly talked about the temptation of Jesus and said, I think many of us believe that because Jesus was the Son of God, temptation was easy for him to resist. And Professor Murray argued, I thought quite convincingly, that in fact, precisely because of the purity and goodness of the Savior, temptation was much harder for him than anything we've ever faced. Murray said, how much temptation does it take to get you to sin? Not very much. There is already such a propensity in our nature to sin. But the Son of God in His purity faced all of the onslaught of the power of the wicked one to try to lead Him astray. And that power was formidable. Interestingly, did you notice this? Interestingly, Mark doesn't actually tell us the outcome of the temptation. Now, that's not because Mark was in doubt about the outcome of the temptation. It's not because he thought any of his readers would be in doubt about the outcome of the temptation. but he wants us to perhaps pause and ask, what was the outcome of the temptation? How should we understand this? What's going on here? And of course, Mark expected us to say to ourselves, well, of course, he resisted the temptation. And then just in case you didn't get it, because Mark knew we aren't all careful readers, A few verses down in chapter 1, when Jesus is back in Capernaum and has begun his public ministry and is in the synagogue on the Sabbath day and is confronting an evil spirit, what does the evil spirit say to Jesus? Mark 1.24. He says, I know who you are. You are the Holy One of God. Jesus had passed the test. Jesus had withstood the temptation. Jesus was still the Holy One of God. He was still the beloved Son in whom God was well pleased. And that's so important for us. Because Jesus' success in confronting the evil one promises success for us. Hebrews 2, verse 18 records, For because Jesus himself has suffered when tempted, he is able to help those being tempted. He went through temptation to help us with our temptation. Not just to help us, but to ensure that we would never fail utterly when confronted with temptation. We may fail at times. We may fail frequently. We may have to confront the reality of our weakness. But the success of Jesus is that we will never be tempted in such a way as to be torn out of his hand. That's his promise to us. Peter refers to that, I think, in 1 Peter 5, verse 8. Be sober-minded, be watchful. Your adversary, the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour. That's you, he's seeking you. But Peter goes on, resist him, firm in the faith, knowing that the same kinds of suffering are being experienced by your brotherhood throughout the world, and after you have suffered a little while. The God of all grace, who has called you to his eternal glory in Christ, will himself restore, confirm, strengthen, and establish you. The devil is roaring and seeking to devour. but for those who belong to Christ, he cannot succeed. And although there may be times of suffering for us, in the end of the day, the Lord will restore us, confirm us, and establish us. And you know, he's taught us a prayer that helps us along that way. It's a prayer you know. But maybe you've never thought of it in precisely this connection. What is the sixth petition of the Lord's Prayer? Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one. I remember when I was a high school student, I can just barely remember back that far. I can remember when I was a high school student, the first time I attended a Christian Reformed church, I noticed two things about the way they prayed the Lord's Prayer. The first was that whereas Methodists had transgressions, the Christian Reformed had debts. That's a little bit of a joke. You can smile. I noticed they recited the Lord's Prayer a little differently on that point. But what was much more striking to me was they said, lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one. Now, the Greek is a little ambiguous. It can be deliver us from evil or deliver us from the evil one. I personally think that Jesus intended us to pray, deliver us from the evil one, because I think Jesus, in teaching us this prayer, had precisely his own temptation in mind. God led Jesus into temptation so that we could pray, lead us not into temptation. And God delivered Jesus from the evil one so that we would be delivered from the evil one. And so in this week, where I hope we'll take a little time for self-examination about the character and state of our lives before we come to the Lord's table next week. The prayer we might often take upon our lips and meditate in our hearts is the prayer, lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one. Our catechism talks about what that petition means for us in question 127, where it says, we are so weak that we cannot stand on our own for a moment, and our sworn enemies, the devil, the world, and our own flesh never stop attacking us. And so, Lord, uphold us and make us strong by the power of your Holy Spirit so that we may not be defeated in this spiritual fight but may firmly resist our enemies until we finally win the complete victory will we win the complete victory when we pray lead us not into temptation but deliver us from the evil one the end of the catechism assures us that we will when it says so wonderfully God is more eager to hear us when we pray than we are to pray. And he'll fulfill that prayer. Jesus, by withstanding the temptation in the wilderness, assures us that God will hear our prayer and fulfill that prayer. And we will never be led into the kind of temptation that Jesus had to face, and we will be delivered from the evil one. And after we have suffered in this life, we will know his glory and his victory forever. So the Spirit sent him into the wilderness, Satan strove with him in the wilderness, and the angels sustained him in the wilderness. That, too, is a little mark of Mark's gospel that is distinctive. Luke doesn't say anything about the angels. Matthew focuses on the angels in their coming after Satan has left Jesus to help him. But the way Mark puts it is really to suggest the angels were always with Jesus. and the angels were ministering to him, not just at the end, but throughout the temptation. And this, too, sends us back once again to Psalm 91, doesn't it? Psalm 91, at verse 9, Because you have made the Lord your dwelling place, the Most High who is my refuge, No evil shall be allowed to befall you, no plague shall come near your tent, for He will command His angels concerning you to guard you in all your ways. On their hands they will bear you up, lest you strike your foot against a stone. You will tread on the lion and the adder, the young lion and the serpent. You will trample underfoot. That was the promise to Jesus. It's the promise to all of us. And how did the angels minister to him? Have you ever thought about that? Well, I think most of us probably think, I think I've long thought, they brought him food. Forty days without food. It was time for food. But you know, what we see at the beginning of Mark's gospel is how important Mark makes the message and the messengers. And you know that the word angel is just a Greek word we've taken over into English, and that the Greek means messengers. I think the way the angels primarily sustained Jesus was with the Word of God, reminding him of the promises of God, filling his heart with confidence that God would not fail to protect him, that God would not neglect him, that God would be with him, and that as the faithful son he would triumph. And the angels helped him by drawing those words ever afresh to his mind and to his heart. And I think that's what the angels continue to do for us, whether they're messengers from heaven or messengers from a pulpit or messengers from Christian friends, messengers from family. It's the Word that sustains us. It's the Word that strengthens us. It's the Word that holds us up. And so when we pray, we can have the confidence of Psalm 91, verse 15, when He calls to me, I will answer. And what is it we should call? We should call to our heavenly high priest that we need mercy, that we need grace, that we need help. And the one in whom we can find that is our Lord Jesus Christ. May each one of us have the confidence that we have a great high priest in heaven who will hear our prayer and will give us grace and mercy to help in time of need. Amen. Let us pray. O Lord our God, how wonderful Your Word is, and yet how much more wonderful is our Lord Jesus Christ in His saving, suffering love for us. And how thankful we are that He underwent terrible temptation, That we might be assured that as he stood against the evil one, we too will stand by his grace. And so hear us, O Lord, and fulfill for us this wonderful prayer that you have taught us to pray. Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.