Scripture Matthew 3:1-4:11
BEHOLD! I am making all things new!
Adam and Eve were in a garden paradise. Everything was perfect. They had nothing to hide from each other and nothing to hide from God because they were living in communion with the Holy God the way God had intended. Have you ever imagined what it would have been like to be Adam and Eve? Talk about making all things new. WOW They were new – everything they saw, smelled, touched experienced was new. Humanity having a relationship with the God who created us was something new. If you were there in this perfect, new setting, and God said eat from any tree you want except THAT ONE; I bet you would have stayed far away from that tree. I bet you would not have eaten from that tree. You would not have given into temptation and sinned like Adam and Eve did – right? Let’s see, how were they tempted?
Physically The Fruit – (it looked delicious)
Mentally You will not die (hadn’t died from any other fruit)
Spiritually You will become like God knowing Good and Evil.
Just like Adam and Eve, we can be tempted Physically, Mentally, and Spiritually. Even when things are going great and in Christ we have been made new, we still seem to have difficulty resisting temptation in one or all three of those ways.
From the moment Adam and Eve committed the first sin, nothing new had happened to change man’s relationship with God – to make it so man could be eternally forgiven. Even Jesus being born didn’t change that, Jesus as a 12-year-old in the temple talking with authority to the teachers of the law didn’t change that. There was nothing new to get us back to that paradise relationship like it was before the fall. But along came someone who said THINGS ARE ABOUT TO CHANGE – something new is about to happen, the kingdom of heaven is near, wake up, turn around, something brand new is about to happen. The one saying all this was a man named John.
“PARAPHRASE”
Matt 3:1-17
In those days John the Baptist came, preaching in the Desert of Judea and saying, "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is near." This is he who was spoken of through the prophet Isaiah: "A voice of one calling in the desert, 'Prepare the way for the Lord, make straight paths for him.'" John's clothes were made of camel's hair, and he had a leather belt around his waist. His food was locusts and wild honey. People went out to him from Jerusalem and all Judea and the whole region of the Jordan. Confessing their sins, they were baptized by him in the Jordan River.
But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming to where he was baptizing, he said to them: "You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the coming wrath? Produce fruit in keeping with repentance. And do not think you can say to yourselves, 'We have Abraham as our father.' I tell you that out of these stones God can raise up children for Abraham. The ax is already at the root of the trees, and every tree that does not produce good fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire. I baptize you with water for repentance. But after me will come one who is more powerful than I, whose sandals I am not fit to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire. His winnowing fork is in his hand, and he will clear his threshing floor, gathering his wheat into the barn and burning up the chaff with unquenchable fire."
Then Jesus came from Galilee to the Jordan to be baptized by John. But John tried to deter him, saying, "I need to be baptized by you, and do you come to me?" Jesus replied, "Let it be so now; it is proper for us to do this to fulfill all righteousness." Then John consented. As soon as Jesus was baptized, he went up out of the water. At that moment heaven was opened, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and lighting on him. And a voice from heaven said, "This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased."
Even John announcing that something/someone new was coming didn’t yet change things eternally – we are all still kicked out of paradise. But the one who was baptized by John, was about to make all things new. But before he could do that, he had to fully understand why we all act like Adam and Eve AND he had to show us that there is a better way. So, after his baptism Jesus did not go to dinner with his family, in fact he would not eat for the next 40 days. Instead, he committed himself to go into the wilderness alone and spend time with God.
Just like the serpent/devil came and tempted Adam and Eve when everything seemed perfect for them, so too Jesus had just been on a 40 day retreat with God and all seemed good, but along comes the same lying crafty devil to temp Jesus. Let’s see if Jesus was tempted close to how we are tempted.
PARAPHRASE
Matthew4:1-11
Then Jesus was led by the Spirit into the desert to be tempted by the devil. After fasting forty days and forty nights, he was hungry. The tempter came to him and said, "If you are the Son of God, tell these stones to become bread." Jesus answered, "It is written: 'Man does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.'" (PHYSICALLY)
Then the devil took him to the holy city and had him stand on the highest point of the temple. "If you are the Son of God," he said, "throw yourself down. For it is written:
"'He will command his angels concerning you, and they will lift you up in their hands, so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.'" Jesus answered him, "It is also written: 'Do not put the Lord your God to the test.'" (MENTALLY)
Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their splendor. "All this I will give you," he said, "if you will bow down and worship me."
Jesus said to him, "Away from me, Satan! For it is written: 'Worship the Lord your God, and serve him only.'" (SPIRTUALLY)
Then the devil left him, and angels came and attended him.
Like Adam and Eve, Like you and me, Jesus was tempted Physically, Mentally , and Spiritually. He not only understands our temptations first hand, he has shown us there is a better way. That better way is repenting – turning to him – to the one who knows our weaknesses, our failings and by his own sacrifice on a tree, he has the power and authority to wash our sins away and makes us like Adam and Eve were in the garden before the fall; the way God designed us to be.
John the Baptist preached a "baptism with water", not of forgiveness but of repentance, and declared himself a forerunner to one who would baptize with the ‘Holy Spirit and with fire’. Finally, something/someone has come and acted in a way that now – for the first time since the fall, all things can be made new. Sins can truly be forgiven and you can be put in right relationship with God.
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