This sermon is from the Rev. Charles G. Dennison sermon archive, part of “The Holy Spirit” series, and was preached at Grace Orthodox Presbyterian Church in Sewickley, PA, during a worship service on Sunday, April 16, 1995.

Tonight we are reading from Matthew chapter 4, and we are beginning with the first verse. This is Matthew chapter 4, beginning with verse 1. Let’s give our attention to the reading of God’s Word. Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil.

And after he had fasted forty days and forty nights, he then became hungry. And the tempter came and said to him, If you are the Son of God, command that these stones become bread. But he answered and said, It is written, Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God. Then the devil took him into the holy city, and stood him on the pinnacle of the temple, and said to him, If you are the son of God, throw yourself down, for it is written, He will give his angels charge concerning you, and on their hands they will bear you up, lest you strike your foot against a stone. Jesus said to him, On the other hand, it is written, You shall not tempt the Lord your God.

Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory. And he said to him, All these things will I give you if you will fall down and worship me. And Jesus said to him, Be gone, Satan, for it is written you shall worship the Lord your God and serve him only. Then the devil left him, and behold, angels came and began to minister to him.

Our Father, it is not an easy lesson for us that we would learn to live by every word that proceeds from your mouth. For we are so liable to run off in the direction of bread that can satisfy our flesh and our earthly desires. We pray, Lord, that we might be the people of your Spirit, who are trained well by that Spirit, and in the Spirit, hunger and thirst for spiritual things, even for the Spirit himself. This we ask in Jesus’ name.

In past weeks, with our messages on the Holy Spirit, and as we have focused on the conclusion of Matthew 3, we have made much about the fact that Jesus’ baptism, spoken of, described there, anticipates his ministry in full. In other words, we are able to look at the baptism, to review the particular features of the baptism, and there see in miniature an outline for the coming service that Christ will render on behalf of his people. There is set before us, then, in the baptism story, Jesus’ death. There is also set before us in that story, his resurrection. And as well, there is set before us the blessing that comes to Jesus because he has submitted himself to the baptism, he has undergone that as a type of death and resurrection. Now last week we spent some time speaking about that particular blessing that comes to Jesus subsequent to the baptism itself. And in keeping with the reward or blessing that shall come to him as a result of his successful ministry unto his father.

We saw then the descent of the Holy Spirit, God-like, upon Christ as the blessing. Or, putting it more tersely, we saw the Holy Spirit descending dovelight on Christ as the reward. No greater reward, no greater blessing than this. The Spirit comes, life as if the ministry had been concluded and the ultimate gift and reward and blessing had been conveyed. In that message, you may recall, we made passing reference to the Holy Spirit in another respect. We concentrated upon the fact that the Spirit, at the baptism, comes as reward to Christ. None greater.

But we also made reference to the fact that the Spirit, as well, comes as equipment for the Christ, or maybe putting it a little better, comes as endowment to the Christ. At the same time he’s receiving reward, he is being endowed. The reward speaks about conclusion, the end of the matter, the endowment. speaks to the fact that ministry is ongoing.

Christ’s task as yet is not complete in this world. We said, you may recall, that when struck by the reality of the Holy Spirit as reward, it becomes abundantly clear that we cannot think of the Holy Spirit as mere endowment or mere equipment for the accomplishment of a particular task that is before the Messiah. This is true, but at the same time we must not lose sight—this then being the focus of our message tonight—we must not lose sight of the fact that the Holy Spirit is indeed endowment for, empowerment for, service and for life in this world.

This means that the dog-like descent of the Holy Spirit upon Jesus anticipates what comes to Jesus, yes, as reward at the end of his mission, but also what comes to him ironically as that empowerment, that endowment, that blessed gift that is now bestowed upon him for the accomplishment of his mission, his mission taking him to the end of his service In this very complex picture and presentation that we have presented to us, something of the irony of the Kingdom. In the Spirit, it seems as if Jesus will gain the Spirit. He has the Spirit, but he’s moving towards coming into possession of the Spirit. in the ironies of the kingdom, it would seem Jesus is gaining what he’s already given as free gifts. This is truly one of the profound and divine convolutions of the kingdom that causes the world to be utterly baffled by what is going on.

The giving of the gift for the gaining of the gift. The logic of the kingdom births all the categories to which we are accustomed. The giving of the gift for the gaining of the gift. Now why might that be? So that you would make no mistake ever. It is all of grace. God gives what is to be gained.

Even before it is gained, it is given. You gain in the power of what is given. If you do not appreciate the gift, you will not gain. if you do not have, and that, by God’s graciousness, you cannot get. As it is for us, and what I am telling you is true, with regard to the Christian life, as it is for us, So it has been for Christ before us, and this also underscores the graciousness of the whole of God’s dealings with us. For before it is to be realized in us, before it is given to us, before we are to gain what is given, it has been given to Christ, and he gains in keeping with what has been given to him.

The graces multiply. There’s no rule out of it. You may think it is all of you. You may think it is your decision. You may think it is all in keeping with your works, or even in keeping with your merits. You may think that you deserve everything that’s coming to you out of the kingdom, imagining yourself to have those blessings as your right.

Nonsense. Such an attitude flies directly in the face of Scripture and the message of the Gospel. So then we are here, faced with the supreme ironies of the Kingdom of God and the dealings of God with his children, such ironies that only those blessed of the Spirit can understand them. This is in keeping with what we find elsewhere with regard to the nature of God’s feelings for us and the character of a king.

Remember Jesus saying, if you are to gain your life, you have to lose it. If you’re going to save your life, you have to give it up. You cannot hold on to the things that you imagine to be dear. God is calling you to relinquish them for Him. for there must not be anything that rivals Him in your life. So it seems you have to go backwards in order to go forwards. This makes no sense at all.

You may even have to lose God to gain God. By that I mean you may have to give up your cherished ideas about God, who He is, in order to have the true God who comes into a knowledge of who the true God is. You may be compelled to lose that which you imagined to be dearest to you in order to be secured in God.

Abraham did. Do you remember Abraham? There wasn’t anything in all the earth that Abraham loved more than his son Isaac. God said, give him up. Sacrifice him. The test comes to Abraham. You must relinquish, you must give up that which you love most in the earth for the sake of that one that you claim to love.

Abraham becomes a model for faith, for obedient life, for discipleship in what he does. A model of true faith, indeed. because Abraham is a sinner and faulty and even imperfect and hardly perfect in the sacrifice and the offering up of his life. Remember, understand that behind Abraham there is God Himself. And what God is asking Abraham to do, namely to give up that which he loves most in earth for the sake of the one he loves in heaven, God Himself is doing. as analog to Abraham, for God in heaven, the Father above, will give up that which he loves most in heaven for the sake of those he loves on earth.

The Son of the Father, Abraham and Isaac, finds its parallel and its answer in the Father in heaven and the Son of his love. Abraham, in the end, will be spared, the Lamb will be found, sacrifice will be made, substitution will be made. But God the Father will actually sacrifice the Son for the sake of those He loves on earth. The Father in heaven will not be denied those He loves on earth. The Father in heaven would rather die, pass into non-existence, than to be without you.

Here we are dealing with the ways of the kingdom, and the strangeness of the kingdom continues to press itself upon us even as we read the account we have in front of us tonight. Why, the Spirit has just come down upon Jesus. He has heard the declaration out of heaven. The Father has spoken, thou art my son. I am more pleased with you.”

We might think that we have arrived at the end of the matter, but the next thing we know, we find out that the Spirit that has come upon Jesus is literally driving him out into the wilderness. It seems like a rather cruel thing to do. driving him out into the wilderness. That’s the way Mark has it in his gospel. Here, Jesus is being led out by the Spirit into the wilderness for the express purpose of being tempted by the devil. It seems as if Jesus, having arrived at the end of the matter, had come to that point in which he could be content, where he could relax. fly us over.

Nothing much painful, nothing much painful in what I have undergone thus far. I went down to the Jordan, I was baptized, I came out, beautiful revelation takes place, that settles it, that seals it, it’s all over.” Not so. You might think the same about your baptism. I’m in the church, I’m comfortable, I’m well taken care of, I’ve fed, I’ve led through a life of relative ease. Think again. Hear about the ironies of the kingdom. Don’t be surprised when you find yourself in fiery trials. and in the midst of temptation. That’s what Peter says, remember? 1 Peter 4, verse 12. Don’t think it an extraordinary thing when you find yourself in these circumstances.

You might have thought you had arrived at the end of the matter. You had settled everything that there had to be settled. Not so. You’re here to be tested. It is not cruel what the Spirit does to you in driving you into the wilderness. It is a grace. And I can guarantee you that if you do not perceive the wilderness character of your present existence, you are a stranger to the Spirit’s leading. You have no idea. what’s going on.

In fact, the more comfortable you are, the more evident it is that you’ve already succumbed to the temptations that Satan has laid out here. For what is Satan’s goal as he attacks Christ? It’s to convince Christ that he doesn’t have to go to the cross. There’s no suffering at all involved in this matter of the kingdom in these matters of obedience to the king, to your father.

In fact, suffering is incongruous. If you are the son of God, what in the world are you doing out here? Let’s transform the environment. Let’s turn stones into bread. Let’s make this place a comfortable place to live in. No need for trial. No need for discomfort.” The ironies of the case. McCaul then tried. Isn’t that the way it always is?

Abraham was called in Genesis 12. He’s tested in Genesis 22. Israel is called early on in Exodus. Then we have three more books telling us about their trial in the wilderness of Simon. Jesus called the Son of God for service the rest of the gospel narrative about his trial. called in your baptism the rest of your life, the rest of your life, a trial. That’s the irony and the complexity of the kingdom.

But please understand now, as you move on into chapter four, It’s not as if Jesus is now devoid of the Spirit as he faces these trials. He has in possession the endowment necessary in order to come through the trial. And let me tell you, you have what is necessary in order for you to come through the trial. And that which you have is nothing less than what Jesus had. The Spirit. Now don’t think of the Spirit impersonally. This is the Spirit of God. Let’s put it even more directly. This is God.

You have God placing himself at your disposal in order that you might meet the trial and the test. You have no excuse. to those to whom much is given, much is required.” Well, explain now, is it not, that the life that is being played out for you here on the pages of Matthew’s Gospel, as you move from baptism to trial and temptation and is such a line as to set before you the parameters of your own. It’s as if in reading the life of the Christ, you are reading your own life. For you are set in Him, such is the nature of the relationship that you sustain to Him. Now, that wasn’t your idea. It was His. You are His children. You are bound to Him. Your life is tied to His.

In your trial, you are related to the One who has come through the trial, who even in the midst of His trial has borne all the weight of your sin and guilt and taken it upon Himself. The great triumph that is set out in front of you at the conclusion here, when the angels come and minister to him, is a conclusion that anticipates the end of your own journey, the end of your own trial and temptation, when in fact the angels who have accompanied Christ will come with Christ himself and minister to you directly and obviously. And in that day it will be abundantly apparent to you, clear to everyone who names the name of Christ in sincerity and truth, that the God who has given himself to you at the outset of the journey, in order that you might endure the trials of the journey, is the one who presents himself in full to you as your reward at the end of the journey. and you will have gained what has been given. And all of that to the glory of your God and to the praise of Christ who has gone before you and even accompanies you now in every extremity, in every aspect of any ordeal that overtakes you. You are truly the children of God, if you have been made alive by the Spirit, and now walk even through fiery trials by and in the Spirit of the Living Christ.

Father, we would not percute or contradict the grace of the Gospel. How marvelous it is, how full, how rich, how deep. It is beyond our comprehension. We would rejoice, O God, in what you have given us. We would not disregard that which you have given even as we make our way through the fiery trial of this world.

We ask you, our Lord, that you will be most gracious to us as we persevere and endure every assault of Satan, knowing, O Lord, that we are not abandoned, that we belong to you, that we are the children of God. Thus, Lord, strengthen our faith, make us strong in the face of every temptation, Lord, may we stand up to Satan and his taunts, and Father, may we know in the conclusion of the day the wonderful ministry of angels to us, but even more, your ministry to us in full. This we ask in Jesus’ name. Amen.

The sermon text provided above is derived from the sermon audio recording making use of generative tools. It has not been manually edited. While transcription tools have a high degree of accuracy, the output may include generative textual, punctuation, and/or formatting errors.